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diff --git a/31037-8.txt b/31037-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5fcbd1 --- /dev/null +++ b/31037-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10876 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - +Swanston Edition Vol. XIX (of 25), by Robert Louis Stevenson + + +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 Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XIX (of 25) + The Ebb-Tide; Weir of Hermiston + + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + + + +Release Date: January 21, 2010 [eBook #31037] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ROBERT LOUIS +STEVENSON - SWANSTON EDITION VOL. XIX (OF 25)*** + + +E-text prepared by Marius Masi, Jonathan Ingram, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 31037-h.htm or 31037-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31037/31037-h/31037-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31037/31037-h.zip) + + + + + + THE WORKS OF + ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON + + SWANSTON EDITION + + VOLUME XIX + + + + + _Of this SWANSTON EDITION in Twenty-five + Volumes of the Works of ROBERT LOUIS + STEVENSON Two Thousand and Sixty Copies + have been printed, of which only Two Thousand + Copies are for sale._ + + _This is No._ ........... + +[Illustration: R. L. S. AND OTHERS IN THE SANS-SOUCI SALOON, BUTARITARI, +GILBERT ISLANDS] + + + THE WORKS OF + ROBERT LOUIS + STEVENSON + + VOLUME NINETEEN + + + + + LONDON: PUBLISHED BY CHATTO AND + WINDUS: IN ASSOCIATION WITH CASSELL + AND COMPANY LIMITED: WILLIAM + HEINEMANN: AND LONGMANS GREEN + AND COMPANY MDCCCCXII + + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + + + +CONTENTS + + THE EBB-TIDE + + PAGE + NOTE BY MR. LLOYD OSBOURNE 3 + + + PART I.--THE TRIO + + CHAPTER + I. NIGHT ON THE BEACH 7 + + II. MORNING ON THE BEACH--THE THREE LETTERS 19 + + III. THE OLD CALABOOSE--DESTINY AT THE DOOR 29 + + IV. THE YELLOW FLAG 39 + + V. THE CARGO OF CHAMPAGNE 46 + + VI. THE PARTNERS 69 + + + PART II.--THE QUARTETTE + + VII. THE PEARL-FISHER 81 + + VIII. BETTER ACQUAINTANCE 96 + + IX. THE DINNER PARTY 109 + + X. THE OPEN DOOR 118 + + XI. DAVID AND GOLIATH 131 + + XII. A TAIL-PIECE 151 + + + WEIR OF HERMISTON + + Introductory 159 + + I. Life and Death of Mrs. Weir 161 + + II. Father and Son 175 + + III. In the Matter of the Hanging of Duncan Jopp 181 + + IV. Opinions of the Bench 196 + + V. Winter on the Moors: + 1. At Hermiston 205 + 2. Kirstie 208 + 3. A Border Family 212 + + VI. A Leaf from Christina's Psalm-Book 228 + + VII. Enter Mephistopheles 253 + + VIII. A Nocturnal Visit 270 + + IX. At the Weaver's Stone 278 + + + Sir Sidney Colvin's Note 284 + + Glossary of Scots Words 297 + + + + +THE EBB-TIDE + + _A Trio and Quartette_ + + WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH + LLOYD OSBOURNE + + "_There is a tide in the affairs of men_" + + + + +NOTE.--_On the pronunciation of a name very frequently repeated in these +pages, the reader may take for a guide_-- + + "It was the schooner _Farallone_." + + _R. L. S.--L. O._ + + + + +NOTE BY MR. LLOYD OSBOURNE + + +Stevenson and I little knew, when we began our collaboration, that we +were afterwards to raise such a hornets' nest about our ears. The +critics resented such an unequal partnership, and made it impossible for +us to continue it. It may be that they were right; they wanted +Stevenson's best, and felt pretty sure they would not get it in our +collaboration. But when they ascribed all the good in our three books to +Stevenson and all the bad to me, they went a little beyond the mark. It +is a pleasure to me to recall that the early part of both "The Wrecker" +and "The Ebb-Tide" was almost entirely my own; so also were the storm +scenes of the _Norah Creina_; so also the fight on the _Flying Scud_; so +also the inception of Huish's scheme, the revelation of it to his +companions, his landing on the atoll with the bottle of vitriol in his +breast. On the other hand, the Paris portion of "The Wrecker" was all +Stevenson's, as well as the concluding chapters of both the South Sea +books. + +It is not possible to disentangle anything else that was wholly mine or +his--the blending was too complete, our method of work too criss-crossed +and intimate. For instance, we would begin by outlining the story in a +general way; this done, we marshalled it into chapters, with a few +explanatory words to each; then it was for me to write the first draft +of Chapter I. This I would read to him, and if satisfactory it was laid +to one side; but were it not, I would rewrite it, embodying his +criticisms. Each chapter in turn was fully discussed in advance before I +put pen to paper; and in this way, though the actual first draft was in +my own hand, the form of the story continually took shape under +Stevenson's eyes. When my first draft of the entire book was finished +he would rewrite it again from cover to cover. + +I can remember nothing more delightful than the days we thus passed +together. If our three books are in no wise great, they preserve, it +seems to me, something of the zest and exhilaration that went into their +making--the good humour, the eagerness. + +We were both under the glamour of the Islands--and that life, so +strange, so picturesque, so animated, took us both by storm. Kings and +beachcombers, pearl-fishers and princesses, traders, slavers, and +schooner-captains, castaways, and runaways--what a world it was! And all +this in a fairyland of palms, and glassy bays, and little lost +settlements nestling at the foot of forest and mountain, with kings to +make brotherhood with us, and a dubious white man or two, in earrings +and pyjamas, no less insistent to extend to us the courtesies of the +"beach." + +It was amid such people, and amid such scenes, that "The Ebb-Tide" and +"The Wrecker" were written. + + LLOYD OSBOURNE. + + + + +PART I + +THE TRIO + + + + +THE EBB-TIDE + +CHAPTER I + +NIGHT ON THE BEACH + + +Throughout the island world of the Pacific, scattered men of many +European races, and from almost every grade of society, carry activity +and disseminate disease. Some prosper, some vegetate. Some have mounted +the steps of thrones and owned islands and navies. Others again must +marry for a livelihood; a strapping, merry, chocolate-coloured dame +supports them in sheer idleness; and, dressed like natives, but still +retaining some foreign element of gait or attitude, still perhaps with +some relic (such as a single eye-glass) of the officer and gentleman, +they sprawl in palm-leaf verandahs and entertain an island audience with +memoirs of the music-hall. And there are still others, less pliable, +less capable, less fortunate, perhaps less base, who continue, even in +these isles of plenty, to lack bread. + +At the far end of the town of Papeete, three such men were seated on the +beach under a _purao_-tree. + +It was late. Long ago the band had broken up and marched musically home, +a motley troop of men and women, merchant clerks and navy officers, +dancing in its wake, arms about waist and crowned with garlands. Long +ago darkness and silence had gone from house to house about the tiny +pagan city. Only the street-lamps shone on, making a glow-worm halo in +the umbrageous alleys, or drawing a tremulous image on the waters of the +port. A sound of snoring ran among the piles of lumber by the Government +pier. It was wafted ashore from the graceful clipper-bottomed +schooners, where they lay moored close in like dinghies, and their crews +were stretched upon the deck under the open sky or huddled in a rude +tent amidst the disorder of merchandise. + +But the men under the _purao_ had no thought of sleep. The same +temperature in England would have passed without remark in summer; but +it was bitter cold for the South Seas. Inanimate nature knew it, and the +bottle of cocoa-nut oil stood frozen in every bird-cage house about the +island; and the men knew it, and shivered. They wore flimsy cotton +clothes, the same they had sweated in by day and run the gauntlet of the +tropic showers; and to complete their evil case, they had no breakfast +to mention, less dinner, and no supper at all. + +In the telling South Sea phrase, these three men were _on the beach_. +Common calamity had brought them acquainted, as the three most miserable +English-speaking creatures in Tahiti; and beyond their misery, they knew +next to nothing of each other, not even their true names. For each had +made a long apprenticeship in going downward; and each, at some stage of +the descent, had been shamed into the adoption of an _alias_. And yet +not one of them had figured in a court of justice; two were men of +kindly virtues; and one, as he sat and shivered under the _purao_, had a +tattered Virgil in his pocket. + +Certainly, if money could have been raised upon the book, Robert Herrick +would long ago have sacrificed that last possession; but the demand for +literature, which is so marked a feature in some parts of the South +Seas, extends not so far as the dead tongues; and the Virgil, which he +could not exchange against a meal, had often consoled him in his hunger. +He would study it, as he lay with tightened belt on the floor of the old +calaboose, seeking favourite passages and finding new ones only less +beautiful because they lacked the consecration of remembrance. Or he +would pause on random country walks; sit on the path-side, gazing over +the sea on the mountains of Eimeo; and dip into the _Aeneid_, seeking +_sortes_. And if the oracle (as is the way of oracles) replied with no +very certain nor encouraging voice, visions of England at least would +throng upon the exile's memory: the busy schoolroom, the green +playing-fields, holidays at home, and the perennial roar of London, and +the fireside, and the white head of his father. For it is the destiny of +those grave, restrained, and classic writers, with whom we make enforced +and often painful acquaintanceship at school, to pass into the blood and +become native in the memory; so that a phrase of Virgil speaks not so +much of Mantua or Augustus, but of English places and the student's own +irrevocable youth. + +Robert Herrick was the son of an intelligent, active, and ambitious man, +small partner in a considerable London house. Hopes were conceived of +the boy; he was sent to a good school, gained there an Oxford +scholarship, and proceeded in course to the western University. With all +his talent and taste (and he had much of both) Robert was deficient in +consistency and intellectual manhood, wandered in bypaths of study, +worked at music or at metaphysics when he should have been at Greek, and +took at last a paltry degree. Almost at the same time, the London house +was disastrously wound up; Mr. Herrick must begin the world again as a +clerk in a strange office, and Robert relinquish his ambitions and +accept with gratitude a career that he detested and despised. He had no +head for figures, no interest in affairs, detested the constraint of +hours, and despised the aims and the success of merchants. To grow rich +was none of his ambitions; rather to do well. A worse or a more bold +young man would have refused the destiny; perhaps tried his future with +his pen; perhaps enlisted. Robert, more prudent, possibly more timid, +consented to embrace that way of life in which he could most readily +assist his family. But he did so with a mind divided; fled the +neighbourhood of former comrades; and chose, out of several positions +placed at his disposal, a clerkship in New York. + +His career thenceforth was one of unbroken shame. He did not drink, he +was exactly honest, he was never rude to his employers, yet was +everywhere discharged. Bringing no interest to his duties, he brought no +attention; his day was a tissue of things neglected and things done +amiss; and from place to place, and from town to town, he carried the +character of one thoroughly incompetent. No man can bear the word +applied to him without some flush of colour, as indeed there is none +other that so emphatically slams in a man's face the door of +self-respect. And to Herrick, who was conscious of talents and +acquirements, who looked down upon those humble duties in which he was +found wanting, the pain was the more exquisite. Early in his fall he had +ceased to be able to make remittances; shortly after, having nothing but +failure to communicate, he ceased writing home; and about a year before +this tale begins, turned suddenly upon the streets of San Francisco by a +vulgar and infuriated German Jew, he had broken the last bonds of +self-respect, and, upon a sudden impulse, changed his name and invested +his last dollar in a passage on the mail brigantine, the _City of +Papeete_. With what expectation he had trimmed his flight for the South +Seas, Herrick perhaps scarcely knew. Doubtless there were fortunes to be +made in pearl and copra; doubtless others not more gifted than himself +had climbed in the island world to be queen's consorts and king's +ministers. But if Herrick had gone there with any manful purpose, he +would have kept his father's name; the _alias_ betrayed his moral +bankruptcy; he had struck his flag; he entertained no hope to reinstate +himself or help his straitened family; and he came to the islands (where +he knew the climate to be soft, bread cheap, and manners easy) a skulker +from life's battle and his own immediate duty. Failure, he had said, was +his portion; let it be a pleasant failure. + +It is fortunately not enough to say, "I will be base." Herrick continued +in the islands his career of failure; but in the new scene and under the +new name, he suffered no less sharply than before. A place was got, it +was lost in the old style; from the long-suffering of the keepers of +restaurants he fell to more open charity upon the wayside; as time went +on, good-nature became weary, and, after a repulse or two, Herrick +became shy. There were women enough who would have supported a far worse +and a far uglier man; Herrick never met or never knew them: or if he did +both, some manlier feeling would revolt, and he preferred starvation. +Drenched with rains, broiling by day, shivering by night, a disused and +ruinous prison for a bedroom, his diet begged or pilfered out of rubbish +heaps, his associates two creatures equally outcast with himself, he had +drained for months the cup of penitence. He had known what it was to be +resigned, what it was to break forth in a childish fury of rebellion +against fate, and what it was to sink into the coma of despair. The time +had changed him. He told himself no longer tales of an easy and perhaps +agreeable declension; he read his nature otherwise; he had proved +himself incapable of rising, and he now learned by experience that he +could not stoop to fall. Something that was scarcely pride or strength, +that was perhaps only refinement, withheld him from capitulation; but he +looked on upon his own misfortune with a growing rage, and sometimes +wondered at his patience. + +It was now the fourth month completed, and still there was no change or +sign of change. The moon, racing through a world of flying clouds of +every size and shape and density, some black as inkstains, some delicate +as lawn, threw the marvel of her southern brightness over the same +lovely and detested scene: the island mountains crowned with the +perennial island cloud, the embowered city studded with rare lamps, the +masts in the harbour, the smooth mirror of the lagoon, and the mole of +the barrier reef on which the breakers whitened. The moon shone too, +with bull's-eye sweeps, on his companions; on the stalwart frame of the +American who called himself Brown, and was known to be a master-mariner +in some disgrace; and on the dwarfish person, the pale eyes and +toothless smile of a vulgar and bad-hearted cockney clerk. Here was +society for Robert Herrick! The Yankee skipper was a man at least: he +had sterling qualities of tenderness and resolution: he was one whose +hand you could take without a blush. But there was no redeeming grace +about the other, who called himself sometimes Hay and sometimes Tomkins, +and laughed at the discrepancy; who had been employed in every store in +Papeete, for the creature was able in his way; who had been discharged +from each in turn, for he was wholly vile; who had alienated all his old +employers so that they passed him in the street as if he were a dog, and +all his old comrades so that they shunned him as they would a creditor. + +Not long before, a ship from Peru had brought an influenza, and it now +raged in the island, and particularly in Papeete. From all round the +_purao_ arose and fell a dismal sound of men coughing, and strangling as +they coughed. The sick natives, with the islander's impatience of a +touch of fever, had crawled from their houses to be cool, and, squatting +on the shore or on the beached canoes, painfully expected the new day. +Even as the crowing of cocks goes about the country in the night from +farm to farm, accesses of coughing arose and spread, and died in the +distance, and sprang up again. Each miserable shiverer caught the +suggestion from his neighbour, was torn for some minutes by that cruel +ecstasy, and left spent and without voice or courage when it passed. If +a man had pity to spend, Papeete beach, in that cold night and in that +infected season, was a place to spend it on. And of all the sufferers +perhaps the least deserving, but surely the most pitiable, was the +London clerk. He was used to another life, to houses, beds, nursing, and +the dainties of the sick-room; he lay here now, in the cold open, +exposed to the gusting of the wind, and with an empty belly. He was +besides infirm; the disease shook him to the vitals; and his companions +watched his endurance with surprise. A profound commiseration filled +them, and contended with and conquered their abhorrence. The disgust +attendant on so ugly a sickness magnified this dislike; at the same +time, and with more than compensating strength, shame for a sentiment so +inhuman bound them the more straitly to his service; and even the evil +they knew of him swelled their solicitude, for the thought of death is +always the least supportable when it draws near to the merely sensual +and selfish. Sometimes they held him up; sometimes, with mistaken +helpfulness, they beat him between the shoulders; and when the poor +wretch lay back ghastly and spent after a paroxysm of coughing, they +would sometimes peer into his face, doubtfully exploring it for any mark +of life. There is no one but has some virtue: that of the clerk was +courage; and he would make haste to reassure them in a pleasantry not +always decent. + +"I'm all right, pals," he gasped once: "this is the thing to strengthen +the muscles of the larynx." + +"Well, you take the cake!" cried the captain. + +"O, I'm good plucked enough," pursued the sufferer with a broken +utterance. "But it do seem bloomin' hard to me, that I should be the +only party down with this form of vice, and the only one to do the funny +business. I think one of you other parties might wake up. Tell a fellow +something." + +"The trouble is we've nothing to tell, my son," returned the captain. + +"I'll tell you, if you like, what I was thinking," said Herrick. + +"Tell us anything," said the clerk, "I only want to be reminded that I +ain't dead." + +Herrick took up his parable, lying on his face and speaking slowly and +scarce above his breath, not like a man who has anything to say, but +like one talking against time. + +"Well, I was thinking this," he began: "I was thinking I lay on Papeete +beach one night--all moon and squalls and fellows coughing--and I was +cold and hungry, and down in the mouth, and was about ninety years of +age, and had spent two hundred and twenty of them on Papeete beach. And +I was thinking I wished I had a ring to rub, or had a fairy godmother, +or could raise Beelzebub. And I was trying to remember how you did it. I +knew you made a ring of skulls, for I had seen that in the _Freischütz_: +and that you took off your coat and turned up your sleeves, for I had +seen Formes do that when he was playing Kaspar, and you could see (by +the way he went about it) it was a business he had studied; and that you +ought to have something to kick up a smoke and a bad smell, I daresay a +cigar might do, and that you ought to say the Lord's Prayer backwards. +Well, I wondered if I could do that; it seemed rather a feat, you see. +And then I wondered if I would say it forward, and I thought I did. +Well, no sooner had I got to _world without end_, than I saw a man in a +_pariu_, and with a mat under his arm, come along the beach from the +town. He was rather a hard-favoured old party, and he limped and +crippled, and all the time he kept coughing. At first I didn't cotton to +his looks, I thought, and then I got sorry for the old soul because he +coughed so hard. I remembered that we had some of that cough mixture the +American consul gave the captain for Hay. It never did Hay a ha'porth of +service, but I thought it might do the old gentleman's business for him, +and stood up. '_Yorana!_' says I. '_Yorana!_' says he. 'Look here,' I +said, 'I've got some first-rate stuff in a bottle; it'll fix your cough, +savvy? _Harry my_[1] and I'll measure you a tablespoonful in the palm of +my hand, for all our plate is at the bankers.' So I thought the old +party came up, and the nearer he came the less I took to him. But I had +passed my word, you see." + +"Wot is this bloomin' drivel?" interrupted the clerk. "It's like the rot +there is in tracts." + +"It's a story; I used to tell them to the kids at home," said Herrick. +"If it bores you, I'll drop it." + +"O, cut along!" returned the sick man irritably. "It's better than +nothing." + +"Well," continued Herrick, "I had no sooner given him the cough mixture +than he seemed to straighten up and change, and I saw he wasn't a +Tahitian after all, but some kind of Arab, and had a long beard on his +chin. 'One good turn deserves another,' says he. 'I am a magician out of +the "Arabian Nights," and this mat that I have under my arm is the +original carpet of Mohammed Ben Somebody-or-other. Say the word, and you +can have a cruise upon the carpet.' 'You don't mean to say this is the +Travelling Carpet?' I cried. 'You bet I do,' said he. 'You've been to +America since last I read the "Arabian Nights,"' said I, a little +suspicious. 'I should think so,' said he. 'Been everywhere. A man with a +carpet like this isn't going to moulder in a semi-detached villa.' Well, +that struck me as reasonable. 'All right,' I said; 'and do you mean to +tell me I can get on that carpet and go straight to London, England?' I +said 'London, England,' captain, because he seemed to have been so long +in your part of the world. 'In the crack of a whip,' said he. I figured +up the time. What is the difference between Papeete and London, +captain?" + +"Taking Greenwich and Point Venus, nine hours, odd minutes and seconds," +replied the mariner. + +"Well, that's about what I made it," resumed Herrick, "about nine hours. +Calling this three in the morning, I made out I would drop into London +about noon; and the idea tickled me immensely. 'There's only one +bother,' I said, 'I haven't a copper cent. It would be a pity to go to +London and not buy the morning _Standard_.' 'O!' said he, 'you don't +realise the conveniences of this carpet. You see this pocket? you've +only got to stick your hand in, and you pull it out filled with +sovereigns.'" + +"Double-eagles, wasn't it?" inquired the captain. + +"That was what it was!" cried Herrick. "I thought they seemed unusually +big, and I remember now I had to go to the money-changers at Charing +Cross and get English silver." + +"O, you went there?" said the clerk. "Wot did you do? Bet you had a +B.-and-S.!" + +"Well, you see, it was just as the old boy said--like the cut of a +whip," said Herrick. "The one minute I was here on the beach at three in +the morning, the next I was in front of the Golden Cross at midday. At +first I was dazzled, and covered my eyes, and there didn't seem the +smallest change; the roar of the Strand and the roar of the reef were +like the same: hark to it now, and you can hear the cabs and 'buses +rolling and the streets resound! And then at last I could look about, +and there was the old place, and no mistake! With the statues in the +square, and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and the bobbies, and the +sparrows, and the hacks; and I can't tell you what I felt like. I felt +like crying, I believe, or dancing, or jumping clean over the Nelson +Column. I was like a fellow caught up out of Hell and flung down into +the dandiest part of Heaven. Then I spotted for a hansom with a spanking +horse. 'A shilling for yourself if you're there in twenty minutes!' said +I to the jarvey. He went a good pace, though of course it was a trifle +to the carpet; and in nineteen minutes and a half I was at the door." + +"What door?" asked the captain. + +"O, a house I know of," returned Herrick. + +"Bet it was a public-house!" cried the clerk,--only these were not his +words. "And w'y didn't you take the carpet there instead of trundling in +a growler?" + +"I didn't want to startle a quiet street," said the narrator. "Bad form. +And besides, it was a hansom." + +"Well, and what did you do next?" inquired the captain. + +"O, I went in," said Herrick. + +"The old folks?" asked the captain. + +"That's about it," said the other, chewing a grass. + +"Well, I think you are about the poorest 'and at a yarn!" cried the +clerk. "Crikey, it's like 'Ministering Children!' I can tell you there +would be more beer and skittles about my little jaunt. I would go and +have a B.-and-S. for luck. Then I would get a big ulster with astrakhan +fur, and take my cane and do the la-de-da down Piccadilly. Then I would +go to a slap-up restaurant, and have green peas, and a bottle of fizz, +and a chump chop--O! and I forgot, I'd 'ave some devilled whitebait +first--and green gooseberry tart, and 'ot coffee, and some of that form +of vice in big bottles with a seal--Benedictine--that's the bloomin' +nyme! Then I'd drop into a theatre, and pal on with some chappies, and +do the dancing rooms and bars, and that, and wouldn't go 'ome till +morning, till daylight doth appear. And the next day I'd have +water-cresses, 'am, muffin, and fresh butter; wouldn't I just, O my!" + +The clerk was interrupted by a fresh attack of coughing. + +"Well, now, I'll tell you what I would do," said the captain: "I would +have none of your fancy rigs with the man driving from the mizzen +cross-trees, but a plain fore-and-aft hack cab of the highest registered +tonnage. First of all, I would bring up at the market and get a turkey +and a sucking-pig. Then I'd go to a wine-merchant's and get a dozen of +champagne, and a dozen of some sweet wine, rich and sticky and strong, +something in the port or madeira line, the best in the store. Then I'd +bear up for a toy-store, and lay out twenty dollars in assorted toys for +the pickaninnies; and then to a confectioner's and take in cakes and +pies and fancy bread, and that stuff with the plums in it; and then to a +newsagency and buy all the papers, all the picture ones for the kids, +and all the story papers for the old girl about the Earl discovering +himself to Anna-Mariar and the escape of the Lady Maude from the private +madhouse; and then I'd tell the fellow to drive home." + +"There ought to be some syrup for the kids," suggested Herrick; "they +like syrup." + +"Yes, syrup for the kids, red syrup at that!" said the captain. "And +those things they pull at, and go pop, and have measly poetry inside. +And then I tell you we'd have a thanksgiving-day and Christmas-tree +combined. Great Scott, but I would like to see the kids! I guess they +would light right out of the house when they saw daddy driving up. My +little Adar--" + +The captain stopped sharply. + +"Well, keep it up!" said the clerk. + +"The damned thing is, I don't know if they ain't starving!" cried the +captain. + +"They can't be worse off than we are, and that's one comfort," returned +the clerk. "I defy the devil to make me worse off." + +It seemed as if the devil heard him. The light of the moon had been some +time cut off and they had talked in darkness. Now there was heard a +roar, which drew impetuously nearer; the face of the lagoon was seen to +whiten; and before they had staggered to their feet, a squall burst in +rain upon the outcasts. The rage and volume of that avalanche one must +have lived in the tropics to conceive; a man panted in its assault as he +might pant under a shower-bath; and the world seemed whelmed in night +and water. + +They fled, groping for their usual shelter--it might be almost called +their home--in the old calaboose; came drenched into its empty chambers; +and lay down, three sops of humanity, on the cold coral floors, and +presently, when the squall was overpast, the others could hear in the +darkness the chattering of the clerk's teeth. + +"I say, you fellows," he wailed, "for God's sake, lie up and try to warm +me. I'm blymed if I don't think I'll die else!" + +So the three crept together into one wet mass, and lay until day came, +shivering and dozing off, and continually re-awakened to wretchedness by +the coughing of the clerk. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [1] Come here. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MORNING ON THE BEACH--THE THREE LETTERS + + +The clouds were all fled, the beauty of the tropic day was spread upon +Papeete; and the wall of breaking seas upon the reef, and the palms upon +the islet, already trembled in the heat. A French man-of-war was going +out, homeward bound; she lay in the middle distance of the port, an +ant-heap for activity. In the night a schooner had come in, and now lay +far out, hard by the passage; and the yellow flag, the emblem of +pestilence, flew on her. From up the coast, a long procession of canoes +headed round the point and towards the market, bright as a scarf with +the many-coloured clothing of the natives and the piles of fruit. But +not even the beauty and the welcome warmth of the morning, not even +these naval movements, so interesting to sailors and to idlers, could +engage the attention of the outcasts. They were still cold at heart, +their mouths sour from the want of sleep, their steps rambling from the +lack of food; and they strung like lame geese along the beach in a +disheartened silence. It was towards the town they moved; towards the +town whence smoke arose, where happier folk were breakfasting; and as +they went, their hungry eyes were upon all sides, but they were only +scouting for a meal. + +A small and dingy schooner lay snug against the quay, with which it was +connected by a plank. On the forward deck, under a spot of awning, five +Kanakas, who made up the crew, were squatted round a basin of fried +feis,[2] and drinking coffee from tin mugs. + +"Eight bells: knock off for breakfast!" cried the captain, with a +miserable heartiness. "Never tried this craft before; positively my +first appearance; guess I'll draw a bumper house." + +He came close up to where the plank rested on the grassy quay; turned +his back upon the schooner, and began to whistle that lively air, "The +Irish Washerwoman." It caught the ears of the Kanaka seamen like a +preconcerted signal; with one accord they looked up from their meal and +crowded to the ship's side, fei in hand and munching as they looked. +Even as a poor brown Pyrenean bear dances in the streets of English +towns under his master's baton; even so, but with how much more of +spirit and precision, the captain footed it in time to his own +whistling, and his long morning shadow capered beyond him on the grass. +The Kanakas smiled on the performance; Herrick looked on heavy-eyed, +hunger for the moment conquering all sense of shame; and a little +farther off, but still hard by, the clerk was torn by the seven devils +of the influenza. + +The captain stopped suddenly, appeared to perceive his audience for the +first time, and represented the part of a man surprised in his private +hour of pleasure. + +"Hello!" said he. + +The Kanakas clapped hands and called upon him to go on. + +"No, _sir_!" said the captain. "No eat, no dance. Savvy?" + +"Poor old man!" returned one of the crew. "Him no eat?" + +"Lord, no!" said the captain. "Like-um too much eat. No got." + +"All right. Me got," said the sailor; "you tome here. Plenty toffee, +plenty fei. Nutha man him tome too." + +"I guess we'll drop right in," observed the captain; and he and his +companions hastened up the plank. They were welcomed on board with the +shaking of hands; place was made for them round the basin; a sticky +demijohn of molasses was added to the feast in honour of company, and +an accordion brought from the forecastle and significantly laid by the +performer's side. + +"_Ariana_,"[3] said he lightly, touching the instrument as he spoke; and +he fell to on a long savoury fei, made an end of it, raised his mug of +coffee, and nodded across at the spokesman of the crew. "Here's your +health, old man; you're a credit to the South Pacific," said he. + +With the unsightly greed of hounds they glutted themselves with the hot +food and coffee; and even the clerk revived and the colour deepened in +his eyes. The kettle was drained, the basin cleaned; their entertainers, +who had waited on their wants throughout with the pleased hospitality of +Polynesians, made haste to bring forward a dessert of island tobacco and +rolls of pandanus leaf to serve as paper; and presently all sat about +the dishes puffing like Indian sachems. + +"When a man 'as breakfast every day, he don't know what it is," observed +the clerk. + +"The next point is dinner," said Herrick; and then with a passionate +utterance: "I wish to God I was a Kanaka!" + +"There's one thing sure," said the captain. "I'm about desperate; I'd +rather hang than rot here much longer." And with the word he took the +accordion and struck up "Home, sweet Home." + +"O, drop that!" cried Herrick, "I can't stand that." + +"No more can I," said the captain. "I've got to play something though: +got to pay the shot, my son." And he struck up "John Brown's Body" in a +fine sweet baritone: "Dandy Jim of Carolina" came next; "Rorin the +Bold," "Swing low, Sweet Chariot," and "The Beautiful Land" followed. +The captain was paying his shot with usury, as he had done many a time +before; many a meal had he bought with the same currency from the +melodious-minded natives, always, as now, to their delight. + +He was in the middle of "Fifteen Dollars in the Inside Pocket," singing +with dogged energy, for the task went sore against the grain, when a +sensation was suddenly to be observed among the crew. + +"_Tapena Tom harry my_,"[4] said the spokesman, pointing. + +And the three beachcombers, following his indication, saw the figure of +a man in pyjama trousers and a white jumper approaching briskly from the +town. + +"That's Tapena Tom, is it?" said the captain, pausing in his music. "I +don't seem to place the brute." + +"We'd better cut," said the clerk. "'E's no good." + +"Well," said the musician deliberately, "one can't most generally always +tell. I'll try it on, I guess. Music has charms to soothe the savage +Tapena, boys. We might strike it rich; it might amount to iced punch in +the cabin." + +"Hiced punch? O my!" said the clerk. "Give him something 'ot, captain. +'Way down the Swannee River': try that." + +"No, _sir_! Looks Scots," said the captain; and he struck, for his life, +into "Auld Lang Syne." + +Captain Tom continued to approach with the same business-like alacrity; +no change was to be perceived in his bearded face as he came swinging up +the plank: he did not even turn his eyes on the performer. + + "We twa hae paidled in the burn, + Frae morning tide till dine," + +went the song. + +Captain Tom had a parcel under his arm, which he laid on the house roof, +and then turning suddenly to the strangers: "Here, you!" he bellowed, +"be off out of that!" + +The clerk and Herrick stood not on the order of their going, but fled +incontinently by the plank. The performer, on the other hand, flung down +the instrument and rose to his full height slowly. + +"What's that you say?" he said. "I've half a mind to give you a lesson +in civility." + +"You set up any more of your gab to me," returned the Scotsman, "and +I'll show ye the wrong side of a jyle. I've heard tell of the three of +ye. Ye're not long for here, I can tell ye that. The Government has +their eyes upon ye. They make short work of damned beachcombers, I'll +say that for the French." + +"You wait till I catch you off your ship!" cried the captain; and then, +turning to the crew, "Good-bye, you fellows!" he said. "You're +gentlemen, anyway! The worst nigger among you would look better upon a +quarter-deck than that filthy Scotsman." + +Captain Tom scorned to reply. He watched with a hard smile the departure +of his guests, and as soon as the last foot was off the plank, turned to +the hands to work cargo. + +The beachcombers beat their inglorious retreat along the shore; Herrick +first, his face dark with blood, his knees trembling under him with the +hysteria of rage. Presently, under the same _purao_ where they had +shivered the night before, he cast himself down, and groaned aloud, and +ground his face into the sand. + +"Don't speak to me, don't speak to me. I can't stand it," broke from +him. + +The other two stood over him perplexed. + +"Wot can't he stand now?" said the clerk. "'Asn't he 'ad a meal? _I'm_ +lickin' my lips." + +Herrick reared up his wild eyes and burning face. "I can't beg!" he +screamed, and again threw himself prone. + +"This thing's got to come to an end," said the captain, with an intake +of the breath. + +"Looks like signs of an end, don't it?" sneered the clerk. + +"He's not so far from it, and don't you deceive yourself," replied the +captain.--"Well," he added in a livelier voice, "you fellows hang on +here, and I'll go and interview my representative." + +Whereupon he turned on his heel, and set off at a swinging sailor's walk +towards Papeete. + +It was some half-hour later when he returned. The clerk was dozing with +his back against the tree: Herrick still lay where he had flung himself; +nothing showed whether he slept or waked. + +"See, boys!" cried the captain, with that artificial heartiness of his +which was at times so painful, "here's a new idea." And he produced +note-paper, stamped envelopes, and pencils, three of each. "We can all +write home by the mail brigantine; the consul says I can come over to +his place and ink up the addresses." + +"Well, that's a start, too," said the clerk. "I never thought of that." + +"It was that yarning last night about going home that put me up to it," +said the captain. + +"Well, 'and over," said the clerk. "I'll 'ave a shy," and he retired a +little distance to the shade of a canoe. + +The others remained under the _purao_. Now they would write a word or +two, now scribble it out; now they would sit biting at the pencil end +and staring seaward; now their eyes would rest on the clerk, where he +sat propped on the canoe, leering and coughing, his pencil racing glibly +on the paper. + +"I can't do it," said Herrick suddenly. "I haven't got the heart." + +"See here," said the captain, speaking with unwonted gravity; "it may be +hard to write, and to write lies at that; and God knows it is; but it's +the square thing. It don't cost anything to say you're well and happy, +and sorry you can't make a remittance this mail; and if you don't I'll +tell you what I think it is--I think it's about the high-water mark of +being a brute beast." + +"It's easy to talk," said Herrick. "You don't seem to have written much +yourself, I notice." + +"What do you bring in me for?" broke from the captain. His voice was +indeed scarce raised above a whisper, but emotion clanged in it. "What +do you know about me? If you had commanded the finest barque that ever +sailed from Portland; if you had been drunk in your berth when she +struck the breakers in Fourteen Island Group, and hadn't had the wit to +stay there and drown, but came on deck, and given drunken orders, and +lost six lives--I could understand your talking then! There," he said +more quietly, "that's my yarn, and now you know it. It's a pretty one +for the father of a family. Five men and a woman murdered. Yes, there +was a woman on board, and hadn't no business to be either. Guess I sent +her to Hell, if there is such a place. I never dared go home again; and +the wife and the little ones went to England to her father's place. I +don't know what's come to them," he added, with a bitter shrug. + +"Thank you, captain," said Herrick. "I never liked you better." + +They shook hands, short and hard, with eyes averted, tenderness swelling +in their bosoms. + +"Now, boys! to work again at lying!" said the captain. + +"I'll give my father up," returned Herrick with a writhen smile. "I'll +try my sweetheart instead for a change of evils." + +And here is what he wrote:-- + + "Emma, I have scratched out the beginning to my father, for I think I + can write more easily to you. This is my last farewell to all, the + last you will ever hear or see of an unworthy friend and son. I have + failed in life; I am quite broken down and disgraced. I pass under a + false name; you will have to tell my father that with all your + kindness. It is my own fault. I know, had I chosen, that I might have + done well; and yet I swear to you I tried to choose. I could not bear + that you should think I did not try. For I loved you all; you must + never doubt me in that, you least of all. I have always unceasingly + loved, but what was my love worth? and what was I worth? I had not + the manhood of a common clerk; I could not work to earn you; I have + lost you now, and for your sake I could be glad of it. When you first + came to my father's house--do you remember those days? I want you + to--you saw the best of me then, all that was good in me. Do you + remember the day I took your hand and would not let it go--and the + day on Battersea Bridge, when we were looking at a barge, and I began + to tell you one of my silly stories, and broke off to say I loved + you? That was the beginning, and now here is the end. When you have + read this letter, you will go round and kiss them all good-bye, my + father and mother, and the children, one by one, and poor uncle; and + tell them all to forget me, and forget me yourself. Turn the key in + the door; let no thought of me return; be done with the poor ghost + that pretended he was a man and stole your love. Scorn of myself + grinds in me as I write. I should tell you I am well and happy, and + want for nothing. I do not exactly make money, or I should send a + remittance; but I am well cared for, have friends, live in a + beautiful place and climate, such as we have dreamed of together, and + no pity need be wasted on me. In such places, you understand, it is + easy to live, and live well, but often hard to make sixpence in + money. Explain this to my father, he will understand. I have no more + to say; only linger, going out, like an unwilling guest. God in + heaven bless you. Think of me at the last, here, on a bright beach, + the sky and sea immoderately blue, and the great breakers roaring + outside on a barrier reef, where a little isle sits green with palms. + I am well and strong. It is a more pleasant way to die than if you + were crowding about me on a sick-bed. And yet I am dying. This is my + last kiss. Forgive, forget the unworthy." + +So far he had written, his paper was all filled, when there returned a +memory of evenings at the piano, and that song, the masterpiece of love, +in which so many have found the expression of their dearest thoughts. +"_Einst, O Wunder!_" he added. More was not required; he knew that in +his love's heart the context would spring up, escorted with fair images +and harmony; of how all through life her name should tremble in his +ears, her name be everywhere repeated in the sounds of nature; and when +death came, and he lay dissolved, her memory lingered and thrilled among +his elements. + + "Once, O wonder! once from the ashes of my heart + Arose a blossom----" + +Herrick and the captain finished their letters about the same time; each +was breathing deep, and their eyes met and were averted as they closed +the envelopes. + +"Sorry I write so big," said the captain gruffly. "Came all of a rush, +when it did come." + +"Same here," said Herrick. "I could have done with a ream when I got +started; but it's long enough for all the good I had to say." + +They were still at the addresses when the clerk strolled up, smirking +and twirling his envelope, like a man well pleased. He looked over +Herrick's shoulder. + +"Hullo," he said, "you ain't writing 'ome." + +"I am, though," said Herrick; "she lives with my father.--O, I see what +you mean," he added. "My real name is Herrick. No more Hay"--they had +both used the same _alias_,--"no more Hay than yours, I daresay." + +"Clean bowled in the middle stump!" laughed the clerk. "My name's 'Uish, +if you want to know. Everybody has a false nyme in the Pacific. Lay you +five to three the captain 'as." + +"So I have too," replied the captain; "and I've never told my own since +the day I tore the title-page out of my Bowditch and flung the damned +thing into the sea. But I'll tell it to you, boys. John Davis is my +name. I'm Davis of the _Sea Ranger_." + +"Dooce you are!" said Huish. "And what was she? a pirate or a slyver?" + +"She was the fastest barque out of Portland, Maine," replied the +captain; "and for the way I lost her, I might as well have bored a hole +in her side with an auger." + +"O, you lost her, did you?" said the clerk. "'Ope she was insured?" + +No answer being returned to this sally, Huish, still brimming over with +vanity and conversation, struck into another subject. + +"I've a good mind to read you my letter," said he. "I've a good fist +with a pen when I choose, and this is a prime lark. She was a barmaid I +ran across in Northampton; she was a spanking fine piece, no end of +style; and we cottoned at first sight like parties in the play. I +suppose I spent the chynge of a fiver on that girl. Well, I 'appened to +remember her nyme, so I wrote to her, and told her 'ow I had got rich, +and married a queen in the Hislands, and lived in a blooming palace. +Such a sight of crammers! I must read you one bit about my opening the +nigger parliament in a cocked 'at. It's really prime." + +The captain jumped to his feet. "That's what you did with the paper that +I went and begged for you?" he roared. + +It was perhaps lucky for Huish--it was surely in the end unfortunate for +all--that he was seized just then by one of his prostrating accesses of +cough; his comrades would have else deserted him, so bitter was their +resentment. When the fit had passed, the clerk reached out his hand, +picked up the letter, which had fallen to the earth, and tore it into +fragments, stamp and all. + +"Does that satisfy you?" he asked sullenly. + +"We'll say no more about it," replied Davis. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [2] _Fei_ is the hill banana. + + [3] By-and-by. + + [4] "Captain Tom is coming." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE OLD CALABOOSE--DESTINY AT THE DOOR + + +The old calaboose, in which the waifs had so long harboured, is a low, +rectangular enclosure of building at the corner of a shady western +avenue and a little townward of the British consulate. Within was a +grassy court, littered with wreckage and the traces of vagrant +occupation. Six or seven cells opened from the court: the doors, that +had once been locked on mutinous whalermen, rotting before them in the +grass. No mark remained of their old destination, except the rusty bars +upon the windows. + +The floor of one of the cells had been a little cleared; a bucket (the +last remaining piece of furniture of the three caitiffs) stood full of +water by the door, a half cocoa-nut shell beside it for a drinking-cup; +and on some ragged ends of mat Huish sprawled asleep, his mouth open, +his face deathly. The glow of the tropic afternoon, the green of +sunbright foliage, stared into that shady place through door and window; +and Herrick, pacing to and fro on the coral floor, sometimes paused and +laved his face and neck with tepid water from the bucket. His long +arrears of suffering, the night's vigil, the insults of the morning, and +the harrowing business of the letter, had strung him to that point when +pain is almost pleasure, time shrinks to a mere point, and death and +life appear indifferent. To and fro he paced like a caged brute; his +mind whirling through the universe of thought and memory; his eyes, as +he went, skimming the legends on the wall. The crumbling whitewash was +all full of them: Tahitian names, and French, and English, and rude +sketches of ships under sail and men at fisticuffs. + +It came to him of a sudden that he too must leave upon these walls the +memorial of his passage. He paused before a clean space, took the pencil +out, and pondered. Vanity, so hard to dislodge, awoke in him. We call it +vanity at least; perhaps unjustly. Rather it was the bare sense of his +existence prompted him; the sense of his life, the one thing wonderful, +to which he scarce clung with a finger. From his jarred nerves there +came a strong sentiment of coming change; whether good or ill he could +not say: change, he knew no more--change with inscrutable veiled face, +approaching noiseless. With the feeling came the vision of a +concert-room, the rich hues of instruments, the silent audience, and the +loud voice of the symphony. "Destiny knocking at the door," he thought; +drew a stave on the plaster, and wrote in the famous phrase from the +Fifth Symphony. "So," thought he, "they will know that I loved music and +had classical tastes. They? He, I suppose: the unknown, kindred spirit +that shall come some day and read my _memor querela_. Ha, he shall have +Latin too!" And he added: _terque quaterque beati Queis ante ora +patrum_. + +He turned again to his uneasy pacing, but now with an irrational and +supporting sense of duty done. He had dug his grave that morning; now he +had carved his epitaph; the folds of the toga were composed, why should +he delay the insignificant trifle that remained to do? He paused and +looked long in the face of the sleeping Huish, drinking disenchantment +and distaste of life. He nauseated himself with that vile countenance. +Could the thing continue? What bound him now? Had he no rights?--only +the obligation to go on, without discharge or furlough, bearing the +unbearable? _Ich trage unerträgliches_, the quotation rose in his mind; +he repeated the whole piece, one of the most perfect of the most perfect +of poets; and a phrase struck him like a blow: _Du, stolzes Herz, du +hast es ja gewollt._ Where was the pride of his heart? And he raged +against himself, as a man bites on a sore tooth, in a heady sensuality +of scorn. "I have no pride, I have no heart, no manhood," he thought, +"or why should I prolong a life more shameful than the gallows? Or why +should I have fallen to it? No pride, no capacity, no force. Not even a +bandit! and to be starving here with worse than banditti--with this +trivial hell-hound!" His rage against his comrade rose and flooded him, +and he shook a trembling fist at the sleeper. + +A swift step was audible. The captain appeared upon the threshold of the +cell, panting and flushed, and with a foolish face of happiness. In his +arms he carried a loaf of bread and bottles of beer; the pockets of his +coat were bulging with cigars. He rolled his treasures on the floor, +grasped Herrick by both hands, and crowed with laughter. + +"Broach the beer!" he shouted. "Broach the beer, and glory hallelujah!" + +"Beer?" repeated Huish, struggling to his feet. + +"Beer it is!" cried Davis. "Beer, and plenty of it. Any number of +persons can use it (like Lyon's tooth-tablet) with perfect propriety and +neatness.--Who's to officiate?" + +"Leave me alone for that," said the clerk. He knocked the necks off with +a lump of coral, and each drank in succession from the shell. + +"Have a weed," said Davis. "It's all in the bill." + +"What is up?" asked Herrick. + +The captain fell suddenly grave. "I'm coming to that," said he. "I want +to speak with Herrick here. You, Hay--or Huish, or whatever your name +is--you take a weed and the other bottle, and go and see how the wind is +down by the _purao_. I'll call you when you're wanted!" + +"Hey? Secrets? That ain't the ticket," said Huish. + +"Look here, my son," said the captain, "this is business, and don't you +make any mistake about it. If you're going to make trouble, you can have +it your own way and stop right here. Only get the thing right: if +Herrick and I go, we take the beer. Savvy?" + +"O, I don't want to shove my oar in," returned Huish. "I'll cut right +enough. Give me the swipes. You can jaw till you're blue in the face for +what I care. I don't think it's the friendly touch, that's all." And he +shambled grumbling out of the cell into the staring sun. + +The captain watched him clear of the courtyard; then turned to Herrick. + +"What is it?" asked Herrick thickly. + +"I'll tell you," said Davis. "I want to consult you. It's a chance we've +got.--What's that?" he cried, pointing to the music on the wall. + +"What?" said the other. "O, that! It's music; it's a phrase of +Beethoven's I was writing up. It means Destiny knocking at the door." + +"Does it?" said the captain, rather low; and he went near and studied +the inscription. "And this French?" he asked, pointing to the Latin. + +"O, it just means I should have been luckier if I had died at home," +returned Herrick impatiently. "What is this business?" + +"Destiny knocking at the door," repeated the captain; and then, looking +over his shoulder, "Well, Mr. Herrick, that's about what it comes to," +he added. + +"What do you mean? Explain yourself," said Herrick. + +But the captain was again staring at the music. "About how long ago +since you wrote up this truck?" he asked. + +"What does it matter?" exclaimed Herrick. "I daresay half an hour." + +"My God, it's strange!" cried Davis. "There's some men would call that +accidental: not me. That----" and he drew his thick finger under the +music--"that's what I call Providence." + +"You said we had a chance," said Herrick. + +"Yes, _sir_!" said the captain, wheeling suddenly face to face with his +companion. "I did so. If you're the man I take you for, we have a +chance." + +"I don't know what you take me for," was the reply. "You can scarce take +me too low." + +"Shake hands, Mr. Herrick," said the captain. "I know you. You're a +gentleman and a man of spirit. I didn't want to speak before that bummer +there; you'll see why. But to you I'll rip it right out. I got a ship." + +"A ship?" cried Herrick. "What ship?" + +"That schooner we saw this morning off the passage." + +"That schooner with the hospital flag?" + +"That's the hooker," said Davis. "She's the _Farallone_, hundred and +sixty tons register, out of 'Frisco for Sydney, in California champagne. +Captain, mate, and one hand all died of the small-pox, same as they had +round in the Paumotus, I guess. Captain and mate were the only white +men; all the hands Kanakas; seems a queer kind of outfit from a +Christian port. Three of them left and a cook; didn't know where they +were; I can't think where they were either, if you come to that; Wiseman +must have been on the booze, I guess, to sail the course he did. +However, there _he_ was, dead; and here are the Kanakas as good as lost. +They bummed around at sea like the babes in the wood; and tumbled end-on +upon Tahiti. The consul here took charge. He offered the berth to +Williams; Williams had never had the small-pox and backed down. That was +when I came in for the letter-paper; I thought there was something up +when the consul asked me to look in again; but I never let on to you +fellows, so's you'd not be disappointed. Consul tried M'Neil; scared of +small-pox. He tried Capirati, that Corsican, and Leblue, or whatever his +name is, wouldn't lay a hand on it; all too fond of their sweet lives. +Last of all, when there wasn't nobody else left to offer it to, he +offers it to me. 'Brown, will you ship captain and take her to Sydney?' +says he. 'Let me choose my own mate and another white hand,' says I, +'for I don't hold with this Kanaka crew racket; give us all two months' +advance to get our clothes and instruments out of pawn, and I'll take +stock to-night, fill up stores, and get to sea to-morrow before dark!' +That's what I said. 'That's good enough,' says the consul, 'and you can +count yourself damned lucky, Brown,' says he. And he said it pretty +meaningful-appearing too. However, that's all one now. I'll ship Huish +before the mast--of course I'll let him berth aft--and I'll ship you +mate at seventy-five dollars and two months' advance." + +"Me mate? Why, I'm a landsman!" cried Herrick. + +"Guess you've got to learn," said the captain. "You don't fancy I'm +going to skip and leave you rotting on the beach, perhaps? I'm not that +sort, old man. And you're handy, anyway; I've been shipmates with +worse." + +"God knows I can't refuse," said Herrick. "God knows I thank you from my +heart." + +"That's all right," said the captain. "But it ain't all." He turned +aside to light a cigar. + +"What else is there?" asked the other, with a pang of undefinable alarm. + +"I'm coming to that," said Davis, and then paused a little. "See here," +he began, holding out his cigar between his finger and thumb, "suppose +you figure up what this'll amount to. You don't catch on? Well, we get +two months' advance; we can't get away from Papeete--our creditors +wouldn't let us go--for less; it'll take us along about two months to +get to Sydney; and when we get there, I just want to put it to you +squarely: What the better are we?" + +"We're off the beach at least," said Herrick. + +"I guess there's a beach at Sydney," returned the captain; "and I'll +tell you one thing, Mr. Herrick--I don't mean to try. No, _sir_! Sydney +will never see me." + +"Speak out plain," said Herrick. + +"Plain Dutch," replied the captain. "I'm going to own that schooner. +It's nothing new; it's done every year in the Pacific. Stephens stole a +schooner the other day, didn't he? Hayes and Pease stole vessels all the +time. And it's the making of the crowd of us. See here--you think of +that cargo. Champagne! why, it's like as if it was put up on purpose. In +Peru we'll sell that liquor off at the pier-head, and the schooner after +it, if we can find a fool to buy her; and then light out for the mines. +If you'll back me up, I stake my life I carry it through." + +"Captain," said Herrick, with a quailing voice, "don't do it!" + +"I'm desperate," returned Davis. "I've got a chance; I may never get +another. Herrick, say the word: back me up; I think we've starved +together long enough for that." + +"I can't do it. I'm sorry. I can't do it. I've not fallen as low as +that," said Herrick, deadly pale. + +"What did you say this morning?" said Davis. "That you couldn't beg? +It's the one thing or the other, my son." + +"Ah, but this is the gaol!" cried Herrick. "Don't tempt me. It's the +gaol." + +"Did you hear what the skipper said on board that schooner?" pursued the +captain. "Well, I tell you he talked straight. The French have let us +alone for a long time; it can't last longer; they've got their eye on +us; and as sure as you live, in three weeks you'll be in gaol whatever +you do. I read it in the consul's face." + +"You forget, captain," said the young man. "There is another way. I can +die; and to say truth, I think I should have died three years ago." + +The captain folded his arms and looked the other in the face. "Yes," +said he, "yes, you can cut your throat; that's a frozen fact; much good +may it do you! And where do I come in?" + +The light of a strange excitement came in Herrick's face. "Both of us," +said he, "both of us together. It's not possible you can enjoy this +business. Come," and he reached out a timid hand, "a few strokes in the +lagoon--and rest!" + +"I tell you, Herrick, I'm 'most tempted to answer you the way the man +does in the Bible, and say, '_Get thee behind me, Satan!_'" said the +captain. "What! you think I would go drown myself, and I got children +starving? Enjoy it? No, by God, I do not enjoy it! but it's the row I've +got to hoe, and I'll hoe it till I drop right here. I have three of +them, you see, two boys and the one girl, Adar. The trouble is that you +are not a parent yourself. I tell you, Herrick, I love you," the man +broke out; "I didn't take to you at first, you were so Anglified and +tony, but I love you now; it's a man that loves you stands here and +wrestles with you. I can't go to sea with the bummer alone; it's not +possible. Go drown yourself, and there goes my last chance--the last +chance of a poor miserable beast, earning a crust to feed his family. I +can't do nothing but sail ships, and I've no papers. And here I get a +chance, and you go back on me! Ah, you've no family, and that's where +the trouble is!" + +"I have indeed," said Herrick. + +"Yes, I know," said the captain, "you think so. But no man's got a +family till he's got children. It's only the kids count. There's +something about the little shavers ... I can't talk of them. And if you +thought a cent about this father that I hear you talk of, or that +sweetheart you were writing to this morning, you would feel like me. You +would say, What matter laws, and God, and that? My folks are hard up, I +belong to them, I'll get them bread, or, by God! I'll get them wealth, +if I have to burn down London for it. That's what you would say. And +I'll tell you more: your heart is saying so this living minute. I can +see it in your face. You're thinking, Here's poor friendship for the man +I've starved along of, and as for the girl that I set up to be in love +with, here's a mighty limp kind of a love that won't carry me as far as +'most any man would go for a demijohn of whisky. There's not much +_ro_mance to that love, anyway; it's not the kind they carry on about in +song-books. But what's the good of my carrying on talking, when it's all +in your inside as plain as print? I put the question to you once for +all. Are you going to desert me in my hour of need?--you know if I've +deserted you--or will you give me your hand, and try a fresh deal, and +go home (as like as not) a millionaire? Say No, and God pity me! Say +Yes, and I'll make the little ones pray for you every night on their +bended knees. 'God bless Mr. Herrick:' that's what they'll say, one +after the other, the old girl sitting there holding stakes at the foot +of the bed, and the damned little innocents ..." he broke off. "I don't +often rip out about the kids," he said; "but when I do, there's +something fetches loose." + +"Captain," said Herrick faintly, "is there nothing else?" + +"I'll prophesy if you like," said the captain with renewed vigour. +"Refuse this, because you think yourself too honest, and before a +month's out you'll be gaoled for a sneak-thief. I give you the word +fair. I can see it, Herrick, if you can't; you're breaking down. Don't +think, if you refuse this chance, that you'll go on doing the +evangelical; you're about through with your stock; and before you know +where you are, you'll be right out on the other side. No, it's either +this for you; or else it's Caledonia. I bet you never were there, and +saw those white, shaved men, in their dust-clothes and straw hats, +prowling around in gangs in the lamplight at Noumea; they look like +wolves, and they look like preachers, and they look like the sick; Huish +is a daisy to the best of them. Well, there's your company. They're +waiting for you, Herrick, and you got to go; and that's a prophecy." + +And as the man stood and shook through his great stature, he seemed +indeed like one in whom the spirit of divination worked and might utter +oracles. Herrick looked at him, and looked away; it seemed not decent to +spy upon such agitation; and the young man's courage sank. + +"You talk of going home," he objected. "We could never do that." + +"_We_ could," said the other. "Captain Brown couldn't, nor Mr. Hay that +shipped mate with him couldn't. But what's that to do with Captain Davis +or Mr. Herrick, you galoot?" + +"But Hayes had these wild islands where he used to call," came the next +fainter objection. + +"We have the wild islands of Peru," retorted Davis. "They were wild +enough for Stephens, no longer agone than just last year. I guess +they'll be wild enough for us." + +"And the crew?" + +"All Kanakas. Come, I see you're right, old man. I see you'll stand by." +And the captain once more offered his hand. + +"Have it your own way then," said Herrick. "I'll do it: a strange thing +for my father's son. But I'll do it. I'll stand by you, man, for good or +evil." + +"God bless you!" cried the captain, and stood silent. "Herrick," he +added with a smile, "I believe I'd have died in my tracks if you'd said +No!" + +And Herrick, looking at the man, half believed so also. + +"And now we'll go break it to the bummer," said Davis. + +"I wonder how he'll take it," said Herrick. + +"Him? Jump at it!" was the reply. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE YELLOW FLAG + + +The schooner _Farallone_ lay well out in the jaws of the pass, where the +terrified pilot had made haste to bring her to her moorings and escape. +Seen from the beach through the thin line of shipping, two objects stood +conspicuous to seaward: the little isle, on the one hand, with its palms +and the guns and batteries raised forty years before in defence of Queen +Pomare's capital; the outcast _Farallone_, upon the other, banished to +the threshold of the port, rolling there to her scuppers, and flaunting +the plague-flag as she rolled. A few sea-birds screamed and cried about +the ship; and within easy range, a man-of-war guard-boat hung off and on +and glittered with the weapons of marines. The exuberant daylight and +the blinding heaven of the tropics picked out and framed the pictures. + +A neat boat, manned by natives in uniform, and steered by the doctor of +the port, put from shore towards three of the afternoon, and pulled +smartly for the schooner. The fore-sheets were heaped with sacks of +flour, onions, and potatoes, perched among which was Huish dressed as a +foremast hand; a heap of chests and cases impeded the action of the +oarsmen; and in the stern, by the left hand of the doctor, sat Herrick, +dressed in a fresh rig of slops, his brown beard trimmed to a point, a +pile of paper novels on his lap, and nursing the while between his feet +a chronometer, for which they had exchanged that of the _Farallone_, +long since run down and the rate lost. + +They passed the guard-boat, exchanging hails with the boatswain's mate +in charge, and drew near at last to the forbidden ship. Not a cat +stirred, there was no speech of man; and the sea being exceeding high +outside, and the reef close to where the schooner lay, the clamour of +the surf hung round her like the sound of battle. + +"_Ohé la goëlette!_" sang out the doctor, with his best voice. + +Instantly, from the house where they had been stowing away stores, first +Davis, and then the ragamuffin, swarthy crew made their appearance. + +"Hullo, Hay, that you?" said the captain, leaning on the rail. "Tell the +old man to lay her alongside, as if she was eggs. There's a hell of a +run of sea here, and his boat's brittle." + +The movement of the schooner was at that time more than usually violent. +Now she heaved her side as high as a deep-sea steamer's, and showed the +flashing of her copper; now she swung swiftly towards the boat until her +scuppers gurgled. + +"I hope you have sea-legs," observed the doctor. "You will require +them." + +Indeed, to board the _Farallone_, in that exposed position where she +lay, was an affair of some dexterity. The less precious goods were +hoisted roughly; the chronometer, after repeated failures, was passed +gently and successfully from hand to hand; and there remained only the +more difficult business of embarking Huish. Even that piece of dead +weight (shipped A.B. at eighteen dollars, and described by the captain +to the consul as an invaluable man) was at last hauled on board without +mishap; and the doctor, with civil salutations, took his leave. + +The three co-adventurers looked at each other, and Davis heaved a breath +of relief. + +"Now let's get this chronometer fixed," said he, and led the way into +the house. It was a fairly spacious place; two state-rooms and a +good-sized pantry opened from the main cabin; the bulk-heads were +painted white, the floor laid with waxcloth. No litter, no sign of life +remained; for the effects of the dead men had been disinfected and +conveyed on shore. Only on the table, in a saucer, some sulphur burned, +and the fumes set them coughing as they entered. The captain peered into +the starboard state-room, where the bed-clothes still lay tumbled in the +bunk, the blanket flung back as they had flung it back from the +disfigured corpse before its burial. + +"Now, I told these niggers to tumble that truck overboard," grumbled +Davis. "Guess they were afraid to lay hands on it. Well, they've hosed +the place out; that's as much as can be expected, I suppose. Huish, lay +on to these blankets." + +"See you blooming well far enough first," said Huish, drawing back. + +"What's that?" snapped the captain. "I'll tell you, my young friend, I +think you make a mistake. I'm captain here." + +"Fat lot I care," returned the clerk. + +"That so?" said Davis. "Then you'll berth forward with the niggers! Walk +right out of this cabin." + +"O, I dessay!" said Huish. "See any green in my eye? A lark's a lark." + +"Well, now, I'll explain this business, and you'll see, once for all, +just precisely how much lark there is to it," said Davis. "I'm captain, +and I'm going to be it. One thing of three. First, you take my orders +here as cabin steward, in which case you mess with us. Or, second, you +refuse, and I pack you forward--and you get as quick as the word's said. +Or, third and last, I'll signal that man-of-war and send you ashore +under arrest for mutiny." + +"And, of course, I wouldn't blow the gaff? O no!" replied the jeering +Huish. + +"And who's to believe you, my son?" inquired the captain. "No, _sir_! +There ain't no larking about my captainising. Enough said. Up with these +blankets." + +Huish was no fool, he knew when he was beaten; and he was no coward +either, for he stepped to the bunk, took the infected bed-clothes +fairly in his arms, and carried them out of the house without a check or +tremor. + +"I was waiting for the chance," said Davis to Herrick. "I needn't do the +same with you, because you understand it for yourself." + +"Are you going to berth here?" asked Herrick, following the captain into +the state-room, where he began to adjust the chronometer in its place at +the bed-head. + +"Not much!" replied he. "I guess I'll berth on deck. I don't know as I'm +afraid, but I've no immediate use for confluent small-pox." + +"I don't know that I'm afraid either," said Herrick. "But the thought of +these two men sticks in my throat; that captain and mate dying here, one +opposite to the other. It's grim. I wonder what they said last?" + +"Wiseman and Wishart?" said the captain. "Probably mighty small +potatoes. That's a thing a fellow figures out for himself one way, and +the real business goes quite another. Perhaps Wiseman said, 'Here, old +man, fetch up the gin, I'm feeling powerful rocky.' And perhaps Wishart +said, 'O, hell!'" + +"Well, that's grim enough," said Herrick. + +"And so it is," said Davis.--"There; there's that chronometer fixed. And +now it's about time to up anchor and clear out." + +He lit a cigar and stepped on deck. + +"Here, you! What's _your_ name?" he cried to one of the hands, a +lean-flanked, clean-built fellow from some far western island, and of a +darkness almost approaching to the African. + +"Sally Day," replied the man. + +"Devil it is," said the captain, "Didn't know we had ladies on +board.--Well, Sally, oblige me by hauling down that rag there. I'll do +the same for you another time." He watched the yellow bunting as it was +eased past the cross-trees and handed down on deck. "You'll float no +more on this ship," he observed. "Muster the people aft, Mr. Hay," he +added, speaking unnecessarily loud, "I've a word to say to them." + +It was with a singular sensation that Herrick prepared for the first +time to address a crew. He thanked his stars indeed that they were +natives. But even natives, he reflected, might be critics too quick for +such a novice as himself; they might perceive some lapse from that +precise and cut-and-dry English which prevails on board a ship; it was +even possible they understood no other; and he racked his brain, and +overhauled his reminiscences of sea romance, for some appropriate words. + +"Here, men! tumble aft!" he said. "Lively now! all hands aft!" + +They crowded in the alleyway like sheep. + +"Here they are, sir," said Herrick. + +For some time the captain continued to face the stern; then turned with +ferocious suddenness on the crew, and seemed to enjoy their shrinking. + +"Now," he said, twisting his cigar in his mouth and toying with the +spokes of the wheel. "I'm Captain Brown. I command this ship. This is +Mr. Hay, first officer. The other white man is cabin steward, but he'll +stand watch and do his trick. My orders shall be obeyed smartly. You +savvy, '_smartly_'? There shall be no growling about the kaikai, which +will be above allowance. You'll put a handle to the mate's name, and +tack on 'sir' to every order I give you. If you're smart and quick, I'll +make this ship comfortable for all hands." He took the cigar out of his +mouth. "If you're not," he added, in a roaring voice, "I'll make it a +floating hell.--Now, Mr. Hay, we'll pick watches, if you please." + +"All right," said Herrick. + +"You will please use 'sir' when you address me, Mr. Hay," said the +captain. "I'll take the lady. Step to starboard, Sally." And then he +whispered in Herrick's ear, "Take the old man." + +"I'll take you, there," said Herrick. + +"What's your name?" said the captain. "What's that you say? O, that's +not English; I'll have none of your highway gibberish on my ship. We'll +call you old Uncle Ned, because you've got no wool on the top of your +head, just the place where the wool ought to grow. Step to port, Uncle. +Don't you hear Mr. Hay has picked you? Then I'll take the white man. +White Man, step to starboard. Now, which of you two is the cook? You? +Then Mr. Hay takes your friend in the blue dungaree. Step to port, +Dungaree, There, we know who we all are: Dungaree, Uncle Ned, Sally Day, +White Man, and Cook. All F.F.V.'s I guess. And now, Mr. Hay, we'll up +anchor, if you please." + +"For heaven's sake, tell me some of the words," whispered Herrick. + +An hour later the _Farallone_ was under all plain sail, the rudder hard +a-port, and the cheerfully-clanking windlass had brought the anchor +home. + +"All clear, sir," cried Herrick from the bow. + +The captain met her with the wheel, as she bounded like a stag from her +repose, trembling and bending to the puffs. The guard-boat gave a +parting hail, the wake whitened and ran out; the _Farallone_ was under +weigh. + +Her berth had been close to the pass. Even as she forged ahead Davis +slewed her for the channel between the pier-ends of the reef, the +breakers sounding and whitening to either hand. Straight through the +narrow band of blue she shot to seaward; and the captain's heart exulted +as he felt her tremble underfoot, and (looking back over the taffrail) +beheld the roofs of Papeete changing position on the shore and the +island mountains rearing higher in the wake. + +But they were not yet done with the shore and the horror of the yellow +flag. About midway of the pass there was a cry and a scurry, a man was +seen to leap upon the rail, and, throwing his arms over his head, to +stoop and plunge into the sea. + +"Steady as she goes," the captain cried, relinquishing the wheel to +Huish. + +The next moment he was forward in the midst of the Kanakas, belaying-pin +in hand. + +"Anybody else for shore?" he cried, and the savage trumpeting of his +voice, no less than the ready weapon in his hand, struck fear in all. +Stupidly they stared after their escaped companion, whose black head was +visible upon the water, steering for the land. And the schooner +meanwhile slipped like a racer through the pass, and met the long sea of +the open ocean with a souse of spray. + +"Fool that I was, not to have a pistol ready!" exclaimed Davis. "Well, +we go to sea short-handed; we can't help that. You have a lame watch of +it, Mr. Hay." + +"I don't see how we are to get along," said Herrick. + +"Got to," said the captain. "No more Tahiti for me." + +Both turned instinctively and looked astern. The fair island was +unfolding mountain-top on mountain-top; Eimeo, on the port board, lifted +her splintered pinnacles; and still the schooner raced to the open sea. + +"Think!" cried the captain, with a gesture, "yesterday morning I danced +for my breakfast like a poodle dog." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CARGO OF CHAMPAGNE + + +The ship's head was laid to clear Eimeo to the north, and the captain +sat down in the cabin, with a chart, a ruler, and an epitome. + +"East a half no'the," said he, raising his face from his labours. "Mr. +Hay, you'll have to watch your dead reckoning; I want every yard she +makes on every hair's-breadth of a course. I'm going to knock a hole +right straight through the Paumotus, and that's always a near touch. +Now, if this South East Trade ever blew out of the S.E., which it don't, +we might hope to lie within half a point of our course. Say we lie +within a point of it. That'll just about weather Fakarava. Yes, sir, +that's what we've got to do, if we tack for it. Brings us through this +slush of little islands in the cleanest place: see?" And he showed where +his ruler intersected the wide-lying labyrinth of the Dangerous +Archipelago. "I wish it was night, and I could put her about right now; +we're losing time and easting. Well, we'll do our best. And if we don't +fetch Peru, we'll bring up to Ecuador. All one, I guess. Depreciated +dollars down, and no questions asked. A remarkable fine institootion, +the South American don." + +Tahiti was already some way astern, the Diadem rising from among broken +mountains--Eimeo was already close aboard, and stood black and strange +against the golden splendour of the west--when the captain took his +departure from the two islands, and the patent log was set. + +Some twenty minutes later, Sally Day, who was continually leaving the +wheel to peer in at the cabin clock, announced in a shrill cry "Fo' +bell," and the cook was to be seen carrying the soup into the cabin. + +"I guess I'll sit down and have a pick with you," said Davis to Herrick. +"By the time I've done it'll be dark, and we'll clap the hooker on the +wind for South America." + +In the cabin at one corner of the table, immediately below the lamp, and +on the lee side of a bottle of champagne, sat Huish. + +"What's this? Where did that come from?" asked the captain. + +"It's fizz, and it came from the after-'old, if you want to know," said +Huish, and drained his mug. + +"This'll never do," exclaimed Davis, the merchant seaman's horror of +breaking into cargo showing incongruously forth on board that stolen +ship. "There was never any good came of games like that." + +"You byby!" said Huish. "A fellow would think (to 'ear him) we were on +the square! And look 'ere, you've put this job up 'ansomely for me, +'aven't you? I'm to go on deck and steer, while you two sit and guzzle, +and I'm to go by a nickname, and got to call you 'sir' and 'mister.' +Well, you look here, my bloke: I'll have fizz _ad lib._, or it won't +wash. I tell you that. And you know mighty well, you ain't got any +man-of-war to signal now." + +Davis was staggered. "I'd give fifty dollars this had never happened," +he said weakly. + +"Well, it _'as_ 'appened, you see," returned Huish. "Try some; it's +devilish good." + +The Rubicon was crossed without another struggle. The captain filled a +mug and drank. + +"I wish it was beer," he said with a sigh. "But there's no denying it's +the genuine stuff and cheap at the money. Now, Huish, you clear out and +take your wheel." + +The little wretch had gained a point, and he was gay. "Ay, ay, sir," +said he, and left the others to their meal. + +"Pea-soup!" exclaimed the captain. "Blamed if I thought I should taste +pea-soup again!" + +Herrick sat inert and silent. It was impossible after these months of +hopeless want to smell the rough, high-spiced sea victuals without lust, +and his mouth watered with desire of the champagne. It was no less +impossible to have assisted at the scene between Huish and the captain, +and not to perceive, with sudden bluntness, the gulf where he had +fallen. He was a thief among thieves. He said it to himself. He could +not touch the soup. If he had moved at all, it must have been to leave +the table, throw himself overboard, and drown--an honest man. + +"Here," said the captain, "you look sick, old man; have a drop of this." + +The champagne creamed and bubbled in the mug; its bright colour, its +lively effervescence, seized his eye. "It is too late to hesitate," he +thought; his hand took the mug instinctively; he drank, with +unquenchable pleasure and desire of more; drained the vessel dry, and +set it down with sparkling eyes. + +"There is something in life after all!" he cried. "I had forgot what it +was like. Yes, even this is worth while. Wine, food, dry clothes--why, +they're worth dying, worth hanging for! Captain, tell me one thing: why +aren't all the poor folk foot-pads?" + +"Give it up," said the captain. + +"They must be damned good," cried Herrick. "There's something here +beyond me. Think of that calaboose! Suppose we were sent suddenly back." +He shuddered as stung by a convulsion, and buried his face in his +clutching hands. + +"Here, what's wrong with you?" cried the captain. There was no reply; +only Herrick's shoulders heaved, so that the table was shaken. "Take +some more of this. Here, drink this. I order you to. Don't start crying +when you're out of the wood." + +"I'm not crying," said Herrick, raising his face and showing his dry +eyes. "It's worse than crying. It's the horror of that grave that we've +escaped from." + +"Come now, you tackle your soup; that'll fix you," said Davis kindly. "I +told you you were all broken up. You couldn't have stood out another +week." + +"That's the dreadful part of it!" cried Herrick. "Another week and I'd +have murdered some one for a dollar! God! and I know that? And I'm still +living? It's some beastly dream." + +"Quietly, quietly! Quietly does it, my son. Take your pea-soup. Food, +that's what you want," said Davis. + +The soup strengthened and quieted Herrick's nerves; another glass of +wine, and a piece of pickled pork and fried banana completed what the +soup began; and he was able once more to look the captain in the face. + +"I didn't know I was so much run down," he said. + +"Well," said Davis, "you were as steady as a rock all day: now you've +had a little lunch, you'll be as steady as a rock again." + +"Yes," was the reply, "I'm steady enough now, but I'm a queer kind of a +first officer." + +"Shucks!" cried the captain. "You've only got to mind the ship's course, +and keep your slate to half a point. A babby could do that, let alone a +college graduate like you. There ain't nothing _to_ sailoring, when you +come to look it in the face. And now we'll go and put her about. Bring +the slate; we'll have to start our dead reckoning right away." + +The distance run since the departure was read off the log by the +binnacle light and entered on the slate. + +"Ready about," said the captain. "Give me the wheel, White Man, and you +stand by the mainsheet. Boom tackle, Mr. Hay, please, and then you can +jump forward and attend head sails." + +"Ay, ay, sir," responded Herrick. + +"All clear forward?" asked Davis. + +"All clear, sir." + +"Hard a-lee!" cried the captain. "Haul in your slack as she comes," he +called to Huish. "Haul in your slack, put your back into it; keep your +feet out of the coils." A sudden blow sent Huish flat along the deck, +and the captain was in his place. "Pick yourself up and keep the wheel +hard over!" he roared. "You wooden fool, you wanted to get killed, I +guess. Draw the jib," he cried a moment later; and then to Huish, "Give +me the wheel again, and see if you can coil that sheet." + +But Huish stood and looked at Davis with an evil countenance. "Do you +know you struck me?" said he. + +"Do you know I saved your life?" returned the other, not deigning to +look at him, his eyes travelling instead between the compass and the +sails. "Where would you have been if that boom had swung out and you +bundled in the slack? No, _sir_, we'll have no more of you at the +mainsheet. Seaport towns are full of mainsheet-men; they hop upon one +leg, my son, what's left of them, and the rest are dead. (Set your boom +tackle, Mr. Hay.) Struck you, did I? Lucky for you I did." + +"Well," said Huish slowly, "I dessay there may be somethink in that. +'Ope there is." He turned his back elaborately on the captain, and +entered the house, where the speedy explosion of a champagne cork showed +he was attending to his comfort. + +Herrick came aft to the captain. "How is she doing now?" he asked. + +"East and by no'the a half no'the," said Davis. "It's about as good as I +expected." + +"What'll the hands think of it?" said Herrick. + +"O, they don't think. They ain't paid to," says the captain. + +"There was something wrong, was there not? between you and--" Herrick +paused. + +"That's a nasty little beast; that's a biter," replied the captain, +shaking his head. "But so long as you and me hang in, it don't matter." + +Herrick lay down in the weather alleyway; the night was cloudless, the +movement of the ship cradled him, he was oppressed besides by the first +generous meal after so long a time of famine; and he was recalled from +deep sleep by the voice of Davis singing out: "Eight bells!" + +He rose stupidly and staggered aft, where the captain gave him the +wheel. + +"By the wind," said the captain. "It comes a little puffy; when you get +a heavy puff, steal all you can to windward, but keep her a good full." + +He stepped towards the house, paused and hailed the forecastle. + +"Got such a thing as a concertina forward?" said he. "Bully for you, +Uncle Ned. Fetch it aft, will you?" + +The schooner steered very easy; and Herrick, watching the moon-whitened +sails, was overpowered by drowsiness. A sharp report from the cabin +startled him; a third bottle had been opened; and Herrick remembered the +_Sea Ranger_ and Fourteen Island Group. Presently the notes of the +accordion sounded, and then the captain's voice: + + "O honey, with our pockets full of money, + We will trip, trip, trip, we will trip it on the quay, + And I will dance with Kate, and Tom will dance with Sall, + When we're all back from South Amerikee." + +So it went to its quaint air; and the watch below lingered and listened +by the forward door, and Uncle Ned was to be seen in the moonlight +nodding time; and Herrick smiled at the wheel, his anxieties a while +forgotten. Song followed song; another cork exploded; there were voices +raised, as though the pair in the cabin were in disagreement: and +presently it seemed the breach was healed; for it was now the voice of +Huish that struck up, to the captain's accompaniment:-- + + "Up in a balloon, boys, + Up in a balloon, + All among the little stars + And round about the moon." + +A wave of nausea overcame Herrick at the wheel. He wondered why the air, +the words (which were yet written with a certain knack), and the voice +and accent of the singer, should all jar his spirit like a file on a +man's teeth. He sickened at the thought of his two comrades drinking +away their reason upon stolen wine, quarrelling and hiccupping and +waking up, while the doors of a prison yawned for them in the near +future. "Shall I have sold my honour for nothing?" he thought; and a +heat of rage and resolution glowed in his bosom--rage against his +comrades--resolution to carry through this business if it might be +carried; pluck profit out of shame, since the shame at least was now +inevitable; and come home, home from South America--how did the song +go?--"with his pockets full of money." + + "O honey, with our pockets full of money, + We will trip, trip, trip, we will trip it on the quay": + +so the words ran in his head; and the honey took on visible form, the +quay rose before him and he knew it for the lamp-lit Embankment, and he +saw the lights of Battersea bridge bestride the sullen river. All +through the remainder of his trick he stood entranced, reviewing the +past. He had been always true to his love, but not always sedulous to +recall her. In the growing calamity of his life, she had swum more +distant, like the moon in mist. The letter of farewell, the +dishonourable hope that had surprised and corrupted him in his distress, +the changed scene, the sea, the night and the music--all stirred him to +the roots of manhood. "I _will_ win her," he thought, and ground his +teeth. "Fair or foul, what matters if I win her?" + +"Fo' bell, matey. I think um fo' bell"--he was suddenly recalled by +these words in the voice of Uncle Ned. + +"Look in at the clock, Uncle," said he. He would not look himself, from +horror of the tipplers. + +"Him past, matey," repeated the Hawaiian. + +"So much the better for you, Uncle," he replied; and he gave up the +wheel, repeating the directions as he had received them. + +He took two steps forward and remembered his dead reckoning. "How has +she been heading?" he thought; and he flushed from head to foot. He had +not observed or had forgotten; here was the old incompetence; the slate +must be filled up by guess. "Never again!" he vowed to himself in silent +fury, "never again. It shall be no fault of mine if this miscarry." And +for the remainder of his watch he stood close by Uncle Ned, and read the +face of the compass as perhaps he had never read a letter from his +sweetheart. + +All the time, and spurring him to the more attention, song, loud talk, +fleering laughter, and the occasional popping of a cork, reached his +ears from the interior of the house; and when the port watch was +relieved at midnight, Huish and the captain appeared upon the +quarter-deck with flushed faces and uneven steps, the former laden with +bottles, the latter with two tin mugs. Herrick silently passed them by. +They hailed him in thick voices, he made no answer; they cursed him for +a churl, he paid no heed although his belly quivered with disgust and +rage. He closed-to the door of the house behind him, and cast himself on +a locker in the cabin--not to sleep, he thought--rather to think and to +despair. Yet he had scarce turned twice on his uneasy bed, before a +drunken voice hailed him in the ear, and he must go on deck again to +stand the morning watch. + +The first evening set the model for those that were to follow. Two cases +of champagne scarce lasted the four-and-twenty hours, and almost the +whole was drunk by Huish and the captain. Huish seemed to thrive on the +excess; he was never sober, yet never wholly tipsy; the food and the sea +air had soon healed him of his disease, and he began to lay on flesh. +But with Davis things went worse. In the drooping, unbuttoned figure +that sprawled all day upon the lockers, tippling and reading novels; in +the fool who made of the evening watch a public carouse on the +quarter-deck, it would have been hard to recognise the vigorous seaman +of Papeete roads. He kept himself reasonably well in hand till he had +taken the sun and yawned and blotted through his calculations; but from +the moment he rolled up the chart, his hours were passed in slavish +self-indulgence or in hoggish slumber. Every other branch of his duty +was neglected, except maintaining a stern discipline about the +dinner-table. Again and again Herrick would hear the cook called aft, +and see him running with fresh tins, or carrying away again a meal that +had been totally condemned. And the more the captain became sunk in +drunkenness, the more delicate his palate showed itself. Once, in the +forenoon, he had a bo'sun's chair rigged over the rail, stripped to his +trousers, and went overboard with a pot of paint. "I don't like the way +this schooner's painted," said he, "and I've taken a down upon her +name." But he tired of it in half an hour, and the schooner went on her +way with an incongruous patch of colour on the stern, and the word +_Farallone_ part obliterated and part looking through. He refused to +stand either the middle or morning watch. It was fine-weather sailing, +he said; and asked, with a laugh, "Who ever heard of the old man +standing watch himself?" To the dead reckoning which Herrick still tried +to keep, he would pay not the least attention nor afford the least +assistance. + +"What do we want of dead reckoning?" he asked. "We get the sun all +right, don't we?" + +"We mayn't get it always, though," objected Herrick. "And you told me +yourself you weren't sure of the chronometer." + +"O, there ain't no flies in the chronometer!" cried Davis. + +"Oblige me so far, captain," said Herrick stiffly. "I am anxious to keep +this reckoning, which is a part of my duty; I do not know what to allow +for current, nor how to allow for it. I am too inexperienced; and I beg +of you to help me." + +"Never discourage zealous officer," said the captain, unrolling the +chart again, for Herrick had taken him over his day's work, and while +he was still partly sober. "Here it is: look for yourself; anything from +west to west no'thewest, and anyways from five to twenty-five miles. +That's what the A'm'ralty chart says; I guess you don't expect to get on +ahead of your own Britishers?" + +"I am trying to do my duty, Captain Brown," said Herrick, with a dark +flush, "and I have the honour to inform you that I don't enjoy being +trifled with." + +"What in thunder do you want?" roared Davis. "Go and look at the blamed +wake. If you're trying to do your duty, why don't you go and do it? I +guess it's no business of mine to go and stick my head over the ship's +rump? I guess it's yours. And I'll tell you what it is, my fine fellow, +I'll trouble you not to come the dude over me. You're insolent, that's +what's wrong with you. Don't you crowd me, Mr. Herrick, Esquire." + +Herrick tore up his papers, threw them on the floor, and left the cabin. + +"He's turned a bloomin' swot, ain't he?" sneered Huish. + +"He thinks himself too good for his company, that's what ails Herrick, +Esquire," raged the captain. "He thinks I don't understand when he comes +the heavy swell. Won't sit down with us, won't he? won't say a civil +word? I'll serve the son of a gun as he deserves. By God, Huish, I'll +show him whether he's too good for John Davis!" + +"Easy with the names, cap'," said Huish, who was always the more sober. +"Easy over the stones, my boy!" + +"All right, I will. You're a good sort, Huish. I didn't take to you at +first, but I guess you're right enough. Let's open another bottle," said +the captain; and that day, perhaps because he was excited by the +quarrel, he drank more recklessly, and by four o'clock was stretched +insensible upon the locker. + +Herrick and Huish supped alone, one after the other, opposite his +flushed and snorting body. And if the sight killed Herrick's hunger, +the isolation weighed so heavily on the clerk's spirit that he was +scarce risen from table ere he was currying favour with his former +comrade. + +Herrick was at the wheel when he approached, and Huish leaned +confidentially across the binnacle. + +"I say, old chappie," he said, "you and me don't seem to be such pals +somehow." + +Herrick gave her a spoke or two in silence; his eye, as it skirted from +the needle to the luff of the foresail, passed the man by without +speculation. But Huish was really dull, a thing he could support with +difficulty, having no resources of his own. The idea of a private talk +with Herrick, at this stage of their relations, held out particular +inducements to a person of his character. Drink besides, as it renders +some men hyper-sensitive, made Huish callous. And it would almost have +required a blow to make him quit his purpose. + +"Pretty business, ain't it?" he continued; "Dyvis on the lush? Must say +I thought you gave it 'im A1 to-day. He didn't like it a bit; took on +hawful after you were gone.--' 'Ere,' says I, ''old on, easy on the +lush,' I says. ''Errick was right and you know it. Give 'im a chanst,' I +says.--' 'Uish,' sezee, 'don't you gimme no more of your jaw, or I'll +knock your bloomin' eyes out.' Well, wot can I do, 'Errick? But I tell +you, I don't 'arf like it. It looks to me like the _Sea Rynger_ over +again." + +Still Herrick was silent. + +"Do you 'ear me speak?" asked Huish sharply. "You're pleasant, ain't +you?" + +"Stand away from that binnacle," said Herrick. + +The clerk looked at him long and straight and black; his figure seemed +to writhe like that of a snake about to strike; then he turned on his +heel, went back to the cabin and opened a bottle of champagne. When +eight bells were cried he slept on the floor beside the captain on the +locker; and of the whole starboard watch only Sally Day appeared upon +the summons. The mate proposed to stand the watch with him, and let +Uncle Ned lie down; it would make twelve hours on deck, and probably +sixteen, but in this fair-weather sailing he might safely sleep between +his tricks of wheel, leaving orders to be called on any sign of squalls. +So far he could trust the men, between whom and himself a close relation +had sprung up. With Uncle Ned he held long nocturnal conversations, and +the old man told him his simple and hard story of exile, suffering, and +injustice among cruel whites. The cook, when he found Herrick messed +alone, produced for him unexpected and sometimes unpalatable dainties, +of which he forced himself to eat. And one day, when he was forward, he +was surprised to feel a caressing hand run down his shoulder, and to +hear the voice of Sally Day crooning in his ear: "You gootch man!" He +turned, and, choking down a sob, shook hands with the negrito. They were +kindly, cheery, childish souls. Upon the Sunday each brought forth his +separate Bible--for they were all men of alien speech, even to each +other, and Sally Day communicated with his mates in English only; each +read or made-believe to read his chapter, Uncle Ned with spectacles on +his nose; and they would all join together in the singing of missionary +hymns. It was thus a cutting reproof to compare the islanders and the +whites aboard the _Farallone_. Shame ran in Herrick's blood to remember +what employment he was on, and to see these poor souls--and even Sally +Day, the child of cannibals, in all likelihood a cannibal himself--so +faithful to what they knew of good. The fact that he was held in +grateful favour by these innocents served like blinders to his +conscience, and there were times when he was inclined, with Sally Day, +to call himself a good man. But the height of his favour was only now to +appear. With one voice, the crew protested; ere Herrick knew what they +were doing, the cook was aroused and came a willing volunteer; all hands +clustered about their mate with expostulations and caresses; and he was +bidden to lie down and take his customary rest without alarm. + +"He tell you tlue," said Uncle Ned. "You sleep. Evely man hea he do all +light. Evely man he like you too much." + +Herrick struggled, and gave way; choked upon some trivial words of +gratitude; and walked to the side of the house, against which he leaned, +struggling with emotion. + +Uncle Ned presently followed him and begged him to lie down. + +"It's no use, Uncle Ned," he replied. "I couldn't sleep. I'm knocked +over with all your goodness." + +"Ah, no call me Uncle Ned no mo'!" cried the old man. "No my name! My +name Taveeta, all-e-same Taveeta King of Islael. Wat for he call that +Hawaii? I think no savvy nothing--all-e-same Wise-a-mana." + +It was the first time the name of the late captain had been mentioned, +and Herrick grasped the occasion. The reader shall be spared Uncle Ned's +unwieldy dialect, and learn in less embarrassing English the sum of what +he now communicated. The ship had scarce cleared the Golden Gates before +the captain and mate had entered on a career of drunkenness, which was +scarcely interrupted by their malady and only closed by death. For days +and weeks they had encountered neither land nor ship; and seeing +themselves lost on the huge deep with their insane conductors, the +natives had drunk deep of terror. + +At length they made a low island and went in; and Wiseman and Wishart +landed in the boat. + +There was a great village, a very fine village, and plenty Kanakas in +that place; but all mighty serious; and from every here and there in the +back parts of the settlement, Taveeta heard the sounds of island +lamentation. "I no savvy _talk_ that island," said he. "I savvy hear um +_cly_. I think, Hum! too many people die here!" But upon Wiseman and +Wishart the significance of that barbaric keening was lost. Full of +bread and drink, they rollicked along unconcerned, embraced the girls, +who had scarce energy to repel them, took up and joined (with drunken +voices) in the death-wail, and at last (on what they took to be an +invitation) entered under the roof of a house in which was a +considerable concourse of people sitting silent. They stooped below the +eaves, flushed and laughing; within a minute they came forth again with +changed faces and silent tongues; and as the press severed to make way +for them, Taveeta was able to perceive, in the deep shadow of the house, +the sick man raising from his mat a head already defeatured by disease. +The two tragic triflers fled without hesitation for their boat, +screaming on Taveeta to make haste; they came aboard with all speed of +oars, raised anchor and crowded sail upon the ship with blows and +curses, and were at sea again--and again drunk--before sunset. A week +after, and the last of the two had been committed to the deep. Herrick +asked Taveeta where that island was, and he replied that, by what he +gathered of folks' talk as they went up together from the beach, he +supposed it must be one of the Paumotus. This was in itself probable +enough, for the Dangerous Archipelago had been swept that year from east +to west by devastating small-pox; but Herrick thought it a strange +course to lie from Sydney. Then he remembered the drink. + +"Were they not surprised when they made the island?" he asked. + +"Wise-a-mana he say, 'damn! what this?'" was the reply. + +"O, that's it, then," said Herrick. "I don't believe they knew where +they were." + +"I think so too," said Uncle Ned. "I think no savvy. This one mo' +betta," he added, pointing to the house, where the drunken captain +slumbered: "Take-a-sun all-e-time." + +The implied last touch completed Herrick's picture of the life and death +of his two predecessors; of their prolonged, sordid, sodden sensuality +as they sailed, they knew not whither, on their last cruise. He held but +a twinkling and unsure belief in any future state; the thought of one of +punishment he derided; yet for him (as for all) there dwelt a horror +about the end of the brutish man. Sickness fell upon him at the image +thus called up; and when he compared it with the scene in which he +himself was acting, and considered the doom that seemed to brood upon +the schooner, a horror that was almost superstitious fell upon him. And +yet the strange thing was, he did not falter. He who had proved his +incapacity in so many fields, being now falsely placed amid duties which +he did not understand, without help, and it might be said without +countenance, had hitherto surpassed expectation; and even the shameful +misconduct and shocking disclosures of that night seemed but to nerve +and strengthen him. He had sold his honour; he vowed it should not be in +vain; "it shall be no fault of mine if this miscarry," he repeated. And +in his heart he wondered at himself. Living rage no doubt supported him; +no doubt also, the sense of the last cast, of the ships burned, of all +doors closed but one, which is so strong a tonic to the merely weak, and +so deadly a depressent to the merely cowardly. + +For some time the voyage went otherwise well. They weathered Fakarava +with one board; and the wind holding well to the southward, and blowing +fresh, they passed between Ranaka and Ratiu, and ran some days +north-east by east-half-east under the lee of Takume and Honden, neither +of which they made. In about 14° south, and between 134° and 135° west, +it fell a dead calm, with rather a heavy sea. The captain refused to +take in sail, the helm was lashed, no watch was set, and the _Farallone_ +rolled and banged for three days, according to observation, in almost +the same place. The fourth morning, a little before day, a breeze sprang +up and rapidly freshened. The captain had drunk hard the night before; +he was far from sober when he was roused; and when he came on deck for +the first time at half-past eight, it was plain he had already drunk +deep again at breakfast. Herrick avoided his eye; and resigned the deck +with indignation to a man more than half-seas-over. + +By the loud commands of the captain and the singing out of fellows at +the ropes, he could judge from the house that sail was being crowded on +the ship; relinquished his half-eaten breakfast; and came on deck +again, to find the main and the jib topsails set, and both watches and +the cook turned out to hand the staysail. The _Farallone_ lay already +far over; the sky was obscured with misty scud; and from the windward an +ominous squall came flying up, broadening and blackening as it rose. + +Fear thrilled in Herrick's vitals. He saw death hard by; and if not +death, sure ruin. For if the _Farallone_ lived through the coming +squall, she must surely be dismasted. With that their enterprise was at +an end, and they themselves bound prisoners to the very evidence of +their crime. The greatness of the peril and his own alarm sufficed to +silence him. Pride, wrath, and shame raged without issue in his mind; +and he shut his teeth and folded his arms close. + +The captain sat in the boat to windward, bellowing orders and insults, +his eyes glazed, his face deeply congested; a bottle set between his +knees, a glass in his hand half empty. His back was to the squall, and +he was at first intent upon the setting of the sail. When that was done, +and the great trapezium of canvas had begun to draw and to trail the +lee-rail of the _Farallone_ level with the foam, he laughed out an empty +laugh, drained his glass, sprawled back among the lumber in the boat, +and fetched out a crumpled novel. + +Herrick watched him, and his indignation glowed red-hot. He glanced to +windward where the squall already whitened the near sea and heralded its +coming with a singular and dismal sound. He glanced at the steersman, +and saw him clinging to the spokes with a face of a sickly blue. He saw +the crew were running to their stations without orders. And it seemed as +if something broke in his brain; and the passion of anger, so long +restrained, so long eaten in secret, burst suddenly loose and shook him +like a sail. He stepped across to the captain, and smote his hand +heavily on the drunkard's shoulder. + +"You brute," he said, in a voice that tottered, "look behind you!" + +"Wha's that?" cried Davis, bounding in the boat and upsetting the +champagne. + +"You lost the _Sea Ranger_ because you were a drunken sot," said +Herrick. "Now you're going to lose the _Farallone_. You're going to +drown here the same way as you drowned others, and be damned. And your +daughter shall walk the streets, and your sons be thieves like their +father." + +For the moment the words struck the captain white and foolish. "My God!" +he cried, looking at Herrick as upon a ghost; "my God, Herrick!" + +"Look behind you, then!" reiterated the assailant. + +The wretched man, already partly sobered, did as he was told, and in the +same breath of time leaped to his feet. "Down staysail!" he trumpeted. +The hands were thrilling for the order, and the great sail came with a +run, and fell half overboard among the racing foam. "Jib top-sail +halyards! Let the stays'l be," he said again. + +But before it was well uttered, the squall shouted aloud and fell, in a +solid mass of wind and rain commingled, on the _Farallone_; and she +stooped under the blow, and lay like a thing dead. From the mind of +Herrick reason fled; he clung in the weather rigging, exulting; he was +done with life, and he gloried in the release; he gloried in the wild +noises of the wind and the choking onslaught of the rain; he gloried to +die so, and now, amid this coil of the elements. And meanwhile, in the +waist, up to his knees in water--so low the schooner lay--the captain +was hacking at the fore-sheet with a pocket-knife. It was a question of +seconds, for the _Farallone_ drank deep of the encroaching seas. But the +hand of the captain had the advance; the foresail boom tore apart the +last strands of the sheet and crashed to lee-ward; the _Farallone_ +leaped up into the wind and righted; and the peak and throat halyards, +which had long been let go, began to run at the same instant. + +For some ten minutes more she careered under the impulse of the squall; +but the captain was now master of himself and of his ship, and all +danger at an end. And then, sudden as a trick-change upon the stage, +the squall blew by, the wind dropped into light airs, the sun beamed +forth again upon the tattered schooner; and the captain, having secured +the foresail boom and set a couple of hands to the pump, walked aft, +sober, a little pale, and with the sodden end of a cigar still stuck +between his teeth even as the squall had found it. Herrick followed him; +he could scarce recall the violence of his late emotions, but he felt +there was a scene to go through, and he was anxious and even eager to go +through with it. + +The captain, turning at the house-end, met him face to face, and averted +his eyes. "We've lost the two tops'ls, and the stays'l," he gabbled. +"Good business we didn't lose any sticks. I guess you think we're all +the better without the kites." + +"That's not what I'm thinking," said Herrick, in a voice strangely +quiet, that yet echoed confusion in the captain's mind. + +"I know that," he cried, holding up his hand. "I know what you're +thinking. No use to say it now. I'm sober." + +"I have to say it, though," returned Herrick. + +"Hold on, Herrick; you've said enough," said Davis. "You've said what I +would take from no man breathing but yourself; only I know it's true." + +"I have to tell you, Captain Brown," pursued Herrick, "that I resign my +position as mate. You can put me in irons or shoot me, as you please; I +will make no resistance--only, I decline in any way to help or to obey +you; and I suggest you should put Mr. Huish in my place. He will make a +worthy first officer to your captain, sir." He smiled, bowed, and turned +to walk forward. + +"Where are you going, Herrick?" cried the captain, detaining him by the +shoulder. + +"To berth forward with the men, sir," replied Herrick, with the same +hateful smile. "I've been long enough aft here with you--gentlemen." + +"You're wrong there," said Davis. "Don't you be too quick with me; +there ain't nothing wrong but the drink--it's the old story, man! Let me +get sober once and then you'll see," he pleaded. + +"Excuse me, I desire to see no more of you," said Herrick. + +The captain groaned aloud. "You know what you said about my children?" +he broke out. + +"By rote. In case you wish me to say it to you again?" asked Herrick. + +"Don't!" cried the captain clapping his hands to his ears. "Don't make +me kill a man I care for! Herrick, if you see me put a glass to my lips +again till we're ashore, I give you leave to put a bullet through me; I +beg you to do it! You're the only man aboard whose carcase is worth +losing; do you think I don't know that? do you think I ever went back on +you? I always knew you were in the right of it--drunk or sober, I knew +that. What do you want?--an oath? Man, you're clever enough to see that +this is sure-enough earnest." + +"Do you mean there shall be no more drinking?" asked Herrick, "neither +by you nor Huish? that you won't go on stealing my profits and drinking +my champagne that I gave my honour for? and that you'll attend to your +duties, and stand watch and watch, and bear your proper share of the +ship's work, instead of leaving it all on the shoulders of a landsman, +and making yourself the butt and scoff of native seamen? Is that what +you mean? If it is, be so good as to say it categorically." + +"You put these things in a way hard for a gentleman to swallow," said +the captain. "You wouldn't have me say I was ashamed of myself? Trust me +this once; I'll do the square thing, and there's my hand on it." + +"Well, I'll try it once," said Herrick. "Fail me again...." + +"No more now!" interrupted Davis. "No more, old man! Enough said. You've +a riling tongue when your back's up, Herrick. Just be glad we're friends +again, the same as what I am; and go tender on the raws; I'll see as +you don't repent it. We've been mighty near death this day--don't say +whose fault it was!--pretty near hell, too, I guess. We're in a mighty +bad line of life, us two, and ought to go easy with each other." + +He was maundering; yet it seemed as if he were maundering with some +design, beating about the bush of some communication that he feared to +make, or perhaps only talking against time in terror of what Herrick +might say next. But Herrick had now spat his venom; his was a kindly +nature, and, content with his triumph, he had now begun to pity. With a +few soothing words he sought to conclude the interview, and proposed +that they should change their clothes. + +"Not right yet," said Davis. "There's another thing I want to tell you +first. You know what you said about my children? I want to tell you why +it hit me so hard; I kind of think you'll feel bad about it too. It's +about my little Adar. You hadn't ought to have quite said that--but of +course I know you didn't know. She--she's dead, you see." + +"Why, Davis!" cried Herrick. "You've told me a dozen times she was +alive! Clear your head, man! This must be the drink." + +"No, _sir_," said Davis. "She's dead. Died of a bowel complaint. That +was when I was away in the brig _Oregon_. She lies in Portland, Maine. +'Adar, only daughter of Captain John Davis and Mariar his wife, aged +five.' I had a doll for her on board. I never took the paper off'n that +doll, Herrick; it went down the way it was with the _Sea Ranger_, that +day I was damned." + +The captain's eyes were fixed on the horizon; he talked with an +extraordinary softness, but a complete composure; and Herrick looked +upon him with something that was almost terror. + +"Don't think I'm crazy neither," resumed Davis. "I've all the cold sense +that I know what to do with. But I guess a man that's unhappy's like a +child; and this is a kind of a child's game of mine. I never could act +up to the plain-cut truth, you see; so I pretend. And I warn you square; +as soon as we're through with this talk, I'll start in again with the +pretending. Only, you see, she can't walk no streets," added the +captain, "couldn't even make out to live and get that doll!" + +Herrick laid a tremulous hand upon the captain's shoulder. + +"Don't do that!" cried Davis, recoiling from the touch. "Can't you see +I'm all broken up the way it is? Come along, then; come along, old man; +you can put your trust in me right through; come along and get dry +clothes." + +They entered the cabin, and there was Huish on his knees prizing open a +case of champagne. + +"'Vast there!" cried the captain. "No more of that. No more drinking on +this ship." + +"Turned teetotal, 'ave you?" inquired Huish. "I'm agreeable. About time, +eh? Bloomin' nearly lost another ship, I fancy." He took out a bottle +and began calmly to burst the wire with the spike of a corkscrew. + +"Do you hear me speak?" cried Davis. + +"I suppose I do. You speak loud enough," said Huish. "The trouble is +that I don't care." + +Herrick plucked the captain's sleeve. "Let him free now," he said. +"We've had all we want this morning." + +"Let him have it, then," said the captain. "It's his last." + +By this time the wire was open, the string was cut, the head of gilded +paper was torn away; and Huish waited, mug in hand, expecting the usual +explosion. It did not follow. He eased the cork with his thumb; still +there was no result. At last he took the screw and drew it. It came out +very easy and with scarce a sound. + +"'Illo!" said Huish. "'Ere's a bad bottle." + +He poured some of the wine into the mug; it was colourless and still. He +smelt and tasted it. + +"W'y, wot's this?" he said. "It's water!" + +If the voice of trumpets had suddenly sounded about the ship in the +midst of the sea, the three men in the house could scarcely have been +more stunned than by this incident. The mug passed round; each sipped, +each smelt of it; each stared at the bottle in its glory of gold paper +as Crusoe may have stared at the footprint; and their minds were swift +to fix upon a common apprehension. The difference between a bottle of +champagne and a bottle of water is not great; between a shipload of one +or of the other lay the whole scale from riches to ruin. + +A second bottle was broached. There were two cases standing ready in a +state-room; these two were brought out, broken open, and tested. Still +with the same result: the contents were still colourless and tasteless, +and dead as the rain in a beached fishing-boat. + +"Crikey!" said Huish. + +"Here, let's sample the hold," said the captain, mopping his brow with a +back-handed sweep; and the three stalked out of the house, grim and +heavy-footed. + +All hands were turned out; two Kanakas were sent below, another +stationed at a purchase; and Davis, axe in hand, took his place beside +the coamings. + +"Are you going to let the men know?" whispered Herrick. + +"Damn the men!" said Davis. "It's beyond that. We've got to know +ourselves." + +Three cases were sent on deck and sampled in turn; from each bottle, as +the captain smashed it with the axe, the champagne ran bubbling and +creaming. + +"Go deeper, can't you?" cried Davis to the Kanakas in the hold. + +The command gave the signal for a disastrous change. Case after case +came up, bottle after bottle was burst, and bled mere water. Deeper yet, +and they came upon a layer where there was scarcely so much as the +intention to deceive; where the cases were no longer branded, the +bottles no longer wired or papered, where the fraud was manifest and +stared them in the face. + +"Here's about enough of this foolery!" said Davis. "Stow back the cases +in the hold, Uncle, and get the broken crockery overboard. Come with +me," he added to his co-adventurers, and led the way back into the +cabin. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PARTNERS + + +Each took a side of the fixed table; it was the first time they had sat +down at it together; but now all sense of incongruity, all memory of +differences, was quite swept away by the presence of the common ruin. + +"Gentlemen," said the captain, after a pause, and with very much the air +of a chairman opening a board meeting, "we're sold." + +Huish broke out in laughter. "Well, if this ain't the 'ighest old rig!" +he cried. "And Dyvis 'ere, who thought he had got up so bloomin' early +in the mornin'! We've stolen a cargo of spring water! O, my crikey!" and +he squirmed with mirth. + +The captain managed to screw out a phantom smile. + +"Here's Old Man Destiny again," said he to Herrick, "but this time I +guess he's kicked the door right in." + +Herrick only shook his head. + +"O Lord, it's rich!" laughed Huish. "It would really be a scrumptious +lark if it 'ad 'appened to somebody else! And what are we to do next? O, +my eye! with this bloomin' schooner, too?" + +"That's the trouble," said Davis. "There's only one thing certain: it's +no use carting this old glass and ballast to Peru. No, _sir_, we're in a +hole." + +"O my, and the merchant!" cried Huish; "the man that made this shipment! +He'll get the news by the mail brigantine; and he'll think of course +we're making straight for Sydney." + +"Yes, he'll be a sick merchant," said the captain. "One thing: this +explains the Kanaka crew. If you're going to lose a ship, I would ask no +better myself than a Kanaka crew. But there's one thing it don't +explain; it don't explain why she came down Tahitiways." + +"W'y, to lose her, you byby!" said Huish. + +"A lot you know," said the captain. "Nobody wants to lose a schooner; +they want to lose her _on her course_, you skeericks! You seem to think +underwriters haven't got enough sense to come in out of the rain." + +"Well," said Herrick, "I can tell you (I am afraid) why she came so far +to the eastward. I had it of Uncle Ned. It seems these two unhappy +devils, Wiseman and Wishart, were drunk on the champagne from the +beginning--and died drunk at the end." + +The captain looked on the table. + +"They lay in their two bunks, or sat here in this damned house," he +pursued, with rising agitation, "filling their skins with the accursed +stuff, till sickness took them. As they sickened and the fever rose, +they drank the more. They lay here howling and groaning, drunk and +dying, all in one. They didn't know where they were; they didn't care. +They didn't even take the sun, it seems." + +"Not take the sun?" cried the captain, looking up. "Sacred Billy! what a +crowd!" + +"Well, it don't matter to Joe!" said Huish. "Wot are Wiseman and t'other +buffer to us?" + +"A good deal, too," said the captain. "We're their heirs, I guess." + +"It is a great inheritance," said Herrick. + +"Well, I don't know about that," returned Davis. "Appears to me as if it +might be worse. 'Tain't worth what the cargo would have been, of course, +at least not money down. But I'll tell you what it appears to figure up +to. Appears to me as if it amounted to about the bottom dollar of the +man in 'Frisco." + +"'Old on," said Huish. "Give a fellow time; 'ow's this, umpire?" + +"Well, my sons," pursued the captain, who seemed to have recovered his +assurance, "Wiseman and Wishart were to be paid for casting away this +old schooner and its cargo. We're going to cast away the schooner right +enough; and I'll make it my private business to see that we get paid. +What were W. and W. to get? That's more'n I can tell. But W. and W. went +into this business themselves, they were on the crook. Now _we're_ on +the square, _we_ only stumbled into it; and that merchant has just got +to squeal, and I'm the man to see that he squeals good. No, _sir_! +there's some stuffing to this _Farallone_ racket after all." + +"Go it, cap'!" cried Huish. "Yoicks! Forrard! 'Old 'ard! There's your +style for the money! Blow me if I don't prefer this to the hother." + +"I do not understand," said Herrick. "I have to ask you to excuse me; I +do not understand." + +"Well, now, see here, Herrick," said Davis. "I'm going to have a word +with you anyway upon a different matter, and it's good that Huish should +hear it too. We're done with this boozing business, and we ask your +pardon for it right here and now. We have to thank you for all you did +for us while we were making hogs of ourselves; you'll find me turn-to +all right in future; and as for the wine, which I grant we stole from +you, I'll take stock and see you paid for it. That's good enough, I +believe. But what I want to point out to you is this. The old game was a +risky game. The new game's as safe as running a Vienna bakery. We just +put this _Farallone_ before the wind, and run till we're well to looard +of our port of departure, and reasonably well up with some other place +where they have an American consul. Down goes the _Farallone_, and +good-bye to her! A day or so in the boat; the consul packs us home, at +Uncle Sam's expense, to 'Frisco; and if that merchant don't put the +dollars down, you come to me!" + +"But I thought--" began Herrick; and then broke out: "O, let's get on to +Peru!" + +"Well, if you're going to Peru for your health, I won't say no!" +replied the captain. "But for what other blame shadow of a reason you +should want to go there gets me clear. We don't want to go there with +this cargo; I don't know as old bottles is a lively article anywheres; +leastways, I'll go my bottom cent, it ain't Peru. It was always a doubt +if we could sell the schooner; I never rightly hoped to, and now I'm +sure she ain't worth a hill of beans; what's wrong with her I don't +know; I only know it's something, or she wouldn't be here with this +truck in her inside. Then again, if we lose her, and land in Peru, where +are we? We can't declare the loss, or how did we get to Peru? In that +case the merchant can't touch the insurance; most likely he'll go bust; +and don't you think you see the three of us on the beach of Callao?" + +"There's no extradition there," said Herrick. + +"Well, my son, and we want to be extraded," said the captain. "What's +our point? We want to have a consul extrade us as far as San Francisco +and that merchant's office door. My idea is that Samoa would be found an +eligible business centre. It's dead before the wind; the States have a +consul there, and 'Frisco steamers call, so's we could skip right back +and interview the merchant." + +"Samoa?" said Herrick. "It will take us for ever to get there." + +"O, with a fair wind!" said the captain. + +"No trouble about the log, eh?" asked Huish. + +"No, _sir_," said Davis. "_Light airs and baffling winds. Squalls and +calms. D.R.: five miles. No obs. Pumps attended._ And fill in the +barometer and thermometer off of last year's trip. 'Never saw such a +voyage,' says you to the consul. 'Thought I was going to run short...'" +He stopped in mid career. "'Say," he began again, and once more stopped. +"Beg your pardon, Herrick," he added with undisguised humility, "but did +you keep the run of the stores?" + +"Had I been told to do so it should have been done, as the rest was +done, to the best of my little ability," said Herrick. "As it was, the +cook helped himself to what he pleased." + +Davis looked at the table. + +"I drew it rather fine, you see," he said at last. "The great thing was +to clear right out of Papeete before the consul could think better of +it. Tell you what: I guess I'll take stock." + +And he rose from the table and disappeared with a lamp in the lazarette. + +"'Ere's another screw loose," observed Huish. + +"My man," said Herrick, with a sudden gleam of animosity, "it is still +your watch on deck, and surely your wheel also?" + +"You come the 'eavy swell, don't you, ducky?" said Huish. "Stand away +from that binnacle. Surely your w'eel, my man. Yah." + +He lit a cigar ostentatiously, and strolled into the waist with his +hands in his pockets. + +In a surprisingly short time the captain reappeared; he did not look at +Herrick, but called Huish back and sat down. + +"Well," he began, "I've taken stock--roughly." He paused as if for +somebody to help him out; and none doing so, both gazing on him instead +with manifest anxiety, he yet more heavily resumed: "Well, it won't +fight. We can't do it; that's the bed-rock. I'm as sorry as what you can +be, and sorrier. But the game's up. We can't look near Samoa. I don't +know as we could get to Peru." + +"Wot-ju mean?" asked Huish brutally. + +"I can't 'most tell myself," replied the captain. "I drew it fine; I +said I did; but what's been going on here gets me! Appears as if the +devil had been around. That cook must be the holiest kind of fraud. Only +twelve days too! Seems like craziness. I'll own up square to one thing: +I seem to have figured too fine upon the flour. But the rest--my land! +I'll never understand it! There's been more waste on this twopenny ship +than what there is to an Atlantic Liner." He stole a glance at his +companions: nothing good was to be gleaned from their dark faces; and he +had recourse to rage. "You wait till I interview that cook!" he roared, +and smote the table with his fist. "I'll interview the son of a gun so's +he's never been spoken to before. I'll put a bead upon the--!" + +"You will not lay a finger on the man," said Herrick. "The fault is +yours, and you know it. If you turn a savage loose in your storeroom, +you know what to expect. I will not allow the man to be molested." + +It is hard to say how Davis might have taken this defiance; but he was +diverted to a fresh assailant. + +"Well," drawled Huish, "you're a plummy captain, ain't you? You're a +blooming captain! Don't you set up any of your chat to me, John Dyvis: I +know you now; you ain't any more use than a blooming dawl! O, you 'don't +know,' don't you? O, it 'gets you,' do it? O, I dessay! W'y, weren't you +'owling for fresh tins every blessed day? 'Ow often 'ave I 'eard you +send the 'ole bloomin' dinner off and tell the man to chuck it in the +swill-tub? And breakfast? O, my crikey! breakfast for ten, and you +'ollerin' for more! And now you 'can't 'most tell'! Blow me if it ain't +enough to make a man write an insultin' letter to Gawd! You dror it +mild, John Dyvis: don't 'andle me; I'm dyngerous." + +Davis sat like one bemused; it might even have been doubted if he heard, +but the voice of the clerk rang about the cabin like that of a cormorant +among the ledges of the cliff. + +"That will do, Huish," said Herrick. + +"O, so you tyke his part, do you? you stuck-up, sneerin' snob. Tyke it +then. Come on, the pair of you. But as for John Dyvis, let him look out! +He struck me the first night aboard, and I never took a blow yet but wot +I gave as good. Let him knuckle down on his marrow-bones and beg my +pardon. That's my last word." + +"I stand by the captain," said Herrick. "That makes us two to one, both +good men; and the crew will all follow me. I hope I shall die very soon; +but I have not the least objection to killing you before I go. I should +prefer it so; I should do it with no more remorse than winking. Take +care--take care--you little cad!" + +The animosity with which these words were uttered was so marked in +itself, and so remarkable in the man who uttered them, that Huish +stared, and even the humiliated Davis reared up his head and gazed at +his defender. As for Herrick, the successive agitations and +disappointments of the day had left him wholly reckless; he was +conscious of a pleasant glow, an agreeable excitement; his head seemed +empty, his eyeballs burned as he turned them, his throat was dry as a +biscuit; the least dangerous man by nature, except in so far as the weak +are always dangerous, at that moment he was ready to slay or to be slain +with equal unconcern. + +Here at least was the gage thrown down, and battle offered; he who +should speak next would bring the matter to an issue there and then; all +knew it to be so and hung back; and for many seconds by the cabin clock +the trio sat motionless and silent. + +Then came an interruption, welcome as the flowers in May. + +"Land ho!" sang out a voice on deck. "Land a weatha bow!" + +"Land!" cried Davis, springing to his feet. "What's this? There ain't no +land here." + +And as men may run from the chamber of a murdered corpse, the three ran +forth out of the house and left their quarrel behind them undecided. + +The sky shaded down at the sea-level to the white of opals; the sea +itself, insolently, inkily blue, drew all about them the uncompromising +wheel of the horizon. Search it as they pleased, not even the practised +eye of Captain Davis could descry the smallest interruption. A few filmy +clouds were slowly melting overhead; and about the schooner, as around +the only point of interest, a tropic bird, white as a snow-flake, hung, +and circled, and displayed, as it turned, the long vermilion feather of +its tail. Save the sea and the heaven, that was all. + +"Who sang out land?" asked Davis. "If there's any boy playing funny-dog +with me, I'll teach him skylarking!" + +But Uncle Ned contentedly pointed to a part of the horizon where a +greenish, filmy iridescence could be discerned floating like smoke on +the pale heavens. + +Davis applied his glass to it, and then looked at the Kanaka. "Call that +land?" said he. "Well, it's more than I do." + +"One time long ago," said Uncle Ned, "I see Anaa all-e-same that, four +five hours befo' we come up. Capena he say sun go down, sun go up again; +he say lagoon all-e-same milla." + +"All-e-same _what_?" asked Davis. + +"Milla, sah," said Uncle Ned. + +"O, ah! mirror," said Davis. "I see; reflection from the lagoon. Well, +you know, it is just possible, though it's strange I never heard of it. +Here, let's look at the chart." + +They went back to the cabin, and found the position of the schooner well +to windward of the archipelago in the midst of a white field of paper. + +"There! you see for yourselves," said Davis. + +"And yet I don't know," said Herrick; "I somehow think there's something +in it. I'll tell you one thing too, captain: that's all right about the +reflection; I heard it in Papeete." + +"Fetch up that Findlay, then!" said Davis. "I'll try it all ways. An +island wouldn't come amiss the way we're fixed." + +The bulky volume was handed up to him, broken-backed as is the way with +Findlay; and he turned to the place and began to run over the text, +muttering to himself and turning over the pages with a wetted finger. + +"Hullo!" he exclaimed. "How's this?" And he read aloud: "'_New Island_. +According to M. Delille this island, which from private interests would +remain unknown, lies, it is said, in lat. 12° 49' 10'' S., long. 133° 6' +W. In addition to the position above given, Commander Matthews, H.M.S. +_Scorpion_, states that an island exists in lat. 12° 0' S., long. 133° +16' W. This must be the same, if such an island exists, which is very +doubtful, and totally disbelieved in by South Sea traders.'" + +"Golly!" said Huish. + +"It's rather in the conditional mood," said Herrick. + +"It's anything you please," cried Davis, "only there it is! That's our +place, and don't you make any mistake." + +"'Which from private interests would remain unknown,'" read Herrick, +over his shoulder. "What may that mean?" + +"It should mean pearls," said Davis. "A pearling island the Government +don't know about. That sounds like real estate. Or suppose it don't mean +anything. Suppose it's just an island; I guess we could fill up with +fish, and cocoa-nuts, and native stuff, and carry out the Samoa scheme +hand over fist. How long did he say it was before they raised Anaa? Five +hours, I think?" + +"Four or five," said Herrick. + +Davis stepped to the door. "What breeze had you that time you made Anaa, +Uncle Ned?" said he. + +"Six or seven knots," was the reply. + +"Thirty or thirty-five miles," said Davis. "High time we were shortening +sail, then. If it is an island, we don't want to be butting our head +against it in the dark; and if it isn't an island, we can get through it +just as well by daylight. Ready about!" he roared. + +And the schooner's head was laid for that elusive glimmer in the sky, +which began already to pale in lustre and diminish in size, as the stain +of breath vanishes from a window pane. At the same time she was reefed +close down. + + + + +PART II + +THE QUARTETTE + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE PEARL-FISHER + + +About four in the morning, as the captain and Herrick sat together on +the rail, there arose from the midst of the night in front of them the +voice of breakers. Each sprang to his feet and stared and listened. The +sound was continuous, like the passing of a train; no rise or fall could +be distinguished; minute by minute the ocean heaved with an equal +potency against the invisible isle; and as time passed, and Herrick +waited in vain for any vicissitude in the volume of that roaring, a +sense of the eternal weighed upon his mind. To the expert eye the isle +itself was to be inferred from a certain string of blots along the +starry heaven. And the schooner was laid to and anxiously observed till +daylight. + +There was little or no morning bank. A brightening came in the east; +then a wash of some ineffable, faint, nameless hue between crimson and +silver; and then coals of fire. These glimmered a while on the sea-line, +and seemed to brighten and darken and spread out, and still the night +and the stars reigned undisturbed; it was as though a spark should catch +and glow and creep along the foot of some heavy and almost incombustible +wall-hanging, and the room itself be scarce menaced. Yet a little after, +and the whole east glowed with gold and scarlet, and the hollow of +heaven was filled with the daylight. + +The isle--the undiscovered, the scarce-believed in--now lay before them +and close aboard; and Herrick thought that never in his dreams had he +beheld anything more strange and delicate. The beach was excellently +white, the continuous barrier of trees inimitably green; the land +perhaps ten feet high, the trees thirty more. Every here and there, as +the schooner coasted northward, the wood was intermitted; and he could +see clear over the inconsiderable strip of land (as a man looks over a +wall) to the lagoon within--and clear over that again to where the far +side of the atoll prolonged its pencilling of trees against the morning +sky. He tortured himself to find analogies. The isle was like the rim of +a great vessel sunken in the waters; it was like the embankment of an +annular railway grown upon with wood: so slender it seemed amidst the +outrageous breakers, so frail and pretty, he would scarce have wondered +to see it sink and disappear without a sound, and the waves close +smoothly over its descent. + +Meanwhile the captain was in the four cross-trees, glass in hand, his +eyes in every quarter, spying for an entrance, spying for signs of +tenancy. But the isle continued to unfold itself in joints, and to run +out in indeterminate capes, and still there was neither house nor man, +nor the smoke of fire. Here a multitude of sea-birds soared and +twinkled, and fished in the blue waters; and there, and for miles +together, the fringe of coco-palm and pandanus extended desolate, and +made desirable green bowers for nobody to visit, and the silence of +death was only broken by the throbbing of the sea. + +The airs were very light, their speed was small; the heat intense. The +decks were scorching underfoot, the sun flamed overhead, brazen, out of +a brazen sky; the pitch bubbled in the seams, and the brains in the +brain-pan. And all the while the excitement of the three adventurers +glowed about their bones like a fever. They whispered, and nodded, and +pointed, and put mouth to ear, with a singular instinct of secrecy, +approaching that island underhand like eavesdroppers and thieves; and +even Davis from the cross-trees gave his orders mostly by gestures. The +hands shared in this mute strain, like dogs, without comprehending it; +and through the roar of so many miles of breakers, it was a silent ship +that approached an empty island. + +At last they drew near to the break in that interminable gangway. A spur +of coral sand stood forth on the one hand; on the other a high and thick +tuft of trees cut off the view; between was the mouth of the huge laver. +Twice a day the ocean crowded in that narrow entrance and was heaped +between these frail walls; twice a day, with the return of the ebb, the +mighty surplusage of water must struggle to escape. The hour in which +the _Farallone_ came there was the hour of the flood. The sea turned (as +with the instinct of the homing pigeon) for the vast receptacle, swept +eddying through the gates, was transmuted, as it did so, into a wonder +of watery and silken hues, and brimmed into the inland sea beyond. The +schooner looked up close-hauled, and was caught and carried away by the +influx like a toy. She skimmed; she flew; a momentary shadow touched her +decks from the shoreside trees; the bottom of the channel showed up for +a moment and was in a moment gone; the next, she floated on the bosom of +the lagoon, and below, in the transparent chamber of waters, a myriad of +many-coloured fishes were sporting, a myriad pale flowers of coral +diversified the floor. + +Herrick stood transported. In the gratified lust of his eye he forgot +the past and the present; forgot that he was menaced by a prison on the +one hand and starvation on the other; forgot that he was come to that +island, desperately foraging, clutching at expedients. A drove of +fishes, painted like the rainbow and billed like parrots, hovered up in +the shadow of the schooner, and passed clear of it, and glinted in the +submarine sun. They were beautiful, like birds, and their silent passage +impressed him like a strain of song. + +Meanwhile, to the eye of Davis in the cross-trees, the lagoon continued +to expand its empty waters, and the long succession of the shoreside +trees to be paid out like fishing-line off a reel. And still there was +no mark of habitation. The schooner, immediately on entering, had been +kept away to the nor'ard where the water seemed to be the most deep; and +she was now skimming past the tall grove of trees, which stood on that +side of the channel and denied further view. Of the whole of the low +shores of the island only this bight remained to be revealed. And +suddenly the curtain was raised; they began to open out a haven, snugly +elbowed there, and beheld, with an astonishment beyond words, the roofs +of men. + +The appearance, thus "instantaneously disclosed" to those on the deck of +the _Farallone_, was not that of a city, rather of a substantial country +farm with its attendant hamlet: a long line of sheds and store-houses; +apart, upon the one side, a deep-verandah'd dwelling-house; on the +other, perhaps a dozen native huts; a building with a belfry and some +rude offer at architectural features that might be thought to mark it +out for a chapel; on the beach in front some heavy boats drawn up, and a +pile of timber running forth into the burning shallows of the lagoon. +From a flagstaff at the pierhead the red ensign of England was +displayed. Behind, about, and over, the same tall grove of palms, which +had masked the settlement in the beginning, prolonged its roof of +tumultuous green fans, and turned and ruffled overhead, and sang its +silver song all day in the wind. The place had the indescribable but +unmistakable appearance of being in commission; yet there breathed from +it a sense of desertion that was almost poignant, no human figure was to +be observed going to and fro about the houses, and there was no sound of +human industry or enjoyment. Only, on the top of the beach, and hard by +the flagstaff, a woman of exorbitant stature and as white as snow was to +be seen beckoning with uplifted arm. The second glance identified her as +a piece of naval sculpture, the flgure-head of a ship that had long +hovered and plunged into so many running billows, and was now brought +ashore to be the ensign and presiding genius of that empty town. + +The _Farallone_ made a soldier's breeze of it; the wind, besides, was +stronger inside than without under the lee of the land; and the stolen +schooner opened out successive objects with the swiftness of a panorama, +so that the adventurers stood speechless. The flag spoke for itself; it +was no frayed and weathered trophy that had beaten itself to pieces on +the post, flying over desolation; and to make assurance stronger, there +was to be descried in the deep shade of the verandah a glitter of +crystal and the fluttering of white napery. If the figure-head at the +pier-end, with its perpetual gesture and its leprous whiteness, reigned +alone in that hamlet as it seemed to do, it would not have reigned long. +Men's hands had been busy, men's feet stirring there, within the circuit +of the clock. The _Farallones_ were sure of it; their eyes dug in the +deep shadow of the palms for some one hiding; if intensity of looking +might have prevailed, they would have pierced the walls of houses; and +there came to them, in these pregnant seconds, a sense of being watched +and played with, and of a blow impending, that was hardly bearable. + +The extreme point of palms they had just passed enclosed a creek, which +was thus hidden up to the last moment from the eyes of those on board; +and from this a boat put suddenly and briskly out, and a voice hailed. + +"Schooner ahoy!" it cried. "Stand in for the pier! In two cables' +lengths you'll have twenty fathoms water and good holding-ground." + +The boat was manned with a couple of brown oarsmen in scanty kilts of +blue. The speaker, who was steering, wore white clothes, the full dress +of the tropics; a wide hat shaded his face; but it could be seen that he +was of stalwart size, and his voice sounded like a gentleman's. So much +could be made out. It was plain, besides, that the _Farallone_ had been +descried some time before at sea, and the inhabitants were prepared for +its reception. + +Mechanically the orders were obeyed, and the ship berthed; and the three +adventurers gathered aft beside the house and waited, with galloping +pulses and a perfect vacancy of mind, the coming of the stranger who +might mean so much to them. They had no plan, no story prepared; there +was no time to make one; they were caught red-handed and must stand +their chance. Yet this anxiety was chequered with hope. The island being +undeclared, it was not possible the man could hold any office or be in a +position to demand their papers. And beyond that, if there was any truth +in Findlay, as it now seemed there should be, he was the representative +of the "private reasons," he must see their coming with a profound +disappointment; and perhaps (hope whispered) he would be willing and +able to purchase their silence. + +The boat was by that time forging alongside, and they were able at last +to see what manner of man they had to do with. He was a huge fellow, six +feet four in height, and of a build proportionately strong, but his +sinews seemed to be dissolved in a listlessness that was more than +languor. It was only the eye that corrected this impression; an eye of +an unusual mingled brilliancy and softness, sombre as coal and with +lights that outshone the topaz; an eye of unimpaired health and +virility; an eye that bid you beware of the man's devastating anger. A +complexion, naturally dark, had been tanned in the island to a hue +hardly distinguishable from that of a Tahitian; only his manners and +movements, and the living force that dwelt in him, like fire in flint, +betrayed the European. He was dressed in white drill, exquisitely made; +his scarf and tie were of tender-coloured silks; on the thwart beside +him there leaned a Winchester rifle. + +"Is the doctor on board?" he cried as he came up. "Dr. Symonds, I mean? +You never heard of him? Nor yet of the _Trinity Hall_? Ah!" + +He did not look surprised, seemed rather to affect it in politeness; but +his eye rested on each of the three white men in succession with a +sudden weight of curiosity that was almost savage. "Ah, _then_!" said +he, "there is some small mistake, no doubt, and I must ask you to what +I am indebted for this pleasure?" + +He was by this time on the deck, but he had the art to be quite +unapproachable; the friendliest vulgarian, three parts drunk, would have +known better than take liberties; and not one of the adventurers so much +as offered to shake hands. + +"Well," said Davis, "I suppose you may call it an accident. We had heard +of your island, and read that thing in the Directory about the _private +reasons_, you see; so when we saw the lagoon reflected in the sky, we +put her head for it at once, and so here we are." + +"'Ope we don't intrude!" said Huish. + +The stranger looked at Huish with an air of faint surprise, and looked +pointedly away again. It was hard to be more offensive in dumb show. + +"It may suit me, your coming here," he said. "My own schooner is +overdue, and I may put something in your way in the meantime. Are you +open to a charter?" + +"Well, I guess so," said Davis; "it depends." + +"My name is Attwater," continued the stranger. "You, I presume, are the +captain?" + +"Yes, sir. I am the captain of this ship: Captain Brown," was the reply. + +"Well, see 'ere!" said Huish; "better begin fair! 'E's skipper on deck +right enough, but not below. Below, we're all equal, all got a lay in +the adventure; when it comes to business I'm as good as 'e; and what I +say is, let's go into the 'ouse and have a lush, and talk it over among +pals. We've some prime fizz," he said, and winked. + +The presence of the gentleman lighted up like a candle the vulgarity of +the clerk; and Herrick instinctively, as one shields himself from pain, +made haste to interrupt. + +"My name is Hay," said he, "since introductions are going. We shall be +very glad if you will step inside." + +Attwater leaned to him swiftly. "University man?" said he. + +"Yes, Merton," said Herrick, and the next moment blushed scarlet at his +indiscretion. + +"I am of the other lot," said Attwater: "Trinity Hall, Cambridge. I +called my schooner after the old shop. Well! this is a queer place and +company for us to meet in, Mr. Hay," he pursued, with easy incivility to +the others. "But do you bear out ... I beg this gentleman's pardon, I +really did not catch his name." + +"My name is 'Uish, sir," returned the clerk, and blushed in turn. + +"Ah!" said Attwater. And then turning again to Herrick, "Do you bear out +Mr. Whish's description of your vintage? or was it only the unaffected +poetry of his own nature bubbling up?" + +Herrick was embarrassed; the silken brutality of their visitor made him +blush; that he should be accepted as an equal, and the others thus +pointedly ignored, pleased him in spite of himself, and then ran through +his veins in a recoil of anger. + +"I don't know," he said. "It's only California; it's good enough, I +believe." + +Attwater seemed to make up his mind. "Well, then, I'll tell you what: +you three gentlemen come ashore this evening and bring a basket of wine +with you; I'll try and find the food," he said. "And by the by, here is +a question I should have asked you when I came on board: have you had +small-pox?" + +"Personally, no," said Herrick. "But the schooner had it." + +"Deaths?" from Attwater. + +"Two," said Herrick. + +"Well, it is a dreadful sickness," said Attwater. + +"'Ad you any deaths?" asked Huish, "'ere on the island?" + +"Twenty-nine," said Attwater. "Twenty-nine deaths and thirty-one cases, +out of thirty-three souls upon the island.--That's a strange way to +calculate, Mr. Hay, is it not? Souls! I never say it but it startles +me." + +"O, so that's why everything's deserted?" said Huish. + +"That is why, Mr. Whish," said Attwater; "that is why the house is empty +and the graveyard full." + +"Twenty-nine out of thirty-three!" exclaimed Herrick. "Why, when it came +to burying--or did you bother burying?" + +"Scarcely," said Attwater; "or there was one day at least when we gave +up. There were five of the dead that morning, and thirteen of the dying, +and no one able to go about except the sexton and myself. We held a +council of war, took the ... empty bottles ... into the lagoon, and ... +buried them." He looked over his shoulder, back at the bright water. +"Well, so you'll come to dinner, then? Shall we say half-past six? So +good of you!" + +His voice, in uttering these conventional phrases, fell at once into the +false measure of society; and Herrick unconsciously followed the +example. + +"I am sure we shall be very glad," he said. "At half-past six? Thank you +so very much." + + "'For my voice has been tuned to the note of the gun + That startles the deep when the combat's begun,'" + +quoted Attwater, with a smile, which instantly gave way to an air of +funereal solemnity. "I shall particularly expect Mr. Whish," he +continued.--"Mr. Whish, I trust you understand the invitation?" + +"I believe you, my boy!" replied the genial Huish. + +"That is right, then; and quite understood, is it not?" said Attwater. +"Mr. Whish and Captain Brown at six-thirty without fault--and you, Hay, +at four sharp." + +And he called his boat. + +During all this talk a load of thought or anxiety had weighed upon the +captain. There was no part for which nature had so liberally endowed him +as that of the genial ship-captain. But to-day he was silent and +abstracted. Those who knew him could see that he hearkened close to +every syllable, and seemed to ponder and try it in balances. It would +have been hard to say what look there was, cold, attentive, and +sinister, as of a man maturing plans, which still brooded over the +unconscious guest; it was here, it was there, it was nowhere; it was now +so little that Herrick chid himself for an idle fancy; and anon it was +so gross and palpable that you could say every hair on the man's head +talked mischief. + +He woke up now, as with a start. "You were talking of a charter," said +he. + +"Was I?" said Attwater. "Well, let's talk of it no more at present." + +"Your own schooner is overdue, I understand?" continued the captain. + +"You understand perfectly, Captain Brown," said Attwater; "thirty-three +days overdue at noon to-day." + +"She comes and goes, eh? plies between here and ...?" hinted the +captain. + +"Exactly; every four months; three trips in the year," said Attwater. + +"You go in her ever?" asked Davis. + +"No; one stops here," said Attwater; "one has plenty to attend to." + +"Stop here, do you?" cried Davis. "Say, how long?" + +"How long, O Lord," said Attwater, with perfect, stern gravity. "But it +does not seem so," he added, with a smile. + +"No, I daresay not," said Davis. "No, I suppose not. Not with all your +gods about you, and in as snug a berth as this. For it is a pretty snug +berth," said he, with a sweeping look. + +"The spot, as you are good enough to indicate, is not entirely +intolerable," was the reply. + +"Shell, I suppose?" said Davis. + +"Yes, there was shell," said Attwater. + +"This is a considerable big beast of a lagoon, sir," said the captain. +"Was there a--was the fishing--would you call the fishing anyways +_good_?" + +"I don't know that I would call it anyways anything," said Attwater, "if +you put it to me direct." + +"There were pearls, too?" said Davis. + +"Pearls too," said Attwater. + +"Well, I give out!" laughed Davis, and his laughter rang cracked like a +false piece. "If you're not going to tell, you're not going to tell, and +there's an end to it." + +"There can be no reason why I should affect the least degree of secrecy +about my island," returned Attwater; "that came wholly to an end with +your arrival; and I am sure, at any rate, that gentlemen like you and +Mr. Whish I should have always been charmed to make perfectly at home. +The point on which we are now differing--if you can call it a +difference--is one of times and seasons. I have some information which +you think I might impart, and I think not. Well, we'll see to-night! +By-by, Whish!" He stepped into his boat and shoved off. "All understood, +then?" said he. "The captain and Mr. Whish at six-thirty, and you, Hay, +at four precise. You understand that, Hay? Mind, I take no denial. If +you're not there by the time named, there will be no banquet; no song, +no supper, Mr. Whish!" + +White birds whisked in the air above, a shoal of parti-coloured fishes +in the scarce denser medium below; between, like Mahomet's coffin, the +boat drew away briskly on the surface, and its shadow followed it over +the glittering floor of the lagoon. Attwater looked steadily back over +his shoulders as he sat; he did not once remove his eyes from the +_Farallone_ and the group on her quarter-deck beside the house, till his +boat ground upon the pier. Thence, with an agile pace, he hurried +ashore, and they saw his white clothes shining in the chequered dusk of +the grove until the house received him. + +The captain, with a gesture and a speaking countenance, called the +adventurers into the cabin. + +"Well," he said to Herrick, when they were seated, "there's one good job +at least. He's taken to you in earnest." + +"Why should that be a good job?" said Herrick. + +"O, you'll see how it pans out presently," returned Davis. "You go +ashore and stand in with him, that's all! You'll get lots of pointers; +you can find out what he has, and what the charter is, and who's the +fourth man--for there's four of them, and we're only three." + +"And suppose I do, what next?" cried Herrick. "Answer me that!" + +"So I will, Robert Herrick," said the captain. "But first, let's see all +clear. I guess you know," he said, with imperious solemnity, "I guess +you know the bottom is out of this _Farallone_ speculation? I guess you +know it's _right_ out? and if this old island hadn't been turned up +right when it did, I guess you know where you and I and Huish would have +been?" + +"Yes, I know that," said Herrick. "No matter who's to blame, I know it. +And what next?" + +"No matter who's to blame, you know it, right enough," said the captain, +"and I'm obliged to you for the reminder. Now, here's this Attwater: +what do you think of him?" + +"I do not know," said Herrick. "I am attracted and repelled. He was +insufferably rude to you." + +"And you, Huish?" said the captain. + +Huish sat cleaning a favourite briar-root; he scarce looked up from that +engrossing task. "Don't ast me what I think of him!" he said. "There's a +day comin', I pray Gawd, when I can tell it him myself." + +"Huish means the same as what I do," said Davis. "When that man came +stepping around, and saying, 'Look here, I'm Attwater'--and you knew it +was so, by God!--I sized him right straight up. He's the real article, I +said, and I don't like it; here's the real, first-rate, copper-bottomed +aristocrat. '_Aw! don't know ye, do I? God damn ye, did God make ye?_' +No, that couldn't be nothing but genuine; a man's got to be born to +that; and notice! smart as champagne and hard as nails; no kind of a +fool; no, _sir_! not a pound of him! Well, what's he here upon this +beastly island for? I said. _He's_ not here collecting eggs. He's a +palace at home, and powdered flunkeys; and if he don't stay there, you +bet he knows the reason why! Follow?" + +"O yes, I 'ear you," said Huish. + +"He's been doing good business here, then," continued the captain. "For +ten years he's been doing a great business. It's pearl and shell, of +course; there couldn't be nothing else in such a place, and no doubt the +shell goes off regularly by this _Trinity Hall_, and the money for it +straight into the bank, so that's no use to us. But what else is there? +Is there nothing else he would be likely to keep here? Is there nothing +else he would be bound to keep here? Yes, sir; the pearls! First, +because they're too valuable to trust out of his hands. Second, because +pearls want a lot of handling and matching; and the man who sells his +pearls as they come in one here, one there, instead of hanging back and +holding up--well, that man's a fool, and it's not Attwater." + +"Likely," said Huish, "that's w'at it is; not proved, but likely." + +"It's proved," said Davis bluntly. + +"Suppose it was?" said Herrick. "Suppose that was all so, and he had +these pearls--a ten years' collection of them?--Suppose he had? There's +my question." + +The captain drummed with his thick hands on the board in front of him; +he looked steadily in Herrick's face, and Herrick as steadily looked +upon the table and the pattering fingers; there was a gentle oscillation +of the anchored ship, and a big patch of sunlight travelled to and fro +between the one and the other. + +"Hear me!" Herrick burst out suddenly. + +"No, you better hear me first," said Davis. "Hear me and understand me. +We've got no use for that fellow, whatever you may have. He's your kind, +he's not ours; he's took to you, and he's wiped his boots on me and +Huish. Save him if you can!" + +"Save him?" repeated Herrick. + +"Save him, if you're able!" reiterated Davis, with a blow of his +clenched fist. "Go ashore, and talk him smooth; and if you get him and +his pearls aboard, I'll spare him. If you don't, there's going to be a +funeral. Is that so, Huish? does that suit you?" + +"I ain't a forgiving man," said Huish, "but I'm not the sort to spoil +business neither. Bring the bloke on board and bring his pearls along +with him, and you can have it your own way; maroon him where you +like,--I'm agreeable." + +"Well, and if I can't?" cried Herrick, while the sweat streamed upon his +face. "You talk to me as if I was God Almighty, to do this and that! But +if I can't?" + +"My son," said the captain, "you better do your level best, or you'll +see sights!" + +"O yes," said Huish. "O crikey, yes!" He looked across at Herrick with a +toothless smile that was shocking in its savagery; and, his ear caught +apparently by the trivial expression he had used, broke into a piece of +the chorus of a comic song which he must have heard twenty years before +in London: meaningless gibberish that, in that hour and place, seemed +hateful as a blasphemy: "Hikey, pikey, crikey, fikey, chillingawallaba +dory." + +The captain suffered him to finish; his face was unchanged. + +"The way things are, there's many a man that wouldn't let you go +ashore," he resumed. "But I'm not that kind. I know you'd never go back +on me, Herrick! Or if you choose to,--go, and do it, and be damned!" he +cried, and rose abruptly from the table. + +He walked out of the house; and as he reached the door turned and called +Huish, suddenly and violently, like the barking of a dog. Huish +followed, and Herrick remained alone in the cabin. + +"Now, see here!" whispered Davis. "I know that man. If you open your +mouth to him again, you'll ruin all." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +BETTER ACQUAINTANCE + + +The boat was gone again, and already half-way to the _Farallone_, before +Herrick turned and went unwillingly up the pier. From the crown of the +beach, the figure-head confronted him with what seemed irony, her +helmeted head tossed back, her formidable arm apparently hurling +something, whether shell or missile, in the direction of the anchored +schooner. She seemed a defiant deity from the island, coming forth to +its threshold with a rush as of one about to fly, and perpetuated in +that dashing attitude. Herrick looked up at her, where she towered above +him head and shoulders, with singular feelings of curiosity and romance, +and suffered his mind to travel to and fro in her life-history. So long +she had been the blind conductress of a ship among the waves; so long +she had stood here idle in the violent sun, that yet did not avail to +blister her; and was even this the end of so many adventures? he +wondered, or was more behind? And he could have found it in his heart to +regret that she was not a goddess, nor yet he a pagan, that he might +have bowed down before her in that hour of difficulty. + +When he now went forward, it was cool with the shadow of many well-grown +palms; draughts of the dying breeze swung them together overhead; and on +all sides, with a swiftness beyond dragon-flies or swallows, the spots +of sunshine flitted, and hovered, and returned. Underfoot, the sand was +fairly solid and quite level, and Herrick's steps fell there noiseless +as in new-fallen snow. It bore the marks of having been once weeded like +a garden alley at home; but the pestilence had done its work, and the +weeds were returning. The buildings of the settlement showed here and +there through the stems of the colonnade, fresh painted, trim and dandy, +and all silent as the grave. Only here and there in the crypt, there was +a rustle and scurry and some crowing of poultry; and from behind the +house with the verandahs he saw smoke arise and heard the crackling of a +fire. + +The stone houses were nearest him upon his right. The first was locked; +in the second he could dimly perceive, through a window, a certain +accumulation of pearl-shell piled in the far end; the third, which stood +gaping open on the afternoon, seized on the mind of Herrick with its +multiplicity and disorder of romantic things. Therein were cables, +windlasses, and blocks of every size and capacity; cabin-windows and +ladders; rusty tanks, a companion hutch; a binnacle with its brass +mountings and its compass idly pointing, in the confusion and dusk of +that shed, to a forgotten pole; ropes, anchors, harpoons: a +blubber-dipper of copper, green with years; a steering-wheel, a +tool-chest with the vessel's name upon the top, the _Asia_: a whole +curiosity-shop of sea-curios, gross and solid, heavy to lift, ill to +break, bound with brass and shod with iron. Two wrecks at the least must +have contributed to this random heap of lumber; and as Herrick looked +upon it, it seemed to him as if the two ships' companies were there on +guard, and he heard the tread of feet and whisperings, and saw with the +tail of his eye the commonplace ghosts of sailor men. + +This was not merely the work of an aroused imagination, but had +something sensible to go upon; sounds of a stealthy approach were no +doubt audible; and while he still stood staring at the lumber, the voice +of his host sounded suddenly, and with even more than the customary +softness of enunciation, from behind. + +"Junk," it said, "only old junk! And does Mr. Hay find a parable?" + +"I find at least a strong impression," replied Herrick, turning +quickly, lest he might be able to catch, on the face of the speaker, +some commentary on the words. + +Attwater stood in the doorway, which he almost wholly filled; his hands +stretched above his head and grasping the architrave. He smiled when +their eyes met, but the expression was inscrutable. + +"Yes, a powerful impression. You are like me; nothing so affecting as +ships!" said he. "The ruins of an empire would leave me frigid, when a +bit of an old rail that an old shellback leaned on in the middle watch, +would bring me up all standing. But come, let's see some more of the +island. It's all sand and coral and palm-trees; but there's a kind of a +quaintness in the place." + +"I find it heavenly," said Herrick, breathing deep, with head bared in +the shadow. + +"Ah, that's because you're new from sea," said Attwater. "I daresay, +too, you can appreciate what one calls it. It's a lovely name. It has a +flavour, it has a colour, it has a ring and fall to it; it's like its +author--it's half Christian! Remember your first view of the island, and +how it's only woods and woods and water; and suppose you had asked +somebody for the name, and he had answered--_nemorosa Zacynthos_." + +"_Jam medio apparet fluctu!_" exclaimed Herrick. "Ye gods, yes, how +good!" + +"If it gets upon the chart, the skippers will make nice work of it," +said Attwater. "But here, come and see the diving-shed." + +He opened a door, and Herrick saw a large display of apparatus neatly +ordered: pumps and pipes, and the leaded boots, and the huge snouted +helmets shining in rows along the wall; ten complete outfits. + +"The whole eastern half of my lagoon is shallow, you must understand," +said Attwater; "so we were able to get in the dress to great advantage. +It paid beyond belief, and was a queer sight when they were at it, and +these marine monsters"--tapping the nearest of the helmets--"kept +appearing and reappearing in the midst of the lagoon. Fond of +parables?" he asked abruptly. + +"O yes!" said Herrick. + +"Well, I saw these machines come up dripping and go down again, and come +up dripping and go down again, and all the while the fellow inside as +dry as toast!" said Attwater; "and I thought we all wanted a dress to go +down into the world in, and come up scatheless. What do you think the +name was?" he inquired. + +"Self-conceit," said Herrick. + +"Ah, but I mean seriously!" said Attwater. + +"Call it self-respect, then!" corrected Herrick, with a laugh. + +"And why not Grace? Why not God's Grace, Hay?" asked Attwater. "Why not +the grace of your Maker and Redeemer, He who died for you, He who +upholds you, He whom you daily crucify afresh? There is nothing +here"--striking on his bosom,--"nothing there"--smiting the wall,--"and +nothing there,"--stamping--"nothing but God's Grace! We walk upon it, we +breathe it; we live and die by it; it makes the nails and axles of the +universe; and a puppy in pyjamas prefers self-conceit!" The huge dark +man stood over against Herrick by the line of the divers' helmets, and +seemed to swell and glow; and the next moment the life had gone from +him--"I beg your pardon," said he; "I see you don't believe in God?" + +"Not in your sense, I am afraid," said Herrick. + +"I never argue with young atheists or habitual drunkards," said Attwater +flippantly.--"Let us go across the island to the outer beach." + +It was but a little way, the greatest width of that island scarce +exceeding a furlong, and they walked gently. Herrick was like one in a +dream. He had come there with a mind divided; come prepared to study +that ambiguous and sneering mask, drag out the essential man from +underneath, and act accordingly; decision being till then postponed. +Iron cruelty, an iron insensibility to the suffering of others, the +uncompromising pursuit of his own interests, cold culture, manners +without humanity: these he had looked for, these he still thought he +saw. But to find the whole machine thus glow with the reverberation of +religious zeal surprised him beyond words; and he laboured in vain, as +he walked, to piece together into any kind of whole his odds and ends of +knowledge--to adjust again into any kind of focus with itself his +picture of the man beside him. + +"What brought you here to the South Seas?" he asked presently. + +"Many things," said Attwater. "Youth, curiosity, romance, the love of +the sea, and (it will surprise you to hear) an interest in missions. +That has a good deal declined, which will surprise you less. They go the +wrong way to work; they are too parsonish, too much of the old wife, and +even the old apple-wife. _Clothes_, _clothes_, are their idea; but +clothes are not Christianity, any more than they are the sun in heaven, +or could take the place of it! They think a parsonage with roses, and +church bells, and nice old women bobbing in the lanes, are part and +parcel of religion. But religion is a savage thing, like the universe it +illuminates; savage, cold, and bare, but infinitely strong." + +"And you found this island by an accident?" said Herrick. + +"As you did!" said Attwater. "And since then I have had a business, and +a colony, and a mission of my own. I was a man of the world before I was +a Christian; I'm a man of the world still, and I made my mission pay. No +good ever came of coddling. A man has to stand up in God's sight and +work up to his weight avoirdupois: then I'll talk to him, but not +before. I gave these beggars what they wanted: a judge in Israel, the +bearer of the sword and scourge; I was making a new people here; and +behold, the angel of the Lord smote them and they were not!" + +With the very uttering of the words, which were accompanied by a +gesture, they came forth out of the porch of the palm wood by the margin +of the sea and full in front of the sun, which was near setting. Before +them the surf broke slowly. All around, with an air of imperfect wooden +things inspired with wicked activity, the crabs trundled and scuttled +into holes. On the right, whither Attwater pointed and abruptly turned, +was the cemetery of the island, a field of broken stones from the +bigness of a child's hand to that of his head, diversified by many +mounds of the same material, and walled by a rude rectangular enclosure. +Nothing grew there but a shrub or two with some white flowers; nothing +but the number of the mounds, and their disquieting shape, indicated the +presence of the dead. + + "The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep!" + +quoted Attwater, as he entered by the open gateway into that unholy +close. "Coral to coral, pebbles to pebbles," he said; "this has been the +main scene of my activity in the South Pacific. Some were good, and some +bad, and the majority (of course and always) null. Here was a fellow, +now, that used to frisk like a dog; if you had called him he came like +an arrow from a bow; if you had not, and he came unbidden, you should +have seen the deprecating eye and the little intricate dancing step. +Well, his trouble is over now, he has lain down with kings and +councillors; the rest of his acts, are they not written in the book of +the chronicles? That fellow was from Penrhyn; like all the Penrhyn +islanders he was ill to manage; heady, jealous, violent: the man with +the nose! He lies here quiet enough. And so they all lie. + + 'And darkness was the burier of the dead!'" + +He stood, in the strong glow of the sunset, with bowed head; his voice +sounded now sweet and now bitter with the varying sense. + +"You loved these people?" cried Herrick, strangely touched. + +"I?" said Attwater. "Dear no! Don't think me a philanthropist. I dislike +men, and hate women. If I like the islanders at all, it is because you +see them here plucked of their lendings, their dead birds and cocked +hats, their petticoats and coloured hose. Here was one I liked though," +and he set his foot upon a mound. "He was a fine savage fellow; he had a +dark soul; yes, I liked this one. I am fanciful," he added, looking hard +at Herrick, "and I take fads. I like you." + +Herrick turned swiftly and looked far away to where the clouds were +beginning to troop together and amass themselves round the obsequies of +day. "No one can like me," he said. + +"You are wrong there," said the other, "as a man usually is about +himself. You are attractive, very attractive." + +"It is not me," said Herrick; "no one can like me. If you knew how I +despised myself--and why!" His voice rang out in the quiet graveyard. + +"I knew that you despised yourself," said Attwater. "I saw the blood +come into your face to-day when you remembered Oxford. And I could have +blushed for you myself, to see a man, a gentleman, with these two vulgar +wolves." + +Herrick faced him with a thrill. "Wolves?" he repeated. + +"I said wolves, and vulgar wolves," said Attwater. "Do you know that +to-day, when I came on board, I trembled?" + +"You concealed it well," stammered Herrick. + +"A habit of mine," said Attwater. "But I was afraid, for all that: I was +afraid of the two wolves." He raised his hand slowly. "And now, Hay, you +poor lost puppy, what do you do with the two wolves?" + +"What do I do? I don't do anything," said Herrick. "There is nothing +wrong; all is above-board; Captain Brown is a good soul; he is a ... he +is...." The phantom voice of Davis called in his ear: "There's going to +be a funeral"; and the sweat burst forth and streamed on his brow. "He +is a family man," he resumed again, swallowing; "he has children at home +and a wife." + +"And a very nice man?" said Attwater. "And so is Mr. Whish, no doubt?" + +"I won't go so far as that," said Herrick. "I do not like Huish. And yet +... he has his merits too." + +"And, in short, take them for all in all, as good a ship's company as +one would ask?" said Attwater. + +"O yes," said Herrick, "quite." + +"So then we approach the other point of why you despise yourself?" said +Attwater. + +"Do we not all despise ourselves?" cried Herrick. "Do not you?" + +"Oh, I say I do. But do I?" said Attwater. "One thing I know at least: I +never gave a cry like yours. Hay! it came from a bad conscience! Ah, +man, that poor diving-dress of self-conceit is sadly tattered! To-day, +if ye will hear my voice. To-day, now, while the sun sets, and here in +this burying-place of brown innocents, fall on your knees and cast your +sins and sorrows on the Redeemer. Hay----" + +"Not Hay!" interrupted the other, strangling. "Don't call me that! I +mean.... For God's sake, can't you see I'm on the rack?" + +"I see it, I know it, I put and keep you there; my fingers are on the +screws!" said Attwater. "Please God, I will bring a penitent this night +before His throne. Come, come to the mercy-seat! He waits to be +gracious, man--waits to be gracious!" + +He spread out his arms like a crucifix; his face shone with the +brightness of a seraph's; in his voice, as it rose to the last word, the +tears seemed ready. + +Herrick made a vigorous call upon himself. "Attwater," he said, "you +push me beyond bearing. What am I to do? I do not believe. It is living +truth to you: to me, upon my conscience, only folk-lore. I do not +believe there is any form of words under heaven by which I can lift the +burthen from my shoulders. I must stagger on to the end with the pack of +my responsibility; I cannot shift it; do you suppose I would not if I +thought I could? I cannot--cannot--cannot--and let that suffice." + +The rapture was all gone from Attwater's countenance; the dark apostle +had disappeared; and in his place there stood an easy, sneering +gentleman, who took off his hat and bowed. It was pertly done, and the +blood burned in Herrick's face. + +"What do you mean by that?" he cried. + +"Well, shall we go back to the house?" said Attwater. "Our guests will +soon be due." + +Herrick stood his ground a moment with clenched fists and teeth; and as +he so stood, the fact of his errand there slowly swung clear in front of +him, like the moon out of clouds. He had come to lure that man on board; +he was failing, even if it could be said that he had tried; he was sure +to fail now, and knew it, and knew it was better so. And what was to be +next? + +With a groan he turned to follow his host, who was standing with polite +smile, and instantly and somewhat obsequiously led the way in the now +darkened colonnade of palms. There they went in silence, the earth gave +up richly of her perfume, the air tasted warm and aromatic in the +nostrils; and from a great way forward in the wood, the brightness of +lights and fire marked out the house of Attwater. + +Herrick meanwhile resolved and resisted an immense temptation to go up, +to touch him on the arm and breathe a word in his ear: "Beware, they are +going to murder you." There would be one life saved; but what of the two +others? The three lives went up and down before him like buckets in a +well, or like the scales of balances. It had come to a choice, and one +that must be speedy. For certain invaluable minutes, the wheels of life +ran before him, and he could still divert them with a touch to the one +side or the other, still choose who was to live and who was to die. He +considered the men. Attwater intrigued, puzzled, dazzled, enchanted and +revolted him; alive, he seemed but a doubtful good; and the thought of +him lying dead was so unwelcome that it pursued him, like a vision, with +every circumstance of colour and sound. Incessantly he had before him +the image of that great mass of man stricken down in varying attitudes +and with varying wounds; fallen prone, fallen supine, fallen on his +side; or clinging to a doorpost with the changing face and the relaxing +fingers of the death-agony. He heard the click of the trigger, the thud +of the ball, the cry of the victim; he saw the blood flow. And this +building up of circumstance was like a consecration of the man, till he +seemed to walk in sacrificial fillets. Next he considered Davis, with +his thick-fingered, coarse-grained, oat-bread commonness of nature, his +indomitable valour and mirth in the old days of their starvation, the +endearing blend of his faults and virtues, the sudden shining forth of a +tenderness that lay too deep for tears; his children, Ada and her bowel +complaint, and Ada's doll. No, death could not be suffered to approach +that head even in fancy; with a general heat and a bracing of his +muscles, it was borne in on Herrick that Ada's father would find in him +a son to the death. And even Huish showed a little in that sacredness; +by the tacit adoption of daily life they were become brothers; there was +an implied bond of loyalty in their cohabitation of the ship and their +past miseries; to which Herrick must be a little true or wholly +dishonoured. Horror of sudden death for horror of sudden death, there +was here no hesitation possible: it must be Attwater. And no sooner was +the thought formed (which was a sentence) than his whole mind of man ran +in a panic to the other side: and when he looked within himself, he was +aware only of turbulence and inarticulate outcry. + +In all this there was no thought of Robert Herrick. He had complied with +the ebb-tide in man's affairs, and the tide had carried him away; he +heard already the roaring of the maelstrom that must hurry him under. +And in his bedevilled and dishonoured soul there was no thought of self. + +For how long he walked silent by his companion Herrick had no guess. +The clouds rolled suddenly away; the orgasm was over; he found himself +placid with the placidity of despair; there returned to him the power of +commonplace speech; and he heard with surprise his own voice say: "What +a lovely evening!" + +"Is it not?" said Attwater. "Yes, the evenings here would be very +pleasant if one had anything to do. By day, of course, one can shoot." + +"You shoot?" asked Herrick. + +"Yes, I am what you would call a fine shot," said Attwater. "It is +faith; I believe my balls will go true; if I were to miss once, it would +spoil me for nine months." + +"You never miss, then?" said Herrick. + +"Not unless I mean to," said Attwater. "But to miss nicely is the art. +There was an old king one knew in the western islands, who used to empty +a Winchester all round a man, and stir his hair or nick a rag out of his +clothes with every ball except the last; and that went plump between the +eyes. It was pretty practice." + +"You could do that?" asked Herrick, with a sudden chill. + +"O, I can do anything," returned the other. "You do not understand: what +must be, must." + +They were now come near to the back part of the house. One of the men +was engaged about the cooking-fire, which burned with the clear, fierce, +essential radiance of cocoa-nut shells. A fragrance of strange meats was +in the air. All round in the verandahs lamps were lighted, so that the +place shone abroad in the dusk of the trees with many complicated +patterns of shadow. + +"Come and wash your hands," said Attwater, and led the way into a clean, +matted room with a cot bed, a safe, a shelf or two of books in a glazed +case, and an iron washing-stand. Presently he cried in the native, and +there appeared for a moment in the doorway a plump and pretty young +woman with a clean towel. + +"Hullo!" cried Herrick, who now saw for the first time the fourth +survivor of the pestilence, and was startled by the recollection of the +captain's orders. + +"Yes," said Attwater, "the whole colony lives about the house, what's +left of it. We are all afraid of devils, if you please! and Taniera and +she sleep in the front parlour, and the other boy on the verandah." + +"She is pretty," said Herrick. + +"Too pretty," said Attwater. "That was why I had her married. A man +never knows when he may be inclined to be a fool about women; so when we +were left alone I had the pair of them to the chapel and performed the +ceremony. She made a lot of fuss. I do not take at all the romantic view +of marriage," he explained. + +"And that strikes you as a safeguard?" asked Herrick with amazement. + +"Certainly. I am a plain man and very literal. _Whom God hath joined +together_ are the words, I fancy. So one married them, and respects the +marriage," said Attwater. + +"Ah!" said Herrick. + +"You see, I may look to make an excellent marriage when I go home," +began Attwater confidentially. "I am rich. This safe alone"--laying his +hand upon it--"will be a moderate fortune, when I have the time to place +the pearls upon the market. Here are ten years' accumulation from a +lagoon, where I have had as many as ten divers going all day long; and I +went further than people usually do in these waters, for I rotted a lot +of shell and did splendidly. Would you like to see them?" + +This confirmation of the captain's guess hit Herrick hard, and he +contained himself with difficulty. "No, thank you, I think not," said +he. "I do not care for pearls. I am very indifferent to all these...." + +"Gewgaws?" suggested Attwater. "And yet I believe you ought to cast +an eye on my collection, which is really unique, and which--O! it is +the case with all of us and everything about us!--hangs by a hair. +To-day it groweth up and flourisheth; to-morrow it is cut down and +cast into the oven. To-day it is here and together in this safe; +to-morrow--to-night!--it may be scattered. Thou fool, this night thy +soul shall be required of thee." + +"I do not understand you," said Herrick. + +"Not?" said Attwater. + +"You seem to speak in riddles," said Herrick unsteadily. "I do not +understand what manner of man you are, nor what you are driving at." + +Attwater stood with his hands upon his hips, and his head bent forward. +"I am a fatalist," he replied, "and just now (if you insist on it) an +experimentalist. Talking of which, by the by, who painted out the +schooner's name?" he said, with mocking softness, "because, do you know? +one thinks it should be done again. It can still be partly read; and +whatever is worth doing is surely worth doing well. You think with me? +That is so nice! Well, shall we step on the verandah? I have a dry +sherry that I would like your opinion of." + +Herrick followed him forth to where, under the light of the hanging +lamps, the table shone with napery and crystal; followed him as the +criminal goes with the hangman, or the sheep with the butcher; took the +sherry mechanically, drank it, and spoke mechanical words of praise. The +object of his terror had become suddenly inverted; till then he had seen +Attwater trussed and gagged, a helpless victim, and had longed to run in +and save him; he saw him now tower up mysterious and menacing, the angel +of the Lord's wrath, armed with knowledge and threatening judgment. He +set down his glass again, and was surprised to see it empty. + +"You go always armed?" he said, and the next moment could have plucked +his tongue out. + +"Always," said Attwater. "I have been through a mutiny here; that was +one of my incidents of missionary life." + +And just then the sound of voices reached them, and looking forth from +the verandah they saw Huish and the captain drawing near. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE DINNER PARTY + + +They sat down to an island dinner, remarkable for its variety and +excellence: turtle-soup and steak, fish, fowls, a sucking-pig, a +cocoa-nut salad, and sprouting cocoa-nut roasted for dessert. Not a tin +had been opened; and save for the oil and vinegar in the salad, and some +green spears of onion which Attwater cultivated and plucked with his own +hand, not even the condiments were European. Sherry, hock, and claret +succeeded each other, and the _Farallone_ champagne brought up the rear +with the dessert. + +It was plain that, like so many of the extremely religious in the days +before teetotalism, Attwater had a dash of the epicure. For such +characters it is softening to eat well; doubly so to have designed and +had prepared an excellent meal for others; and the manners of their host +were agreeably mollified in consequence. A cat of huge growth sat on his +shoulder purring, and occasionally, with a deft paw, capturing a morsel +in the air. To a cat he might be likened himself, as he lolled at the +head of his table, dealing out attentions and innuendoes, and using the +velvet and the claw indifferently. And both Huish and the captain fell +progressively under the charm of his hospitable freedom. + +Over the third guest the incidents of the dinner may be said to have +passed for long unheeded. Herrick accepted all that was offered him, ate +and drank without tasting, and heard without comprehension. His mind was +singly occupied in contemplating the horror of the circumstances in +which he sat. What Attwater knew, what the captain designed, from which +side treachery was to be first expected, these were the ground of his +thoughts. There were times when he longed to throw down the table and +flee into the night. And even that was debarred him; to do anything, to +say anything, to move at all, were only to precipitate the barbarous +tragedy; and he sat spellbound, eating with white lips. Two of his +companions observed him narrowly, Attwater with raking, sidelong glances +that did not interrupt his talk, the captain with a heavy and anxious +consideration. + +"Well, I must say this sherry is a really prime article," said Huish. +"'Ow much does it stand you in, if it's a fair question?" + +"A hundred and twelve shillings in London, and the freight to +Valparaiso, and on again," said Attwater. "It strikes one as really not +a bad fluid." + +"A 'undred and twelve!" murmured the clerk, relishing the wine and the +figures in a common ecstasy: "O my!" + +"So glad you like it," said Attwater. "Help yourself, Mr. Whish, and +keep the bottle by you." + +"My friend's name is Huish and not Whish, sir," said the captain, with a +flush. + +"I beg your pardon, I am sure. Huish and not Whish; certainly," said +Attwater. "I was about to say that I have still eight dozen," he added, +fixing the captain with his eye. + +"Eight dozen what?" said Davis. + +"Sherry," was the reply. "Eight dozen excellent sherry. Why, it seems +almost worth it in itself--to a man fond of wine." + +The ambiguous words struck home to guilty consciences, and Huish and the +captain sat up in their places and regarded him with a scare. + +"Worth what?" said Davis. + +"A hundred and twelve shillings," replied Attwater. + +The captain breathed hard for a moment. He reached out far and wide to +find any coherency in these remarks; then, with a great effort, changed +the subject. + +"I allow we are about the first white men upon this island, sir," said +he. + +Attwater followed him at once, and with entire gravity, to the new +ground. "Myself and Dr. Symonds excepted, I should say the only ones," +he returned. "And yet who can tell? In the course of the ages some one +may have lived here, and we sometimes think that some one must. The +coco-palms grow all round the island, which is scarce like nature's +planting. We found besides, when we landed, an unmistakable cairn upon +the beach; use unknown; but probably erected in the hope of gratifying +some mumbo-jumbo whose very name is forgotten, by some thick-witted +gentry whose very bones are lost. Then the island (witness the +Directory) has been twice reported; and since my tenancy, we have had +two wrecks, both derelict. The rest is conjecture." + +"Dr. Symonds is your partner, I guess?" said Davis. + +"A dear fellow, Symonds! How he would regret it, if he knew you had been +here!" said Attwater. + +"'E's on the _Trinity 'All_, ain't he?" asked Huish. + +"And if you could tell me where the _Trinity 'All_ was, you would confer +a favour, Mr. Whish!" was the reply. + +"I suppose she has a native crew?" said Davis. + +"Since the secret has been kept ten years, one would suppose she had," +replied Attwater. + +"Well, now, see 'ere!" said Huish. "You have everythink about you in no +end style, and no mistake, but I tell you it wouldn't do for me. Too +much of 'the old rustic bridge by the mill'; too retired by 'alf. Give +me the sound of Bow Bells!" + +"You must not think it was always so," replied Attwater. "This was once +a busy shore, although now, hark! you can hear the solitude. I find it +stimulating. And talking of the sound of bells, kindly follow a little +experiment of mine in silence." There was a silver bell at his right +hand to call the servants; he made them a sign to stand still, struck +the bell with force, and leaned eagerly forward. The note rose clear and +strong; it rang out clear and far into the night and over the deserted +island; it died into the distance until there only lingered in the +porches of the ear a vibration that was sound no longer. "Empty houses, +empty sea, solitary beaches!" said Attwater. "And yet God hears the +bell! And yet we sit in this verandah on a lighted stage with all heaven +for spectators! And you call that solitude?" + +There followed a bar of silence, during which the captain sat +mesmerised. + +Then Attwater laughed softly. "These are the diversions of a lonely +man," he resumed, "and possibly not in good taste. One tells oneself +these little fairy tales for company. If there _should_ happen to be +anything in folk-lore, Mr. Hay? But here comes the claret. One does not +offer you Lafitte, captain, because I believe it is all sold to the +railroad dining-cars in your great country; but this Brâne-Mouton is of +a good year, and Mr. Whish will give me news of it." + +"That's a queer idea of yours!" cried the captain, bursting with a sigh +from the spell that had bound him. "So you mean to tell me now, that you +sit here evenings and ring up ... well, ring on the angels ... by +yourself?" + +"As a matter of historic fact, and since you put it directly, one does +not," said Attwater. "Why ring a bell, when there flows out from oneself +and everything about one a far more momentous silence? the least beat of +my heart and the least thought in my mind echoing into eternity for ever +and for ever and for ever." + +"O, look 'ere," said Huish, "turn down the lights at once, and the Band +of 'Ope will oblige! This ain't a spiritual séance." + +"No folk-lore about Mr. Whish--I beg your pardon, captain: Huish, not +Whish, of course," said Attwater. + +As the boy was filling Huish's glass, the bottle escaped from his hand +and was shattered, and the wine spilt on the verandah floor. Instant +grimness as of death appeared in the face of Attwater; he smote the bell +imperiously, and the two brown natives fell into the attitude of +attention and stood mute and trembling. There was just a moment of +silence and hard looks; then followed a few savage words in the native; +and, upon a gesture of dismissal, the service proceeded as before. + +None of the party had as yet observed upon the excellent bearing of the +two men. They were dark, undersized, and well set up; stepped softly, +waited deftly, brought on the wines and dishes at a look, and their eyes +attended studiously on their master. + +"Where do you get your labour from anyway?" asked Davis. + +"Ah, where not?" answered Attwater. + +"Not much of a soft job, I suppose?" said the captain. + +"If you will tell me where getting labour is!" said Attwater, with a +shrug. "And of course, in our case, as we could name no destination, we +had to go far and wide and do the best we could. We have gone as far +west as the Kingsmills and as far south as Rapa-iti. Pity Symonds isn't +here! He is full of yarns. That was his part, to collect them. Then +began mine, which was the educational." + +"You mean to run them?" said Davis. + +"Ay! to run them," said Attwater. + +"Wait a bit," said Davis; "I'm out of my depth. How was this? Do you +mean to say you did it single-handed?" + +"One did it single-handed," said Attwater, "because there was nobody to +help one." + +"By God, but you must be a holy terror!" cried the captain, in a glow of +admiration. + +"One does one's best," said Attwater. + +"Well, now!" said Davis, "I have seen a lot of driving in my time, and +been counted a good driver myself. I fought my way, third mate, round +the Cape Horn with a push of packet-rats that would have turned the +devil out of hell and shut the door on him; and I tell you, this racket +of Mr. Attwater's takes the cake. In a ship, why, there ain't nothing to +it! You've got the law with you, that's what does it. But put me down +on this blame' beach alone, with nothing but a whip and a mouthful of +bad words, and ask me to ... no, _sir_! it's not good enough! I haven't +got the sand for that!" cried Davis. "It's the law behind," he added; +"it's the law does it, every time!" + +"The beak ain't as black as he's sometimes pynted," observed Huish +humorously. + +"Well, one got the law after a fashion," said Attwater. "One had to be a +number of things. It was sometimes rather a bore." + +"I should smile!" said Davis. "Rather lively, I should think!" + +"I daresay we mean the same thing," said Attwater. "However, one way or +another, one got it knocked into their heads that they _must_ work, and +they _did_ ... until the Lord took them!" + +"'Ope you made 'em jump," said Huish. + +"When it was necessary, Mr. Whish, I made them jump," said Attwater. + +"You bet you did," cried the captain. He was a good deal flushed, but +not so much with wine as admiration; and his eyes drank in the huge +proportions of the other with delight. "You bet you did, and you bet +that I can see you doing it! By God, you're a man, and you can say I +said so." + +"Too good of you, I'm sure," said Attwater. + +"Did you--did you ever have crime here?" asked Herrick, breaking his +silence with a pungent voice. + +"Yes," said Attwater, "we did." + +"And how did you handle that, sir?" cried the eager captain. + +"Well, you see, it was a queer case," replied Attwater. "It was a case +that would have puzzled Solomon. Shall I tell it you? yes?" + +The captain rapturously accepted. + +"Well," drawled Attwater, "here is what it was. I daresay you know two +types of natives, which may be called the obsequious and the sullen? +Well, one had them, the types themselves, detected in the fact; and one +had them together. Obsequiousness ran out of the first like wine out of +a bottle, sullenness congested in the second. Obsequiousness was all +smiles; he ran to catch your eye, he loved to gabble; and he had about a +dozen words of beach English, and an eighth-of-an-inch veneer of +Christianity. Sullens was industrious; a big down-looking bee. When he +was spoken to, he answered with a black look and a shrug of one +shoulder, but the thing would be done. I don't give him to you for a +model of manners; there was nothing showy about Sullens; but he was +strong and steady, and ungraciously obedient. Now Sullens got into +trouble; no matter how; the regulations of the place were broken, and he +was punished accordingly--without effect. So, the next day, and the +next, and the day after, till I began to be weary of the business, and +Sullens (I am afraid) particularly so. There came a day when he was in +fault again, for the--O perhaps the thirtieth time; and he rolled a dull +eye upon me, with a spark in it, and appeared to speak. Now the +regulations of the place are formal upon one point: we allow no +explanations; none are received, none allowed to be offered. So one +stopped him instantly, but made a note of the circumstance. The next day +he was gone from the settlement. There could be nothing more annoying; +if the labour took to running away, the fishery was wrecked. There are +sixty miles of this island, you see, all in length like the Queen's +highway; the idea of pursuit in such a place was a piece of +single-minded childishness, which one did not entertain. Two days later, +I made a discovery; it came in upon me with a flash that Sullens had +been unjustly punished from beginning to end, and the real culprit +throughout had been Obsequiousness. The native who talks, like the woman +who hesitates, is lost. You set him talking and lying; and he talks, and +lies, and watches your face to see if he has pleased you; till, at last, +out comes the truth! It came out of Obsequiousness in the regular +course. I said nothing to him; I dismissed him; and late as it was, for +it was already night, set off to look for Sullens. I had not far to go: +about two hundred yards up the island the moon showed him to me. He was +hanging in a coco-palm--I'm not botanist enough to tell you how--but +it's the way, in nine cases out of ten, these natives commit suicide. +His tongue was out, poor devil, and the birds had got at him. I spare +you details: he was an ugly sight! I gave the business six good hours of +thinking in this verandah. My justice had been made a fool of; I don't +suppose that I was ever angrier. Next day, I had the conch sounded and +all hands out before sunrise. One took one's gun, and led the way, with +Obsequiousness. He was very talkative; the beggar supposed that all was +right now he had confessed; in the old schoolboy phrase he was plainly +'sucking up' to me; full of protestations of good-will and good +behaviour; to which one answered one really can't remember what. +Presently the tree came in sight, and the hanged man. They all burst out +lamenting for their comrade in the island way, and Obsequiousness was +the loudest of the mourners. He was quite genuine; a noxious creature +without any consciousness of guilt. Well, presently--to make a long +story short--one told him to go up the tree. He stared a bit, looked at +one with a trouble in his eye, and had rather a sickly smile; but went. +He was obedient to the last; he had all the pretty virtues, but the +truth was not in him. So soon as he was up he looked down, and there was +the rifle covering him; and at that he gave a whimper like a dog. You +could hear a pin drop; no more keening now. There they all crouched upon +the ground with bulging eyes; there was he in the tree-top, the colour +of lead; and between was the dead man, dancing a bit in the air. He was +obedient to the last, recited his crime, recommended his soul to God. +And then...." + +Attwater paused, and Herrick, who had been listening attentively, made a +convulsive movement which upset his glass. + +"And then?" said the breathless captain. + +"Shot," said Attwater. "They came to the ground together." + +Herrick sprang to his feet with a shriek and an insensate gesture. + +"It was a murder!" he screamed, "a cold-hearted, bloody-minded murder! +You monstrous being! Murderer and hypocrite--murderer and +hypocrite--murderer and hypocrite----" he repeated, and his tongue +stumbled among the words. + +The captain was by him in a moment. "Herrick!" he cried, "behave +yourself! Here, don't be a blame' fool!" + +Herrick struggled in his embrace like a frantic child, and suddenly +bowing his face in his hands, choked into a sob, the first of many, +which now convulsed his body silently, and now jerked from him +indescribable and meaningless sounds. + +"Your friend appears over-excited," remarked Attwater, sitting unmoved +but all alert at table. + +"It must be the wine," replied the captain. "He ain't no drinking man, +you see. I--I think I'll take him away. A walk'll sober him up, I +guess." + +He led him without resistance out of the verandah and into the night, in +which they soon melted; but still for some time, as they drew away, his +comfortable voice was to be heard soothing and remonstrating, and +Herrick answering, at intervals, with the mechanical noises of hysteria. + +"'E's like a bloomin' poultry yard!" observed Huish, helping himself to +wine (of which he spilled a good deal) with gentlemanly ease. "A man +should learn to beyave at table," he added. + +"Rather bad form, is it not?" said Attwater. "Well, well, we are left +_tête-à-tête_. A glass of wine with you, Mr. Whish!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE OPEN DOOR + + +The captain and Herrick meanwhile turned their back upon the lights in +Attwater's verandah, and took a direction towards the pier and the beach +of the lagoon. + +The isle, at this hour, with its smooth floor of sand, the pillared roof +overhead, and the prevalent illumination of the lamps, wore an air of +unreality, like a deserted theatre or a public garden at midnight. A man +looked about him for the statues and tables. Not the least air of wind +was stirring among the palms, and the silence was emphasised by the +continuous clamour of the surf from the seashore, as it might be of +traffic in the next street. + +Still talking, still soothing him, the captain hurried his patient on, +brought him at last to the lagoon side, and leading him down the beach, +laved his head and face with the tepid water. The paroxysm gradually +subsided, the sobs became less convulsive and then ceased; by an odd but +not quite unnatural conjunction, the captain's soothing current of talk +died away at the same time and by proportional steps, and the pair +remained sunk in silence. The lagoon broke at their feet in petty +wavelets, and with a sound as delicate as a whisper; stars of all +degrees looked down on their own images in that vast mirror; and the +more angry colour of the _Farallone's_ riding lamp burned in the middle +distance. For long they continued to gaze on the scene before them, and +hearken anxiously to the rustle and tinkle of that miniature surf, or +the more distant and loud reverberations from the outer coast. For long +speech was denied them; and when the words came at last, they came to +both simultaneously. + +"Say, Herrick ..." the captain was beginning. + +But Herrick, turning swiftly towards his companion, bent him down with +the eager cry: "Let's up anchor, captain, and to sea!" + +"Where to, my son?" said the captain. "Up anchor's easy saying. But +where to?" + +"To sea," responded Herrick. "The sea's big enough! To sea--away from +this dreadful island and that, O! that sinister man!" + +"O, we'll see about that," said Davis. "You brace up, and we'll see +about that. You're all run down, that's what's wrong with you; you're +all nerves, like Jemimar; you've got to brace up good and be yourself +again, and then we'll talk." + +"To sea," reiterated Herrick, "to sea to-night--now--this moment!" + +"It can't be, my son," replied the captain firmly. "No ship of mine puts +to sea without provisions; you can take that for settled." + +"You don't seem to understand," said Herrick. "The whole thing is over, +I tell you. There is nothing to do here, when he knows all. That man +there with the cat knows all; can't you take it in?" + +"All what?" asked the captain, visibly discomposed. "Why, he received us +like a perfect gentleman and treated us real handsome, until you began +with your foolery--and I must say I seen men shot for less, and nobody +sorry! What more do you expect anyway?" + +Herrick rocked to and fro upon the sand, shaking his head. + +"Guying us," he said; "he was guying us--only guying us; it's all we're +good for." + +"There was one queer thing, to be sure," admitted the captain, with a +misgiving of the voice; "that about the sherry. Damned if I caught on +to that. Say, Herrick, you didn't give me away?" + +"O! give you away!" repeated Herrick with weary, querulous scorn. "What +was there to give away? We're transparent; we've got rascal branded on +us: detected rascal--detected rascal! Why, before he came on board, +there was the name painted out, and he saw the whole thing. He made sure +we would kill him there and then, and stood guying you and Huish on the +chance. He calls that being frightened! Next he had me ashore; a fine +time I had! _The two wolves_, he calls you and Huish. _What is the puppy +doing with the two wolves?_ he asked. He showed me his pearls; he said +they might be dispersed before morning, and _all hung by a hair_--and +smiled as he said it, such a smile! O, it's no use, I tell you! He knows +all, he sees through all; we only make him laugh with our pretences--he +looks at us and laughs like God!" + +There was a silence. Davis stood with contorted brows, gazing into the +night. + +"The pearls?" he said suddenly. "He showed them to you? He has them?" + +"No, he didn't show them; I forgot: only the safe they were in," said +Herrick. "But you'll never get them!" + +"I've two words to say to that," said the captain. + +"Do you think he would have been so easy at table, unless he was +prepared?" cried Herrick. "The servants were both armed. He was armed +himself; he always is; he told me. You will never deceive his vigilance. +Davis, I know it! It's all up, I tell you, and keep telling you and +proving it. All up; all up. There's nothing for it, there's nothing to +be done: all gone: life, honour, love. O my God, my God, why was I +born?" + +Another pause followed upon this outburst. + +The captain put his hands to his brow. + +"Another thing!" he broke out. "Why did he tell you all this? Seems like +madness to me!" + +Herrick shook his head with gloomy iteration. "You wouldn't understand +if I were to tell you," said he. + +"I guess I can understand any blame' thing that you can tell me," said +the captain. + +"Well, then, he's a fatalist," said Herrick. + +"What's that? a fatalist?" said Davis. + +"O, it's a fellow that believes a lot of things," said Herrick; +"believes that his bullets go true; believes that all falls out as God +chooses, do as you like to prevent it; and all that." + +"Why, I guess I believe right so myself," said Davis. + +"You do?" said Herrick. + +"You bet I do!" says Davis. + +Herrick shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you must be a fool," said he, and +he leaned his head upon his knees. + +The captain stood biting his hands. + +"There's one thing sure," he said at last. "I must get Huish out of +that. _He's_ not fit to hold his end up with a man like you describe." + +And he turned to go away. The words had been quite simple; not so the +tone; and the other was quick to catch it. + +"Davis!" he cried, "no! Don't do it. Spare _me_, and don't do it--spare +yourself, and leave it alone--for God's sake, for your children's sake!" + +His voice rose to a passionate shrillness; another moment, and he might +be overheard by their not distant victim. But Davis turned on him with a +savage oath and gesture; and the miserable young man rolled over on his +face on the sand, and lay speechless and helpless. + +The captain meanwhile set out rapidly for Attwater's house. As he went, +he considered with himself eagerly, his thoughts racing. The man had +understood, he had mocked them from the beginning; he would teach him to +make a mockery of John Davis! Herrick thought him a god; give him a +second to aim in, and the god was overthrown. He chuckled as he felt the +butt of his revolver. It should be done now, as he went in. From +behind? It was difficult to get there. From across the table? No, the +captain preferred to shoot standing, so as you could be sure to get your +hand upon your gun. The best would be to summon Huish, and when Attwater +stood up and turned--ah, then would be the moment. Wrapped in this +ardent prefiguration of events, the captain posted towards the house +with his head down. + +"Hands up! Halt!" cried the voice of Attwater. + +And the captain, before he knew what he was doing, had obeyed. The +surprise was complete and irremediable. Coming on the top crest of his +murderous intentions, he had walked straight into an ambuscade, and now +stood, with his hands impotently lifted, staring at the verandah. + +The party was now broken up. Attwater leaned on a post, and kept Davis +covered with a Winchester. One of the servants was hard by with a second +at the port arms, leaning a little forward, round-eyed with eager +expectancy. In the open space at the head of the stair, Huish was partly +supported by the other native; his face wreathed in meaningless smiles, +his mind seemingly sunk in the contemplation of an unlighted cigar. + +"Well," said Attwater, "you seem to me to be a very twopenny pirate!" + +The captain uttered a sound in his throat for which we have no name; +rage choked him. + +"I am going to give you Mr. Whish--or the wine-sop that remains of him," +continued Attwater. "He talks a great deal when he drinks, Captain Davis +of the _Sea Ranger_. But I have quite done with him--and return the +article with thanks. Now," he cried sharply; "another false movement +like that, and your family will have to deplore the loss of an +invaluable parent; keep strictly still, Davis." + +Attwater said a word in the native, his eye still undeviatingly fixed on +the captain; and the servant thrust Huish smartly forward from the brink +of the stair. With an extraordinary simultaneous dispersion of his +members, that gentleman bounded forth into space, struck the earth, +ricocheted, and brought up with his arms about a palm. His mind was +quite a stranger to these events; the expression of anguish that +deformed his countenance at the moment of the leap was probably +mechanical; and he suffered these convulsions in silence; clung to the +tree like an infant; and seemed, by his dips, to suppose himself engaged +in the pastime of bobbing for apples. A more finely sympathetic mind or +a more observant eye might have remarked, a little in front of him on +the sand and still quite beyond reach, the unlighted cigar. + +"There is your Whitechapel carrion!" said Attwater. "And now you might +very well ask me why I do not put a period to you at once, as you +deserve. I will tell you why, Davis. It is because I have nothing to do +with the _Sea Ranger_ and the people you drowned, or the _Farallone_ and +the champagne that you stole. That is your account with God; He keeps +it, and He will settle it when the clock strikes. In my own case, I have +nothing to go on but suspicion, and I do not kill on suspicion, not even +vermin like you. But understand: if ever I see any of you again, it is +another matter, and you shall eat a bullet. And now take yourself off. +March! and as you value what you call your life, keep your hands up as +you go!" + +The captain remained as he was, his hands up, his mouth open: mesmerised +with fury. + +"March!" said Attwater. "One--two--three!" + +And Davis turned and passed slowly away. But even as he went, he was +meditating a prompt, offensive return. In the twinkling of an eye he had +leaped behind a tree; and was crouching there, pistol in hand, peering +from either side of his place of ambush with bared teeth; a serpent +already poised to strike. And already he was too late. Attwater and his +servants had disappeared; and only the lamps shone on the deserted table +and the bright sand about the house, and threw into the night in all +directions the strong and tall shadows of the palms. + +Davis ground his teeth. Where were they gone, the cowards? to what hole +had they retreated beyond reach? It was in vain he should try anything, +he, single and with a second-hand revolver, against three persons, armed +with Winchesters, and who did not show an ear out of any of the +apertures of that lighted and silent house? Some of them might have +already ducked below it from the rear, and be drawing a bead upon him at +that moment from the low-browed crypt, the receptacle of empty bottles +and broken crockery. No, there was nothing to be done but to bring away +(if it were still possible) his shattered and demoralised forces. + +"Huish," he said, "come along." + +"'S lose my ciga'," said Huish, reaching vaguely forward. + +The captain let out a rasping oath. "Come right along here," said he. + +"'S all righ'. Sleep here 'th Atty-Attwa. Go boar' t'morr'," replied the +festive one. + +"If you don't come, and come now, by the living God, I'll shoot you!" +cried the captain. + +It is not to be supposed that the sense of these words in any way +penetrated to the mind of Huish; rather that, in a fresh attempt upon +the cigar, he overbalanced himself and came flying erratically forward: +a course which brought him within reach of Davis. + +"Now you walk straight," said the captain, clutching him, "or I'll know +why not!" + +"'S lose my ciga'," replied Huish. + +The captain's contained fury blazed up for a moment. He twisted Huish +round, grasped him by the neck of the coat, ran him in front of him to +the pier-end, and flung him savagely forward on his face. + +"Look for your cigar then, you swine!" said he, and blew his boat-call +till the pea in it ceased to rattle. + +An immediate activity responded on board the _Farallone_; far-away +voices, and soon the sound of oars, floated along the surface of the +lagoon; and at the same time, from nearer hand, Herrick aroused himself +and strolled languidly up. He bent over the insignificant figure of +Huish, where it grovelled, apparently insensible, at the base of the +figure-head. + +"Dead?" he asked. + +"No, he's not dead," said Davis. + +"And Attwater?" asked Herrick. + +"Now you just shut your head!" replied Davis. "You can do that, I fancy, +and by God, I'll show you how! I'll stand no more of your drivel." + +They waited accordingly in silence till the boat bumped on the farthest +piers; then raised Huish, head and heels, carried him down the gangway, +and flung him summarily in the bottom. On the way out he was heard +murmuring of the loss of his cigar; and after he had been handed up the +side like baggage, and cast down in the alleyway to slumber, his last +audible expression was: "Splen'l fl' Attwa'!" This the expert construed +into "Splendid fellow, Attwater"; with so much innocence had this great +spirit issued from the adventures of the evening. + +The captain went and walked in the waist with brief irate turns; Herrick +leaned his arms on the taffrail; the crew had all turned in. The ship +had a gentle, cradling motion; at times a block piped like a bird. On +shore, through the colonnade of palm stems, Attwater's house was to be +seen shining steadily with many lamps. And there was nothing else +visible, whether in the heaven above or in the lagoon below, but the +stars and their reflections. It might have been minutes, or it might +have been hours, that Herrick leaned there, looking in the glorified +water and drinking peace. "A bath of stars," he was thinking; when a +hand was laid at last on his shoulder. + +"Herrick," said the captain, "I've been walking off my trouble." + +A sharp jar passed through the young man, but he neither answered nor so +much as turned his head. + +"I guess I spoke a little rough to you on shore," pursued the captain; +"the fact is, I was real mad; but now it's over, and you and me have to +turn to and think." + +"I will _not_ think," said Herrick. + +"Here, old man!" said Davis kindly; "this won't fight, you know! You've +got to brace up and help me get things straight. You're not going back +on a friend? That's not like you, Herrick!" + +"O yes, it is," said Herrick. + +"Come, come!" said the captain, and paused as if quite at a loss. "Look +here," he cried, "you have a glass of champagne. _I_ won't touch it, so +that'll show you if I'm in earnest. But it's just the pick-me-up for +you; it'll put an edge on you at once." + +"O, you leave me alone!" said Herrick, and turned away. + +The captain caught him by the sleeve; and he shook him off and turned on +him, for the moment like a demoniac. + +"Go to hell in your own way!" he cried. + +And he turned away again, this time unchecked, and stepped forward to +where the boat rocked alongside and ground occasionally against the +schooner. He looked about him. A corner of the house was interposed +between the captain and himself; all was well; no eye must see him in +that last act. He slid silently into the boat; thence, silently, into +the starry water. Instinctively he swam a little; it would be time +enough to stop by and by. + +The shock of the immersion brightened his mind immediately. The events +of the ignoble day passed before him in a frieze of pictures, and he +thanked "whatever Gods there be" for that open door of suicide. In such +a little while he would be done with it, the random business at an end, +the prodigal son come home. A very bright planet shone before him and +drew a trenchant wake along the water. He took that for his line and +followed it. + +That was the last earthly thing that he should look upon; that radiant +speck, which he had soon magnified into a City of Laputa, along whose +terraces there walked men and women of awful and benignant features, +who viewed him with distant commiseration. These imaginary spectators +consoled him; he told himself their talk, one to another; it was of +himself and his sad destiny. + +From such flights of fancy he was aroused by the growing coldness of the +water. Why should he delay? Here, where he was now, let him drop the +curtain, let him seek the ineffable refuge, let him lie down with all +races and generations of men in the house of sleep. It was easy to say, +easy to do. To stop swimming: there was no mystery in that, if he could +do it. Could he? And he could not. He knew it instantly. He was aware +instantly of an opposition in his members, unanimous and invincible, +clinging to life with a single and fixed resolve, finger by finger, +sinew by sinew; something that was at once he and not he--at once within +and without him; the shutting of some miniature valve in his brain, +which a single manly thought should suffice to open--and the grasp of an +external fate ineluctable as gravity. To any man there may come at times +a consciousness that there blows, through all the articulations of his +body, the wind of a spirit not wholly his; that his mind rebels; that +another girds him and carries him whither he would not. It came now to +Herrick, with the authority of a revelation. There was no escape +possible. The open door was closed in his recreant face. He must go back +into the world and amongst men without illusion. He must stagger on to +the end with the pack of his responsibility and his disgrace, until a +cold, a blow, a merciful chance ball, or the more merciful hangman, +should dismiss him from his infamy. There were men who could commit +suicide; there were men who could not; and he was one who could not. + +For perhaps a minute there raged in his mind the coil of this discovery; +then cheerless certitude followed; and, with an incredible simplicity of +submission to ascertained fact, he turned round and struck out for +shore. There was a courage in this which he could not appreciate; the +ignobility of his cowardice wholly occupying him. A strong current set +against him like a wind in his face; he contended with it heavily, +wearily, without enthusiasm, but with substantial advantage; marking his +progress the while, without pleasure, by the outline of the trees. Once +he had a moment of hope. He heard to the southward of him, towards the +centre of the lagoon, the wallowing of some great fish, doubtless a +shark, and paused for a little, treading water. Might not this be the +hangman? he thought. But the wallowing died away; mere silence +succeeded; and Herrick pushed on again for the shore, raging as he went +at his own nature. Ay, he would wait for the shark; but if he had heard +him coming!... His smile was tragic. He could have spat upon himself. + +About three in the morning, chance, and the set of the current, and the +bias of his own right-handed body so decided it between them that he +came to shore upon the beach in front of Attwater's. There he sat down, +and looked forth into a world without any of the lights of hope. The +poor diving-dress of self-conceit was sadly tattered! With the fairy +tale of suicide, of a refuge always open to him, he had hitherto +beguiled and supported himself in the trials of life; and behold! that +also was only a fairy tale, that also was folk-lore. With the +consequences of his acts he saw himself implacably confronted for the +duration of life: stretched upon a cross, and nailed there with the iron +bolts of his own cowardice. He had no tears; he told himself no stories. +His disgust with himself was so complete, that even the process of +apologetic mythology had ceased. He was like a man cast down from a +pillar, and every bone broken. He lay there, and admitted the facts, and +did not attempt to rise. + +Dawn began to break over the far side of the atoll, the sky brightened, +the clouds became dyed with gorgeous colours, the shadows of the night +lifted. And, suddenly, Herrick was aware that the lagoon and the trees +wore again their daylight livery; and he saw, on board the _Farallone_, +Davis extinguishing the lantern, and smoke rising from the galley. + +Davis, without doubt, remarked and recognised the figure on the beach; +or perhaps hesitated to recognise it; for after he had gazed a long +while from under his hand, he went into the house and fetched a glass. +It was very powerful; Herrick had often used it. With an instinct of +shame he hid his face in his hands. + +"And what brings you here, Mr. Herrick-Hay, or Mr. Hay-Herrick?" asked +the voice of Attwater. "Your back view from my present position is +remarkably fine, and I would continue to present it. We can get on very +nicely as we are, and if you were to turn round, do you know? I think it +would be awkward." + +Herrick slowly rose to his feet; his heart throbbed hard, a hideous +excitement shook him, but he was master of himself. Slowly he turned and +faced Attwater and the muzzle of a pointed rifle. "Why could I not do +that last night?" he thought. + +"Well, why don't you fire?" he said aloud, in a voice that trembled. + +Attwater slowly put his gun under his arm, then his hands in his +pockets. + +"What brings you here?" he repeated. + +"I don't know," said Herrick; and then, with a cry: "Can you do anything +with me?" + +"Are you armed?" said Attwater. "I ask for the form's sake." + +"Armed? No!" said Herrick. "O yes, I am, too!" + +And he flung upon the beach a dripping pistol. + +"You are wet," said Attwater. + +"Yes, I am wet," said Herrick. "Can you do anything with me?" + +Attwater read his face attentively. + +"It would depend a good deal upon what you are," said he. + +"What I am? A coward!" said Herrick. + +"There is very little to be done with that," said Attwater. "And yet the +description hardly strikes one as exhaustive." + +"O, what does it matter?" cried Herrick. "Here I am. I am broken +crockery; I am a burst drum; the whole of my life is gone to water; I +have nothing left that I believe in, except my living horror of myself. +Why do I come to you? I don't know; you are cold, cruel, hateful; and I +hate you, or I think I hate you. But you are an honest man, an honest +gentleman. I put myself, helpless, in your hands. What must I do? If I +can't do anything, be merciful and put a bullet through me; it's only a +puppy with a broken leg!" + +"If I were you, I would pick up that pistol, come up to the house, and +put on some dry clothes," said Attwater. + +"If you really mean it?" said Herrick. "You know they--we--they.... But +you know all." + +"I know quite enough," said Attwater. "Come up to the house." + +And the captain, from the deck of the _Farallone_, saw the two men pass +together under the shadow of the grove. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +DAVID AND GOLIATH + + +Huish had bundled himself up from the glare of the day--his face to the +house, his knees retracted. The frail bones in the thin tropical raiment +seemed scarce more considerable than a fowl's; and Davis, sitting on the +rail with his arm about a stay, contemplated him with gloom, wondering +what manner of counsel that insignificant figure should contain. For +since Herrick had thrown him off and deserted to the enemy, Huish, alone +of mankind, remained to him to be a helper and oracle. + +He considered their position with a sinking heart. The ship was a stolen +ship; the stores, whether from initial carelessness or ill +administration during the voyage, were insufficient to carry them to any +port except back to Papeete; and there retribution waited in the shape +of a gendarme, a judge with a queer-shaped hat, and the horror of +distant Noumea. Upon that side there was no glimmer of hope. Here, at +the island, the dragon was roused; Attwater with his men and his +Winchesters watched and patrolled the house; let him who dare approach +it. What else was then left but to sit there, inactive, pacing the +decks, until the _Trinity Hall_ arrived and they were cast into irons, +or until the food came to an end, and the pangs of famine succeeded? For +the _Trinity Hall_ Davis was prepared; he would barricade the house, and +die there defending it, like a rat in a crevice. But for the other? The +cruise of the _Farallone_, into which he had plunged, only a fortnight +before, with such golden expectations, could this be the nightmare end +of it? The ship rotting at anchor, the crew stumbling and dying in the +scuppers? It seemed as if any extreme of hazard were to be preferred to +so grisly a certainty; as if it would be better to up-anchor after all, +put to sea at a venture, and, perhaps, perish at the hands of cannibals +on one of the more obscure Paumotus. His eye roved swiftly over sea and +sky in quest of any promise of wind, but the fountains of the Trade were +empty. Where it had run yesterday and for weeks before, a roaring blue +river charioting clouds, silence now reigned; and the whole height of +the atmosphere stood balanced. On the endless ribbon of island that +stretched out to either hand of him its array of golden and green and +silvery palms, not the most volatile frond was to be seen stirring; they +drooped to their stable images in the lagoon like things carved of +metal, and already their long line began to reverberate heat. There was +no escape possible that day, none probable on the morrow. And still the +stores were running out! + +Then came over Davis, from deep down in the roots of his being, or at +least from far back among his memories of childhood and innocence, a +wave of superstition. This run of ill-luck was something beyond natural; +the chances of the game were in themselves more various: it seemed as if +the devil must serve the pieces. The devil? He heard again the clear +note of Attwater's bell ringing abroad into the night, and dying away. +How if God...? + +Briskly he averted his mind. Attwater: that was the point. Attwater had +food and a treasure of pearls; escape made possible in the present, +riches in the future. They must come to grips with Attwater; the man +must die. A smoky heat went over his face, as he recalled the impotent +figure he had made last night, and the contemptuous speeches he must +bear in silence. Rage, shame, and the love of life, all pointed the one +way; and only invention halted: how to reach him? had he strength +enough? was there any help in that misbegotten packet of bones against +the house? + +His eyes dwelled upon him with a strange avidity, as though he would +read into his soul; and presently the sleeper moved, stirred uneasily, +turned suddenly round, and threw him a blinking look. Davis maintained +the same dark stare, and Huish looked away again and sat up. + +"Lord, I've an 'eadache on me!" said he. "I believe I was a bit swipey +last night. W'ere's that cry-byby 'Errick?" + +"Gone," said the captain. + +"Ashore?" cried Huish. "O, I say! I'd 'a gone too." + +"Would you?" said the captain. + +"Yes, I would," replied Huish. "I like Attwater. 'E's all right; we got +on like one o'clock when you were gone. And ain't his sherry in it, +rather? It's like Spiers and Pond's Amontillado! I wish I 'ad a drain of +it now." He sighed. + +"Well, you'll never get no more of it--that's one thing," said Davis +gravely. + +"'Ere, wot's wrong with you, Dyvis? Coppers 'ot? Well, look at _me_! _I_ +ain't grumpy," said Huish; "I'm as plyful as a canary-bird, I am." + +"Yes," said Davis, "you're playful; I own that; and you were playful +last night, I believe, and a damned fine performance you made of it." + +"'Allo!" said Huish. "'Ow's this? Wot performance?" + +"Well, I'll tell you," said the captain, getting slowly off the rail. + +And he did: at full length, with every wounding epithet and absurd +detail repeated and emphasised; he had his own vanity and Huish's upon +the grill, and roasted them; and as he spoke he inflicted and endured +agonies of humiliation. It was a plain man's masterpiece of the +sardonic. + +"What do you think of it?" said he, when he had done, and looked down at +Huish, flushed and serious, and yet jeering. + +"I'll tell you wot it is," was the reply: "you and me cut a pretty dicky +figure." + +"That's so," said Davis, "a pretty measly figure, by God! And, by God, +I want to see that man at my knees." + +"Ah!" said Huish. "'Ow to get him there?" + +"That's it!" cried Davis. "How to get hold of him! They're four to two; +though there's only one man among them to count, and that's Attwater. +Get a bead on Attwater, and the others would cut and run and sing out +like frightened poultry--and old man Herrick would come round with his +hat for a share of the pearls. No, _sir_! it's how to get hold of +Attwater! And we daren't even go ashore; he would shoot us in the boat +like dogs." + +"Are you particular about having him dead or alive?" asked Huish. + +"I want to see him dead," said the captain. + +"Ah, well!" said Huish, "then I believe I'll do a bit of breakfast." + +And he turned into the house. + +The captain doggedly followed him. + +"What's this?" he asked. "What's your idea, anyway?" + +"O, you let me alone, will you?" said Huish, opening a bottle of +champagne. "You'll 'ear my idea soon enough. Wyte till I pour some cham +on my 'ot coppers." He drank a glass off, and affected to listen. +"'Ark!" said he, "'ear it fizz. Like 'am frying, I declyre. 'Ave a +glass, do, and look sociable." + +"No!" said the captain, with emphasis; "no, I will not! there's +business." + +"You p'ys your money and you tykes your choice, my little man," returned +Huish. "Seems rather a shyme to me to spoil your breakfast for wot's +really ancient 'istory." + +He finished three parts of a bottle of champagne, and nibbled a corner +of biscuit, with extreme deliberation; the captain sitting opposite and +champing the bit like an impatient horse. Then Huish leaned his arms on +the table and looked Davis in the face. + +"W'en you're ready!" said he. + +"Well, now, what's your idea?" said Davis, with a sigh. + +"Fair play!" said Huish. "What's yours?" + +"The trouble is that I've got none," replied Davis; and wandered for +some time in aimless discussion of the difficulties of their path, and +useless explanations of his own fiasco. + +"About done?" said Huish. + +"I'll dry up right here," replied Davis. + +"Well, then," said Huish, "you give me your 'and across the table, and +say, 'Gawd strike me dead if I don't back you up.'" + +His voice was hardly raised, yet it thrilled the hearer. His face seemed +the epitome of cunning, and the captain recoiled from it as from a blow. + +"What for?" said he. + +"Luck," said Huish. "Substantial guarantee demanded." + +And he continued to hold out his hand. + +"I don't see the good of any such tomfoolery," said the other. + +"I do, though," returned Huish. "Gimme your 'and and say the words; then +you'll 'ear my view of it. Don't, and you don't." + +The captain went through the required form, breathing short, and gazing +on the clerk with anguish. What to fear he knew not, yet he feared +slavishly what was to fall from the pale lips. + +"Now, if you'll excuse me 'alf a second," said Huish, "I'll go and fetch +the byby." + +"The baby?" said Davis. "What's that?" + +"Fragile. With care. This side up," replied the clerk with a wink, as he +disappeared. + +He returned, smiling to himself, and carrying in his hand a silk +handkerchief. The long stupid wrinkles ran up Davis's brow as he saw it. +What should it contain? He could think of nothing more recondite than a +revolver. + +Huish resumed his seat. + +"Now," said he, "are you man enough to take charge of 'Errick and the +niggers? Because I'll take care of Hattwater." + +"How?" cried Davis. "You can't!" + +"Tut, tut!" said the clerk. "You gimme time. Wot's the first point? The +first point is that we can't get ashore, and I'll make you a present of +that for a 'ard one. But 'ow about a flag of truce? Would that do the +trick, d'ye think? or would Attwater simply blyze aw'y at us in the +bloomin' boat like dawgs?" + +"No," said Davis, "I don't believe he would." + +"No more do I," said Huish; "I don't believe he would either; and I'm +sure I 'ope he won't! So then you can call us ashore. Next point is to +get near the managin' direction. And for that I'm going to 'ave you +write a letter, in w'ich you s'y you're ashymed to meet his eye, and +that the bearer, Mr. J. L. 'Uish, is empowered to represent you. Armed +with w'ich seemin'ly simple expedient, Mr. J. L. 'Uish will proceed to +business." + +He paused, like one who had finished, but still held Davis with his eye. + +"How?" said Davis. "Why?" + +"Well, you see, you're big," returned Huish; "'e knows you 'ave a gun in +your pocket, and anybody can see with 'alf an eye that you ain't the man +to 'esitate about usin' it. So it's no go with you, and never was; +you're out of the runnin', Dyvis. But he won't be afryde of me, I'm such +a little 'un! I'm unarmed--no kid about that--and I'll hold my 'ands up +right enough." He paused. "If I can manage to sneak up nearer to him as +we talk," he resumed, "you look out and back me up smart. If I don't, we +go aw'y again, and nothink to 'urt. See?" + +The captain's face was contorted by the frenzied effort to comprehend. + +"No, I don't see," he cried; "I can't see. What do you mean?" + +"I mean to do for the beast!" cried Huish, in a burst of venomous +triumph. "I'll bring the 'ulkin' bully to grass. He's 'ad his larks out +of me; I'm goin' to 'ave my lark out of 'im, and a good lark too!" + +"What is it?" said the captain, almost in a whisper. + +"Sure you want to know?" asked Huish. + +Davis rose and took a turn in the house. + +"Yes, I want to know," he said at last with an effort. + +"W'en your back's at the wall, you do the best you can, don't you?" +began the clerk. "I s'y that, because I 'appen to know there's a +prejudice against it; it's considered vulgar, awf'ly vulgar." He +unrolled the handkerchief and showed a four-ounce jar. "This 'ere's +vitriol, this is," said he. + +The captain stared upon him with a whitening face. + +"This is the stuff!" he pursued, holding it up. "This'll burn to the +bone; you'll see it smoke upon 'im like 'ell-fire! One drop upon 'is +bloomin' heyesight, and I'll trouble you for Attwater!" + +"No, no, by God!" exclaimed the captain. + +"Now, see 'ere, ducky," said Huish, "this is my bean-feast, I believe? +I'm goin' up to that man single-'anded, I am. 'E's about seven foot +high, and I'm five foot one. 'E's a rifle in his 'and, 'e's on the +look-out, 'e wasn't born yesterday. This is Dyvid and Goliar, I tell +you! If I'd ast you to walk up and face the music I could understand. +But I don't. I on'y ast you to stand by and spifflicate the niggers. +It'll all come in quite natural; you'll see, else! Fust thing, you know, +you'll see him running round and 'owling like a good 'un...." + +"Don't!" said Davis. "Don't talk of it!" + +"Well, you _are_ a juggins!" exclaimed Huish. "What did you want? You +wanted to kill him, and tried to last night. You wanted to kill the 'ole +lot of them, and tried to, and 'ere I show you 'ow; and because there's +some medicine in a bottle you kick up this fuss!" + +"I suppose that's so," said Davis. "It don't seem someways reasonable, +only there it is." + +"It's the happlication of science, I suppose?" sneered Huish. + +"I don't know what it is," cried Davis, pacing the floor; "it's there! I +draw the line at it. I can't put a finger to no such piggishness. It's +too damned hateful!" + +"And I suppose it's all your fancy pynted it," said Huish, "w'en you +take a pistol and a bit o' lead, and copse a man's brains all over him? +No accountin' for tystes." + +"I'm not denying it," said Davis; "it's something here, inside of me. +It's foolishness; I daresay it's dam foolishness. I don't argue; I just +draw the line. Isn't there no other way?" + +"Look for yourself," said Huish. "I ain't wedded to this, if you think I +am; I ain't ambitious; I don't make a point of playin' the lead; I offer +to, that's all, and if you can't show me better, by Gawd, I'm goin' to!" + +"Then the risk!" cried Davis. + +"If you ast me straight, I should say it was a case of seven to one, and +no takers," said Huish. "But that's my look-out, ducky, and I'm gyme. +Look at me, Dyvis, there ain't any shilly-shally about me. I'm gyme, +that's wot I am: gyme all through." + +The captain looked at him. Huish sat there preening his sinister vanity, +glorying in his precedency in evil; and the villainous courage and +readiness of the creature shone out of him like a candle from a lantern. +Dismay and a kind of respect seized hold on Davis in his own despite. +Until that moment he had seen the clerk always hanging back, always +listless, uninterested, and openly grumbling at a word of anything to +do; and now, by the touch of an enchanter's wand, he beheld him sitting +girt and resolved, and his face radiant. He had raised the devil, he +thought; and asked who was to control him, and his spirits quailed. + +"Look as long as you like," Huish was going on. "You don't see any green +in my eye! I ain't afryde of Attwater, I ain't afryde of you, and I +ain't afryde of words. You want to kill people, that's wot _you_ want; +but you want to do it in kid gloves, and it can't be done that w'y. +Murder ain't genteel, it ain't easy, it ain't safe, and it tykes a man +to do it. 'Ere's the man." + +"Huish!" began the captain with energy; and then stopped, and remained +staring at him with corrugated brows. + +"Well, hout with it!" said Huish. "'Ave you anythink else to put up? Is +there any other chanst to try?" + +The captain held his peace. + +"There you are then!" said Huish, with a shrug. + +Davis fell again to his pacing. + +"O, you may do sentry-go till you're blue in the mug, you won't find +anythink else," said Huish. + +There was a little silence; the captain, like a man launched on a swing, +flying dizzily among extremes of conjecture and refusal. + +"But see," he said, suddenly pausing. "Can you? Can the thing be done? +It--it can't be easy." + +"If I get within twenty foot of 'im it'll be done; so you look out," +said Huish, and his tone of certainty was absolute. + +"How can you know that?" broke from the captain in a choked cry. "You +beast, I believe you've done it before!" + +"O, that's private affyres," returned Huish; "I ain't a talking man." + +A shock of repulsion struck and shook the captain; a scream rose almost +to his lips; had he uttered it, he might have cast himself at the same +moment on the body of Huish, might have picked him up, and flung him +down, and wiped the cabin with him, in a frenzy of cruelty that seemed +half moral. But the moment passed; and the abortive crisis left the man +weaker. The stakes were so high--the pearls on the one hand--starvation +and shame on the other. Ten years of pearls! the imagination of Davis +translated them into a new, glorified existence for himself and his +family. The seat of this new life must be in London; there were deadly +reasons against Portland, Maine; and the pictures that came to him were +of English manners. He saw his boys marching in the procession of a +school, with gowns on, an usher marshalling them and reading as he +walked in a great book. He was installed in a villa, semi-detached; the +name, "Rosemore," on the gateposts. In a chair on the gravel walk he +seemed to sit smoking a cigar, a blue ribbon in his buttonhole, victor +over himself and circumstances and the malignity of bankers. He saw the +parlour, with red curtains, and shells on the mantelpiece--and, with the +fine inconsistency of visions, mixed a grog at the mahogany table ere he +turned in. With that the _Farallone_ gave one of the aimless and +nameless movements which (even in an anchored ship, and even in the most +profound calm) remind one of the mobility of fluids; and he was back +again under the cover of the house, the fierce daylight besieging it all +round and glaring in the chinks, and the clerk in a rather airy +attitude, awaiting his decision. + +He began to walk again. He aspired after the realisation of these +dreams, like a horse nickering for water; the lust of them burned in his +inside. And the only obstacle was Attwater, who had insulted him from +the first. He gave Herrick a full share of the pearls, he insisted on +it; Huish opposed him, and he trod the opposition down; and praised +himself exceedingly. He was not going to use vitriol himself; was he +Huish's keeper? It was a pity he had asked, but after all! ... he saw the +boys again in the school procession, with the gowns he had thought to be +so "tony" long since.... And at the same time the incomparable shame of +the last evening blazed up in his mind. + +"Have it your own way!" he said hoarsely. + +"O, I knew you would walk up," said Huish. "Now for the letter. There's +paper, pens, and ink. Sit down and I'll dictyte." + +The captain took a seat and the pen, looked a while helplessly at the +paper, then at Huish. The swing had gone the other way; there was a blur +upon his eyes. "It's a dreadful business," he said, with a strong twitch +of his shoulders. + +"It's rather a start, no doubt," said Huish. "Tyke a dip of ink. That's +it. _William John Hattwater, Esq. Sir:_" he dictated. + +"How do you know his name is William John?" asked Davis. + +"Saw it on a packing-case," said Huish. "Got that?" + +"No," said Davis. "But there's another thing. What are we to write?" + +"O my golly!" cried the exasperated Huish. "Wot kind of man do _you_ +call yourself? _I'm_ goin' to tell you wot to write; that's _my_ pitch; +if you'll just be so bloomin' condescendin' as to write it down! +_William John Attwater, Esq., Sir:_" he reiterated. And, the captain at +last beginning half mechanically to move his pen, the dictation +proceeded: "_It is with feelings of shyme and 'artfelt contrition that I +approach you after the yumiliatin' events of last night. Our Mr. 'Errick +has left the ship, and will have doubtless communicated to you the +nature of our 'opes. Needless to s'y, these are no longer possible: Fate +'as declyred against us, and we bow the 'ead. Well awyre as I am of the +just suspicions with w'ich I am regarded, I do not venture to solicit +the fyvour of an interview for myself, but in order to put an end to a +situytion w'ich must be equally pyneful to all, I 'ave deputed my friend +and partner, Mr. J. L. Huish, to l'y before you my proposals, and w'ich +by their moderytion, will, I trust, be found to merit your attention. +Mr. J. L. Huish is entirely unarmed, I swear to Gawd! and will 'old 'is +'ands over 'is 'ead from the moment he begins to approach you. I am your +fytheful servant, John Dyvis._" + +Huish read the letter with the innocent joy of amateurs, chuckled +gustfully to himself, and reopened it more than once after it was +folded, to repeat the pleasure, Davis meanwhile sitting inert and +heavily frowning. + +Of a sudden he rose; he seemed all abroad. "No!" he cried. "No! it can't +be! It's too much; it's damnation. God would never forgive it." + +"Well, and 'oo wants Him to?" returned Huish, shrill with fury. "You +were damned years ago for the _Sea Rynger_, and said so yourself. Well +then, be damned for something else, and 'old your tongue." + +The captain looked at him mistily. "No," he pleaded, "no, old man! don't +do it." + +"'Ere now," said Huish, "I'll give you my ultimytum. Go or st'y w'ere +you are; I don't mind; I'm goin' to see that man and chuck this vitriol +in his eyes. If you st'y I'll go alone; the niggers will likely knock me +on the 'ead, and a fat lot you'll be the better! But there's one thing +sure: I'll 'ear no more of your moonin' mullygrubbin' rot, and tyke it +stryte." + +The captain took it with a blink and a gulp. Memory, with phantom +voices, repeated in his ears something similar, something he had once +said to Herrick--years ago it seemed. + +"Now, gimme over your pistol," said Huish. "I 'ave to see all clear. Six +shots, and mind you don't wyste them." + +The captain, like a man in a nightmare, laid down his revolver on the +table, and Huish wiped the cartridges and oiled the works. + +It was close on noon, there was no breath of wind, and the heat was +scarce bearable, when the two men came on deck, had the boat manned, and +passed down, one after another, into the stern-sheets. A white shirt at +the end of an oar served as flag of truce; and the men, by direction, +and to give it the better chance to be observed, pulled with extreme +slowness. The isle shook before them like a place incandescent; on the +face of the lagoon blinding copper suns, no bigger than sixpences, +danced and stabbed them in the eyeballs: there went up from sand and +sea, and even from the boat, a glare of scathing brightness; and as they +could only peer abroad from between closed lashes, the excess of light +seemed to be changed into a sinister darkness, comparable to that of a +thundercloud before it bursts. + +The captain had come upon this errand for any one of a dozen reasons, +the last of which was desire for its success. Superstition rules all +men; semi-ignorant and gross natures, like that of Davis, it rules +utterly. For murder he had been prepared; but this horror of the +medicine in the bottle went beyond him, and he seemed to himself to be +parting the last strands that united him to God. The boat carried him on +to reprobation, to damnation; and he suffered himself to be carried +passively consenting, silently bidding farewell to his better self and +his hopes. + +Huish sat by his side in towering spirits that were not wholly genuine. +Perhaps as brave a man as ever lived, brave as a weasel, he must still +reassure himself with the tones of his own voice; he must play his part +to exaggeration, he must out-Herod Herod, insult all that was +respectable, and brave all that was formidable, in a kind of desperate +wager with himself. + +"Golly, but it's 'ot!" said he. "Cruel 'ot, I call it. Nice d'y to get +your gruel in! I s'y, you know, it must feel awf'ly peculiar to get +bowled over on a d'y like this. I'd rather 'ave it on a cowld and frosty +morning, wouldn't you? (Singing) ''_Ere we go round the mulberry bush on +a cowld and frosty mornin'._' (Spoken) Give you my word, I 'aven't +thought o' that in ten year; used to sing it at a hinfant school in +'Ackney, 'Ackney Wick it was. (Singing) '_This is the way the tyler +does, the tyler does._' (Spoken) Bloomin' 'umbug.--'Ow are you off now, +for the notion of a future styte? Do you cotton to the tea-fight views, +or the old red-'ot bogey business?" + +"O, dry up!" said the captain. + +"No, but I want to know," said Huish. "It's within the sp'ere of +practical politics for you and me, my boy; we may both be bowled over, +one up, t'other down, within the next ten minutes. It would be rather a +lark, now, if you only skipped across, came up smilin' t'other side, and +a hangel met you with a B. and S. under his wing. 'Ullo, you'd s'y: +come, I tyke this kind." + +The captain groaned. While Huish was thus airing and exercising his +bravado, the man at his side was actually engaged in prayer. Prayer, +what for? God knows. But out of his inconsistent, illogical, and +agitated spirit, a stream of supplication was poured forth, inarticulate +as himself, earnest as death and judgment. + +"Thou Gawd seest me!" continued Huish. "I remember I had that written in +my Bible. I remember the Bible too, all about Abinadab and +parties.--Well, Gawd!" apostrophising the meridian, "you're goin' to see +a rum start presently, I promise you that!" + +The captain bounded. + +"I'll have no blasphemy!" he cried, "no blasphemy in my boat." + +"All right, cap'," said Huish. "Anythink to oblige. Any other topic you +would like to sudgest, the ryne-gyge, the lightnin'-rod, Shykespeare, or +the musical glasses? 'Ere's conversation on tap. Put a penny in the +slot, and ... 'ullo! 'ere they are!" he cried. "Now or never! is 'e +goin' to shoot?" + +And the little man straightened himself into an alert and dashing +attitude, and looked steadily at the enemy. + +But the captain rose half up in the boat with eyes protruding. + +"What's that?" he cried. + +"Wot's wot?" said Huish. + +"Those--blamed things," said the captain. + +And indeed it was something strange. Herrick and Attwater, both armed +with Winchesters, had appeared out of the grove behind the figure-head; +and to either hand of them, the sun glistened upon two metallic objects, +locomotory like men, and occupying in the economy of these creatures the +places of heads--only the heads were faceless. To Davis, between wind +and water, his mythology appeared to have come alive and Tophet to be +vomiting demons. But Huish was not mystified a moment. + +"Divers' 'elmets, you ninny. Can't you see?" he said. + +"So they are," said Davis, with a gasp. "And why? O, I see, it's for +armour." + +"Wot did I tell you?" said Huish. "Dyvid and Goliar all the w'y and +back." + +The two natives (for they it was that were equipped in this unusual +panoply of war) spread out to right and left, and at last lay down in +the shade, on the extreme flank of the position. Even now that the +mystery was explained, Davis was hatefully preoccupied, stared at the +flame on their crests, and forgot, and then remembered with a smile, the +explanation. + +Attwater withdrew again into the grove, and Herrick, with his gun under +his arm, came down the pier alone. + +About halfway down he halted and hailed the boat. + +"What do you want?" he cried. + +"I'll tell that to Mr. Attwater," replied Huish, stepping briskly on the +ladder. "I don't tell it to you, because you played the trucklin' sneak. +Here's a letter for him: tyke it, and give it, and be 'anged to you!" + +"Davis, is this all right?" said Herrick. + +Davis raised his chin, glanced swiftly at Herrick and away again, and +held his peace. The glance was charged with some deep emotion, but +whether of hatred or of fear, it was beyond Herrick to divine. + +"Well," he said, "I'll give the letter." He drew a score with his foot +on the boards of the gangway. "Till I bring the answer, don't move a +step past this." + +And he returned to where Attwater leaned against a tree, and gave him +the letter. Attwater glanced it through. + +"What does that mean?" he asked, passing it to Herrick. "Treachery?" + +"O, I suppose so!" said Herrick. + +"Well, tell him to come on," said Attwater. "One isn't a fatalist for +nothing. Tell him to come on and to look out." + +Herrick returned to the figure-head. Half-way down the pier the clerk +was waiting, with Davis by his side. + +"You are to come along, Huish," said Herrick. "He bids you to look +out--no tricks." + +Huish walked briskly up the pier, and paused face to face with the young +man. + +"W'ere is 'e?" said he, and to Herrick's surprise, the low-bred, +insignificant face before him flushed suddenly crimson and went white +again. + +"Right forward," said Herrick, pointing. "Now, your hands above your +head." + +The clerk turned away from him and towards the figure-head, as though he +were about to address to it his devotions; he was seen to heave a deep +breath; and raised his arms. In common with many men of his unhappy +physical endowments, Huish's hands were disproportionately long and +broad, and the palms in particular enormous; a four-ounce jar was +nothing in that capacious fist. The next moment he was plodding steadily +forward on his mission. + +Herrick at first followed. Then a noise in his rear startled him, and he +turned about to find Davis already advanced as far as the figure-head. +He came, crouching and open-mouthed, as the mesmerised may follow the +mesmeriser; all human considerations, and even the care of his own life, +swallowed up in one abominable and burning curiosity. + +"Halt!" cried Herrick, covering him with his rifle. "Davis, what are you +doing, man? You are not to come." + +Davis instinctively paused, and regarded him with a dreadful vacancy of +eye. + +"Put your back to that figure-head--do you hear me?--and stand fast!" +said Herrick. + +The captain fetched a breath, stepped back against the figure-head, and +instantly redirected his glances after Huish. + +There was a hollow place of the sand in that part, and, as it were, a +glade among the coco-palms in which the direct noonday sun blazed +intolerably. At the far end, in the shadow, the tall figure of Attwater +was to be seen leaning on a tree; towards him, with his hands over his +head, and his steps smothered in the sand, the clerk painfully waded. +The surrounding glare threw out and exaggerated the man's smallness; it +seemed no less perilous an enterprise, this that he was gone upon, than +for a whelp to besiege a citadel. + +"There, Mr. Whish. That will do," cried Attwater. "From that distance, +and keeping your hands up, like a good boy, you can very well put me in +possession of the skipper's views." + +The interval betwixt them was perhaps forty feet; and Huish measured it +with his eye, and breathed a curse. He was already distressed with +labouring in the loose sand, and his arms ached bitterly from their +unnatural position. In the palm of his right hand the jar was ready; and +his heart thrilled, and his voice choked, as he began to speak. + +"Mr. Hattwater," said he, "I don't know if ever you 'ad a mother...." + +"I can set your mind at rest: I had," returned Attwater; "and +henceforth, if I may venture to suggest it, her name need not recur in +our communications. I should perhaps tell you that I am not amenable to +the pathetic." + +"I am sorry, sir, if I 'ave seemed to tresparse on your private +feelin's," said the clerk, cringing and stealing a step. "At least, sir, +you will never pe'suade me that you are not a perfec' gentleman; I know +a gentleman when I see him; and as such, I 'ave no 'esitation in +throwin' myself on your merciful consideration. It _is_ 'ard lines, no +doubt; it's 'ard lines to have to hown yourself beat; it's 'ard lines to +'ave to come and beg to you for charity." + +"When, if things had only gone right, the whole place was as good as +your own?" suggested Attwater. "I can understand the feeling." + +"You are judging me, Mr. Attwater," said the clerk, "and God knows how +unjustly! _Thou Gawd seest me_, was the tex' I 'ad in my Bible, w'ich my +father wrote it in with 'is own 'and upon the fly-leaft." + +"I am sorry I have to beg your pardon once more," said Attwater; "but, +do you know, you seem to me to be a trifle nearer, which is entirely +outside of our bargain. And I would venture to suggest that you take +one--two--three--steps back; and stay there." + +The devil, at this staggering disappointment, looked out of Huish's +face, and Attwater was swift to suspect. He frowned, he stared on the +little man, and considered. Why should he be creeping nearer? The next +moment his gun was at his shoulder. + +"Kindly oblige me by opening your hands. Open your hands wide--let me +see the fingers spread, you dog--throw down that thing you're holding!" +he roared, his rage and certitude increasing together. + +And then, at almost the same moment, the indomitable Huish decided to +throw, and Attwater pulled a trigger. There was scarce the difference of +a second between the two resolves, but it was in favour of the man with +the rifle; and the jar had not yet left the clerk's hand, before the +ball shattered both. For the twinkling of an eye the wretch was in +hell's agonies, bathed in liquid flames, a screaming bedlamite; and then +a second and more merciful bullet stretched him dead. + +The whole thing was come and gone in a breath. Before Herrick could turn +about, before Davis could complete his cry of horror, the clerk lay in +the sand, sprawling and convulsed. + +Attwater ran to the body; he stooped and viewed it; he put his finger in +the vitriol, and his face whitened and hardened with anger. + +Davis had not yet moved; he stood astonished, with his back to the +figure-head, his hands clutching it behind him, his body inclined +forward from the waist. + +Attwater turned deliberately and covered him with his rifle. + +"Davis," he cried, in a voice like a trumpet, "I give you sixty seconds +to make your peace with God!" + +Davis looked, and his mind awoke. He did not dream of self-defence, he +did not reach for his pistol. He drew himself up instead to face death, +with a quivering nostril. + +"I guess I'll not trouble the Old Man," he said; "considering the job I +was on, I guess it's better business to just shut my face." + +Attwater fired; there came a spasmodic movement of the victim, and +immediately above the middle of his forehead a black hole marred the +whiteness of the figure-head. A dreadful pause; then again the report, +and the solid sound and jar of the bullet in the wood; and this time the +captain had felt the wind of it along his cheek. A third shot, and he +was bleeding from one ear; and along the levelled rifle Attwater smiled +like a red Indian. + +The cruel game of which he was the puppet was now clear to Davis; three +times he had drunk of death, and he must look to drink of it seven times +more before he was despatched. He held up his hand. + +"Steady!" he cried; "I'll take your sixty seconds." + +"Good!" said Attwater. + +The captain shut his eyes tight like a child: he held his hands up at +last with a tragic and ridiculous gesture. + +"My God, for Christ's sake, look after my two kids," he said; and then, +after a pause and a falter, "for Christ's sake. Amen." + +And he opened his eyes and looked down the rifle with a quivering mouth. + +"But don't keep fooling me long!" he pleaded. + +"That's all your prayer?" asked Attwater, with a singular ring in his +voice. + +"Guess so," said Davis. + +"So?" said Attwater, resting the butt of his rifle on the ground, "is +that done? Is your peace made with Heaven? Because it is with me. Go, +and sin no more, sinful father. And remember that whatever you do to +others, God shall visit it again a thousandfold upon your innocents." + +The wretched Davis came staggering forward from his place against the +figure-head, fell upon his knees, and waved his hands, and fainted. + +When he came to himself again, his head was on Attwater's arm, and +close by stood one of the men in diver's helmets, holding a bucket of +water, from which his late executioner now laved his face. The memory of +that dreadful passage returned upon him in a clap; again he saw Huish +lying dead, again he seemed to himself to totter on the brink of an +unplumbed eternity. With trembling hands he seized hold of the man whom +he had come to slay; and his voice broke from him like that of a child +among the nightmares of fever: "O! isn't there no mercy? O! what must I +do to be saved?" + +"Ah!" thought Attwater, "here is the true penitent." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A TAIL-PIECE + + +On a very bright, hot, lusty, strongly-blowing noon, a fortnight after +the events recorded, and a month since the curtain rose upon this +episode, a man might have been spied praying on the sand by the lagoon +beach. A point of palm-trees isolated him from the settlement; and from +the place where he knelt, the only work of man's hand that interrupted +the expanse was the schooner _Farallone_, her berth quite changed, and +rocking at anchor some two miles to windward in the midst of the lagoon. +The noise of the Trade ran very boisterous in all parts of the island; +the nearer palm-trees crashed and whistled in the gusts, those farther +off contributed a humming bass like the roar of cities; and yet, to any +man less absorbed, there must have risen at times over this turmoil of +the winds the sharper note of the human voice from the settlement. There +all was activity. Attwater, stripped to his trousers, and lending a +strong hand of help, was directing and encouraging five Kanakas; from +his lively voice, and their more lively efforts, it was to be gathered +that some sudden and joyful emergency had set them in this bustle; and +the Union Jack floated once more on its staff. But the suppliant on the +beach, unconscious of their voices, prayed on with instancy and fervour, +and the sound of his voice rose and fell again, and his countenance +brightened and was deformed with changing moods of piety and terror. + +Before his closed eyes the skiff had been for some time tacking towards +the distant and deserted _Farallone_; and presently the figure of +Herrick might have been observed to board her, to pass for a while into +the house, thence forward to the forecastle, and at last to plunge into +the main hatch. In all these quarters his visit was followed by a coil +of smoke; and he had scarce entered his boat again and shoved off, +before flames broke forth upon the schooner. They burned gaily; kerosene +had not been spared, and the bellows of the Trade incited the +conflagration. About half-way on the return voyage, when Herrick looked +back, he beheld the _Farallone_ wrapped to the topmasts in leaping arms +of fire, and the voluminous smoke pursuing him along the face of the +lagoon. In one hour's time, he computed, the waters would have closed +over the stolen ship. + +It so chanced that, as his boat flew before the wind with much vivacity, +and his eyes were continually busy in the wake, measuring the progress +of the flames, he found himself embayed to the northward of the point of +palms, and here became aware at the same time of the figure of Davis +immersed in his devotion. An exclamation, part of annoyance, part of +amusement, broke from him: and he touched the helm and ran the prow upon +the beach not twenty feet from the unconscious devotee. Taking the +painter in his hand, he landed, and drew near, and stood over him. And +still the voluble and incoherent stream of prayer continued unabated. It +was not possible for him to overhear the suppliant's petitions, which he +listened to some while in a very mingled mood of humour and pity: and it +was only when his own name began to occur and to be conjoined with +epithets, that he at last laid his hand on the captain's shoulder. + +"Sorry to interrupt the exercise," said he; "but I want you to look at +the _Farallone_." + +The captain scrambled to his feet, and stood gasping and staring. "Mr. +Herrick, don't startle a man like that!" he said. "I don't seem someways +rightly myself since...." He broke off. "What did you say anyway? O, the +_Farallone_," and he looked languidly out. + +"Yes," said Herrick. "There she burns! and you may guess from that what +the news is." + +"The _Trinity Hall_, I guess," said the captain. + +"The same," said Herrick; "sighted half an hour ago, and coming up hand +over fist." + +"Well, it don't amount to a hill of beans," said the captain, with a +sigh. + +"O, come, that's rank ingratitude!" cries Herrick. + +"Well," replied the captain meditatively, "you mayn't just see the way +that I view it in, but I'd 'most rather stay here upon this island. I +found peace here, peace in believing. Yes, I guess this island is about +good enough for John Davis." + +"I never heard such nonsense!" cried Herrick. "What! with all turning +out in your favour the way it does, the _Farallone_ wiped out, the crew +disposed of, a sure thing for your wife and family, and you, yourself, +Attwater's spoiled darling and pet penitent!" + +"Now, Mr. Herrick, don't say that," said the captain gently; "when you +know he don't make no difference between us. But, O! why not be one of +us? why not come to Jesus right away, and let's meet in yon beautiful +land? That's just the one thing wanted; just say, 'Lord, I believe, help +Thou mine unbelief!' and He'll fold you in His arms. You see, I know! I +been a sinner myself!" + + + + +WEIR OF HERMISTON + +A FRAGMENT + + + + +_TO MY WIFE_ + + + _I saw rain falling and the rainbow drawn + On Lammermuir. Hearkening I heard again + In my precipitous city beaten bells + Winnow the keen sea wind. And here afar, + Intent on my own race and place, I wrote. + Take thou the writing: thine it is. For who + Burnished the sword, blew on the drowsy coal, + Held still the target higher, chary of praise + And prodigal of counsel--who but thou? + So now, in the end, if this the least be good, + If any deed be done, if any fire + Burn in the imperfect page, the praise be thine._ + + R. L. S. + + + + +WEIR OF HERMISTON + +INTRODUCTORY + + +In the wild end of a moorland parish, far out of the sight of any house, +there stands a cairn among the heather, and a little by east of it, in +the going down of the braeside, a monument with some verses half +defaced. It was here that Claverhouse shot with his own hand the Praying +Weaver of Balweary, and the chisel of Old Mortality has clinked on that +lonely gravestone. Public and domestic history have thus marked with a +bloody finger this hollow among the hills; and since the Cameronian gave +his life there, two hundred years ago, in a glorious folly, and without +comprehension or regret, the silence of the moss has been broken once +again by the report of firearms and the cry of the dying. + +The Deil's Hags was the old name. But the place is now called Francie's +Cairn. For a while it was told that Francie walked. Aggie Hogg met him +in the gloaming by the cairnside, and he spoke to her, with chattering +teeth, so that his words were lost. He pursued Rob Todd (if any one +could have believed Robbie) for the space of half a mile with pitiful +entreaties. But the age is one of incredulity; these superstitious +decorations speedily fell off; and the facts of the story itself, like +the bones of a giant buried there and half dug up, survived, naked and +imperfect, in the memory of the scattered neighbours. To this day, of +winter nights, when the sleet is on the window and the cattle are quiet +in the byre, there will be told again, amid the silence of the young and +the additions and corrections of the old, the tale of the Justice-Clerk +and of his son, young Hermiston, that vanished from men's knowledge; of +the two Kirsties and the four Black Brothers of the Cauldstaneslap; and +of Frank Innes, "the young fool advocate," that came into these moorland +parts to find his destiny. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +LIFE AND DEATH OF MRS. WEIR + + +The Lord Justice-Clerk was a stranger in that part of the country; but +his lady wife was known there from a child, as her race had been before +her. The old "riding Rutherfords of Hermiston," of whom she was the last +descendant, had been famous men of yore, ill neighbours, ill subjects, +and ill husbands to their wives, though not their properties. Tales of +them were rife for twenty miles about; and their name was even printed +in the page of our Scots histories, not always to their credit. One bit +the dust at Flodden; one was hanged at his peel door by James the Fifth; +another fell dead in a carouse with Tom Dalyell; while a fourth (and +that was Jean's own father) died presiding at a Hell-Fire Club, of which +he was the founder. There were many heads shaken in Crossmichael at that +judgment; the more so as the man had a villainous reputation among high +and low, and both with the godly and the worldly. At that very hour of +his demise he had ten going pleas before the Session, eight of them +oppressive. And the same doom extended even to his agents; his grieve, +that had been his right hand in many a left-hand business, being cast +from his horse one night and drowned in a peat-hag on the Kye-skairs; +and his very doer (although lawyers have long spoons) surviving him not +long, and dying on a sudden in a bloody flux. + +In all these generations, while a male Rutherford was in the saddle with +his lads, or brawling in a change-house, there would be always a +white-faced wife immured at home in the old peel or the later +mansion-house. It seemed this succession of martyrs bided long, but took +their vengeance in the end, and that was in the person of the last +descendant, Jean. She bore the name of the Rutherfords, but she was the +daughter of their trembling wives. At the first she was not wholly +without charm. Neighbours recalled in her, as a child, a strain of elfin +wilfulness, gentle little mutinies, sad little gaieties, even a morning +gleam of beauty that was not to be fulfilled. She withered in the +growing, and (whether it was the sins of her sires or the sorrows of her +mothers) came to her maturity depressed, and, as it were, defaced; no +blood of life in her, no grasp or gaiety; pious, anxious, tender, +tearful, and incompetent. + +It was a wonder to many that she had married--seeming so wholly of the +stuff that makes old maids. But chance cast her in the path of Adam +Weir, then the new Lord Advocate, a recognised, risen man, the conqueror +of many obstacles, and thus late in the day beginning to think upon a +wife. He was one who looked rather to obedience than beauty, yet it +would seem he was struck with her at the first look. "Wha's she?" he +said, turning to his host; and, when he had been told, "Ay," says he, +"she looks menseful. She minds me----"; and then, after a pause (which +some have been daring enough to set down to sentimental recollections), +"Is she releegious?" he asked, and was shortly after, at his own +request, presented. The acquaintance, which it seems profane to call a +courtship, was pursued with Mr. Weir's accustomed industry, and was long +a legend, or rather a source of legends, in the Parliament House. He was +described coming, rosy with much port, into the drawing-room, walking +direct up to the lady, and assailing her with pleasantries to which the +embarrassed fair one responded, in what seemed a kind of agony, "Eh, Mr. +Weir!" or "O, Mr. Weir!" or "Keep me, Mr. Weir!" On the very eve of +their engagement, it was related that one had drawn near to the tender +couple, and had overheard the lady cry out, with the tones of one who +talked for the sake of talking, "Keep me, Mr. Weir, and what became of +him?" and the profound accents of the suitor reply, "Haangit, mem, +haangit." The motives upon either side were much debated. Mr. Weir must +have supposed his bride to be somewhat suitable; perhaps he belonged to +that class of men who think a weak head the ornament of women--an +opinion invariably punished in this life. Her descent and her estate +were beyond question. Her wayfaring ancestors and her litigious father +had done well by Jean. There was ready money and there were broad acres, +ready to fall wholly to the husband, to lend dignity to his descendants, +and to himself a title, when he should be called upon the Bench. On the +side of Jean, there was perhaps some fascination of curiosity as to this +unknown male animal that approached her with the roughness of a +ploughman and the _aplomb_ of an advocate. Being so trenchantly opposed +to all she knew, loved, or understood, he may well have seemed to her +the extreme, if scarcely the ideal, of his sex. And besides, he was an +ill man to refuse. A little over forty at the period of his marriage, he +looked already older, and to the force of manhood added the senatorial +dignity of years; it was, perhaps, with an unreverend awe, but he was +awful. The Bench, the Bar, and the most experienced and reluctant +witness, bowed to his authority--and why not Jeannie Rutherford? + +The heresy about foolish women is always punished, I have said, and Lord +Hermiston began to pay the penalty at once. His house in George Square +was wretchedly ill-guided; nothing answerable to the expense of +maintenance but the cellar, which was his own private care. When things +went wrong at dinner, as they continually did, my lord would look up the +table at his wife: "I think these broth would be better to sweem in than +to sup." Or else to the butler: "Here, M'Killop, awa' wi' this Raadical +gigot--tak' it to the French, man, and bring me some puddocks! It seems +rather a sore kind of business that I should be all day in Court +haanging Radicals, and get nawthing to my denner." Of course this was +but a manner of speaking, and he had never hanged a man for being a +Radical in his life; the law, of which he was the faithful minister, +directing otherwise. And of course these growls were in the nature of +pleasantry, but it was of a recondite sort; and uttered as they were in +his resounding voice, and commented on by that expression which they +called in the Parliament House "Hermiston's hanging face"--they struck +mere dismay into the wife. She sat before him speechless and fluttering; +at each dish, as at a fresh ordeal, her eye hovered toward my lord's +countenance and fell again; if he but ate in silence, unspeakable relief +was her portion; if there were complaint, the world was darkened. She +would seek out the cook, who was always her _sister in the Lord_. "O, my +dear, this is the most dreidful thing that my lord can never be +contented in his own house!" she would begin; and weep and pray with the +cook; and then the cook would pray with Mrs. Weir; and the next day's +meal would never be a penny the better--and the next cook (when she +came) would be worse, if anything, but just as pious. It was often +wondered that Lord Hermiston bore it as he did; indeed, he was a stoical +old voluptuary, contented with sound wine and plenty of it. But there +were moments when he overflowed. Perhaps half a dozen times in the +history of his married life--"Here! tak' it awa', and bring me a piece +of bread and kebbuck!" he had exclaimed, with an appalling explosion of +his voice and rare gestures. None thought to dispute or to make excuses; +the service was arrested; Mrs. Weir sat at the head of the table +whimpering without disguise; and his lordship opposite munched his bread +and cheese in ostentatious disregard. Once only Mrs. Weir had ventured +to appeal. He was passing her chair on his way into the study. + +"O, Edom!" she wailed, in a voice tragic with tears, and reaching out to +him both hands, in one of which she held a sopping pocket-handkerchief. + +He paused and looked upon her with a face of wrath, into which there +stole, as he looked, a twinkle of humour. + +"Noansense!" he said. "You and your noansense! What do I want with a +Christian faim'ly? I want Christian broth! Get me a lass that can +plain-boil a potato, if she was a whüre off the streets." And with +these words, which echoed in her tender ears like blasphemy, he had +passed on to his study and shut the door behind him. + +Such was the housewifery in George Square. It was better at Hermiston, +where Kirstie Elliott, the sister of a neighbouring bonnet-laird, and an +eighteenth cousin of the lady's, bore the charge of all, and kept a trim +house and a good country table. Kirstie was a woman in a thousand, +clean, capable, notable; once a moorland Helen, and still comely as a +blood horse and healthy as the hill wind. High in flesh and voice and +colour, she ran the house with her whole intemperate soul, in a bustle, +not without buffets. Scarce more pious than decency in those days +required, she was the cause of many an anxious thought and many a +tearful prayer to Mrs. Weir. Housekeeper and mistress renewed the parts +of Martha and Mary; and though with a pricking conscience, Mary reposed +on Martha's strength as on a rock. Even Lord Hermiston held Kirstie in a +particular regard. There were few with whom he unbent so gladly, few +whom he favoured with so many pleasantries. "Kirstie and me maun have +our joke," he would declare, in high good-humour, as he buttered +Kirstie's scones, and she waited at table. A man who had no need either +of love or of popularity, a keen reader of men and of events, there was +perhaps only one truth for which he was quite unprepared: he would have +been quite unprepared to learn that Kirstie hated him. He thought maid +and master were well matched; hard, handy, healthy, broad Scots folk, +without a hair of nonsense to the pair of them. And the fact was that +she made a goddess and an only child of the effete and tearful lady; and +even as she waited at table her hands would sometimes itch for my lord's +ears. + +Thus, at least, when the family were at Hermiston, not only my lord, but +Mrs. Weir too, enjoyed a holiday. Free from the dreadful looking-for of +the miscarried dinner, she would mind her seam, read her piety books, +and take her walk (which was my lord's orders), sometimes by herself, +sometimes with Archie, the only child of that scarce natural union. The +child was her next bond to life. Her frosted sentiment bloomed again, +she breathed deep of life, she let loose her heart, in that society. The +miracle of her motherhood was ever new to her. The sight of the little +man at her skirt intoxicated her with the sense of power, and froze her +with the consciousness of her responsibility. She looked forward, and, +seeing him in fancy grow up and play his diverse part on the world's +theatre, caught in her breath and lifted up her courage with a lively +effort. It was only with the child that she forgot herself and was at +moments natural; yet it was only with the child that she had conceived +and managed to pursue a scheme of conduct. Archie was to be a great man +and a good; a minister if possible, a saint for certain. She tried to +engage his mind upon her favourite books, Rutherford's "Letters," +Scougal's "Grace Abounding," and the like. It was a common practice of +hers (and strange to remember now) that she would carry the child to the +Deil's Hags, sit with him on the Praying Weaver's Stone, and talk of the +Covenanters till their tears ran down. Her view of history was wholly +artless, a design in snow and ink; upon the one side, tender innocents +with psalms upon their lips; upon the other, the persecutors, booted, +bloody-minded, flushed with wine: a suffering Christ, a raging +Beelzebub. _Persecutor_ was a word that knocked upon the woman's heart; +it was her highest thought of wickedness, and the mark of it was on her +house. Her great-great-grandfather had drawn the sword against the +Lord's anointed on the field of Rullion Green, and breathed his last +(tradition said) in the arms of the detestable Dalyell. Nor could she +blind herself to this, that had they lived in those old days, Hermiston +himself would have been numbered alongside of Bloody Mackenzie and the +politic Lauderdale and Rothes, in the band of God's immediate enemies. +The sense of this moved her to the more fervour; she had a voice for +that name of _persecutor_ that thrilled in the child's marrow; and when +one day the mob hooted and hissed them all in my lord's travelling +carriage, and cried, "Down with the persecutor! down with Hanging +Hermiston!" and mamma covered her eyes and wept, and papa let down the +glass and looked out upon the rabble with his droll formidable face, +bitter and smiling, as they said he sometimes looked when he gave +sentence, Archie was for the moment too much amazed to be alarmed, but +he had scarce got his mother by herself before his shrill voice was +raised demanding an explanation: why had they called papa a persecutor? + +"Keep me, my precious!" she exclaimed. "Keep me, my dear! this is +poleetical. Ye must never ask me anything poleetical, Erchie. Your +faither is a great man, my dear, and it's no for me or you to be judging +him. It would be telling us all, if we behaved ourselves in our several +stations the way your faither does in his high office; and let me hear +no more of any such disrespectful and undutiful questions! No that you +meant to be undutiful, my lamb; your mother kens that--she kens it well, +dearie!" And so slid off to safer topics, and left on the mind of the +child an obscure but ineradicable sense of something wrong. + +Mrs. Weir's philosophy of life was summed in one expression--tenderness. +In her view of the universe, which was all lighted up with a glow out of +the doors of hell, good people must walk there in a kind of ecstasy of +tenderness. The beasts and plants had no souls; they were here but for a +day, and let their day pass gently! And as for the immortal men, on what +black, downward path were many of them wending, and to what a horror of +an immortality! "Are not two sparrows," "Whosoever shall smite thee," +"God sendeth His rain," "Judge not, that ye be not judged"--these texts +made her body of divinity; she put them on in the morning with her +clothes and lay down to sleep with them at night; they haunted her like +a favourite air, they clung about her like a favourite perfume. Their +minister was a marrowy expounder of the law, and my lord sat under him +with relish; but Mrs. Weir respected him from far off; heard him (like +the cannon of a beleaguered city) usefully booming outside on the +dogmatic ramparts; and meanwhile, within and out of shot, dwelt in her +private garden which she watered with grateful tears. It seems strange +to say of this colourless and ineffectual woman, but she was a true +enthusiast, and might have made the sunshine and the glory of a +cloister. Perhaps none but Archie knew she could be eloquent; perhaps +none but he had seen her--her colour raised, her hands clasped or +quivering--glow with gentle ardour. There is a corner of the policy of +Hermiston, where you come suddenly in view of the summit of Black Fell, +sometimes like the mere grass top of a hill, sometimes (and this is her +own expression) like a precious jewel in the heavens. On such days, upon +the sudden view of it, her hand would tighten on the child's fingers, +her voice rise like a song. "_I to the hills!_" she would repeat. "And +O, Erchie, arena these like the hills of Naphtali?" and her tears would +flow. + +Upon an impressionable child the effect of this continual and pretty +accompaniment to life was deep. The woman's quietism and piety passed on +to his different nature undiminished; but whereas in her it was a native +sentiment, in him it was only an implanted dogma. Nature and the child's +pugnacity at times revolted. A cad from the Potterrow once struck him in +the mouth; he struck back, the pair fought it out in the back stable +lane towards the Meadows, and Archie returned with a considerable +decline in the number of his front teeth, and unregenerately boasting of +the losses of the foe. It was a sore day for Mrs. Weir; she wept and +prayed over the infant backslider until my lord was due from Court, and +she must resume that air of tremulous composure with which she always +greeted him. The judge was that day in an observant mood, and remarked +upon the absent teeth. + +"I am afraid Erchie will have been fechting with some of thae blagyard +lads," said Mrs. Weir. + +My lord's voice rang out as it did seldom in the privacy of his own +house. "I'll have nonn of that, sir!" he cried. "Do you hear me?--nonn +of that! No son of mine shall be speldering in the glaur with any dirty +raibble." + +The anxious mother was grateful for so much support; she had even feared +the contrary. And that night when she put the child to bed--"Now, my +dear, ye see!" she said, "I told you what your faither would think of +it, if he heard ye had fallen into this dreidful sin; and let you and me +pray to God that ye may be keepit from the like temptation or +stren'thened to resist it!" + +The womanly falsity of this was thrown away. Ice and iron cannot be +welded; and the points of view of the Justice-Clerk and Mrs. Weir were +not less unassimilable. The character and position of his father had +long been a stumbling-block to Archie, and with every year of his age +the difficulty grew more instant. The man was mostly silent; when he +spoke at all, it was to speak of the things of the world, always in a +worldly spirit, often in language that the child had been schooled to +think coarse, and sometimes with words that he knew to be sins in +themselves. Tenderness was the first duty, and my lord was invariably +harsh. God was love; the name of my lord (to all who knew him) was fear. +In the world, as schematised for Archie by his mother, the place was +marked for such a creature. There were some whom it was good to pity and +well (though very likely useless) to pray for; they were named +reprobates, goats, God's enemies, brands for the burning; and Archie +tallied every mark of identification, and drew the inevitable private +inference that the Lord Justice-Clerk was the chief of sinners. + +The mother's honesty was scarce complete. There was one influence she +feared for the child and still secretly combated; that was my lord's; +and half unconsciously, half in a wilful blindness, she continued to +undermine her husband with his son. As long as Archie remained silent, +she did so ruthlessly, with a single eye to heaven and the child's +salvation; but the day came when Archie spoke. It was 1801, and Archie +was seven, and beyond his years for curiosity and logic, when he brought +the case up openly. If judging were sinful and forbidden, how came papa +to be a judge? to have that sin for a trade? to bear the name of it for +a distinction? + +"I can't see it," said the little Rabbi, and wagged his head. + +Mrs. Weir abounded in commonplace replies. + +"No, I canna see it," reiterated Archie. "And I'll tell you what, mamma, +I don't think you and me's justifeed in staying with him." + +The woman awoke to remorse; she saw herself disloyal to her man, her +sovereign and bread-winner, in whom (with what she had of worldliness) +she took a certain subdued pride. She expatiated in reply on my lord's +honour and greatness; his useful services in this world of sorrow and +wrong, and the place in which he stood, far above where babes and +innocents could hope to see or criticise. But she had builded too +well--Archie had his answers pat: Were not babes and innocents the type +of the kingdom of heaven? Were not honour and greatness the badges of +the world? And at any rate, how about the mob that had once seethed +about the carriage? + +"It's all very fine," he concluded, "but in my opinion, papa has no +right to be it. And it seems that's not the worst yet of it. It seems +he's called 'the Hanging Judge'--it seems he's crooool. I'll tell you +what it is, mamma, there's a tex' borne in upon me: It were better for +that man if a milestone were bound upon his back and him flung into the +deepestmost pairts of the sea." + +"O my lamb, ye must never say the like of that!" she cried. "Ye're to +honour faither and mother, dear, that your days may be long in the land. +It's Atheists that cry out against him--French Atheists, Erchie! Ye +would never surely even yourself down to be saying the same thing as +French Atheists? It would break my heart to think that of you. And O, +Erchie, here arena _you_ setting up to _judge_? And have ye no forgot +God's plain command--the First with Promise, dear? Mind you upon the +beam and the mote!" + +Having thus carried the war into the enemy's camp, the terrified lady +breathed again. And no doubt it is easy thus to circumvent a child with +catchwords, but it may be questioned how far it is effectual. An +instinct in his breast detects the quibble, and a voice condemns it. He +will instantly submit, privately hold the same opinion. For even in this +simple and antique relation of the mother and the child, hypocrisies are +multiplied. + +When the Court rose that year and the family returned to Hermiston, it +was a common remark in all the country that the lady was sore failed. +She seemed to lose and seize again her touch with life, now sitting +inert in a sort of durable bewilderment, anon waking to feverish and +weak activity. She dawdled about the lasses at their work, looking +stupidly on; she fell to rummaging in old cabinets and presses, and +desisted when half through; she would begin remarks with an air of +animation and drop them without a struggle. Her common appearance was of +one who has forgotten something and is trying to remember; and when she +overhauled, one after another, the worthless and touching mementoes of +her youth, she might have been seeking the clue to that lost thought. +During this period she gave many gifts to the neighbours and house +lasses, giving them with a manner of regret that embarrassed the +recipients. + +The last night of all she was busy on some female work, and toiled upon +it with so manifest and painful a devotion that my lord (who was not +often curious) inquired as to its nature. + +She blushed to the eyes. "O, Edom, it's for you!" she said. "It's +slippers. I--I hae never made ye any." + +"Ye daft auld wife!" returned his lordship. "A bonny figure I would be, +palmering about in bauchles!" + +The next day, at the hour of her walk, Kirstie interfered. Kirstie took +this decay of her mistress very hard; bore her a grudge, quarrelled +with and railed upon her, the anxiety of a genuine love wearing the +disguise of temper. This day of all days she insisted disrespectfully, +with rustic fury, that Mrs. Weir should stay at home. But, "No, no," she +said, "it's my lord's orders," and set forth as usual. Archie was +visible in the acre bog, engaged upon some childish enterprise, the +instrument of which was mire; and she stood and looked at him a while +like one about to call; then thought otherwise, sighed, and shook her +head, and proceeded on her rounds alone. The house lasses were at the +burn-side washing, and saw her pass with her loose, weary, dowdy gait. + +"She's a terrible feckless wife the mistress!" said the one. + +"Tut," said the other, "the wumman's seeck." + +"Weel, I canna see nae differ in her," returned the first. "A +füshionless quean, a feckless carline." + +The poor creature thus discussed rambled a while in the grounds without +a purpose. Tides in her mind ebbed and flowed, and carried her to and +fro like seaweed. She tried a path, paused, returned, and tried another; +questing, forgetting her quest; the spirit of choice extinct in her +bosom, or devoid of sequency. On a sudden, it appeared as though she had +remembered, or had formed a resolution, wheeled about, returned with +hurried steps, and appeared in the dining-room, where Kirstie was at the +cleaning, like one charged with an important errand. + +"Kirstie!" she began, and paused; and then with conviction, "Mr. Weir +isna speeritually minded, but he has been a good man to me." + +It was perhaps the first time since her husband's elevation that she had +forgotten the handle to his name, of which the tender, inconsistent +woman was not a little proud. And when Kirstie looked up at the +speaker's face, she was aware of a change. + +"Godsake, what's the maitter wi' ye, mem?" cried the housekeeper, +starting from the rug. + +"I do not ken," answered her mistress, shaking her head. "But he is not +speeritually minded, my dear." + +"Here, sit down with ye! Godsake, what ails the wife?" cried Kirstie, +and helped and forced her into my lord's own chair by the cheek of the +hearth. + +"Keep me, what's this?" she gasped. "Kirstie, what's this? I'm +frich'ened." + +They were her last words. + +It was the lowering nightfall when my lord returned. He had the sunset +in his back, all clouds and glory; and before him, by the wayside, spied +Kirstie Elliott waiting. She was dissolved in tears, and addressed him +in the high, false note of barbarous mourning, such as still lingers +modified among Scots heather. + +"The Lord peety ye, Hermiston! the Lord prepare ye!" she keened out. +"Weary upon me, that I should have to tell it!" + +He reined in his horse and looked upon her with the hanging face. + +"Has the French landit?" cried he. + +"Man, man," she said, "is that a' ye can think of? The Lord prepare ye: +the Lord comfort and support ye!" + +"Is onybody deid?" says his lordship. "It's no Erchie?" + +"Bethankit, no!" exclaimed the woman, startled into a more natural tone. +"Na, na, it's no sae bad as that. It's the mistress, my lord; she just +fair flittit before my e'en. She just gi'ed a sab and was by wi' it. Eh, +my bonny Miss Jeannie, that I mind sae weel!" And forth again upon that +pouring tide of lamentation in which women of her class excel and +over-abound. + +Lord Hermiston sat in the saddle beholding her. Then he seemed to +recover command upon himself. + +"Weel, it's something of the suddenest," said he. "But she was a dwaibly +body from the first." + +And he rode home at a precipitate amble with Kirstie at his horse's +heels. + +Dressed as she was for her last walk, they had laid the dead lady on her +bed. She was never interesting in life; in death she was not impressive; +and as her husband stood before her, with his hands crossed behind his +powerful back, that which he looked upon was the very image of the +insignificant. + +"Her and me were never cut out for one another," he remarked at last. +"It was a daft-like marriage." And then, with a most unusual gentleness +of tone, "Puir bitch," said he, "puir bitch!" Then suddenly: "Where's +Erchie?" + +Kirstie had decoyed him to her room and given him "a jeely-piece." + +"Ye have some kind of gumption, too," observed the judge, and considered +his housekeeper grimly. "When all's said," he added, "I micht have done +waur--I micht have been marriet upon a skirling Jezebel like you!" + +"There's naebody thinking of you, Hermiston!" cried the offended woman. +"We think of her that's out of her sorrows. And could _she_ have done +waur? Tell me that, Hermiston--tell me that before her clay-cauld corp!" + +"Weel, there's some of them gey an' ill to please," observed his +lordship. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FATHER AND SON + + +My Lord Justice-Clerk was known to many; the man Adam Weir perhaps to +none. He had nothing to explain or to conceal; he sufficed wholly and +silently to himself; and that part of our nature which goes out (too +often with false coin) to acquire glory or love, seemed in him to be +omitted. He did not try to be loved, he did not care to be; it is +probable the very thought of it was a stranger to his mind. He was an +admired lawyer, a highly unpopular judge; and he looked down upon those +who were his inferiors in either distinction, who were lawyers of less +grasp or judges not so much detested. In all the rest of his days and +doings, not one trace of vanity appeared; and he went on through life +with a mechanical movement, as of the unconscious, that was almost +august. + +He saw little of his son. In the childish maladies with which the boy +was troubled, he would make daily inquiries and daily pay him a visit, +entering the sick-room with a facetious and appalling countenance, +letting off a few perfunctory jests, and going again swiftly, to the +patient's relief. Once, a Court holiday falling opportunely, my lord had +his carriage, and drove the child himself to Hermiston, the customary +place of convalescence. It is conceivable he had been more than usually +anxious, for that journey always remained in Archie's memory as a thing +apart, his father having related to him from beginning to end, and with +much detail, three authentic murder cases. Archie went the usual round +of other Edinburgh boys, the High School and the College; and Hermiston +looked on, or rather looked away, with scarce an affectation of +interest in his progress. Daily, indeed, upon a signal after dinner, he +was brought in, given nuts and a glass of port, regarded sardonically, +sarcastically questioned. "Well, sir, and what have you donn with your +book to-day?" my lord might begin, and set him posers in law Latin. To a +child just stumbling into Corderius, Papinian and Paul proved quite +invincible. But papa had memory of no other. He was not harsh to the +little scholar, having a vast fund of patience learned upon the Bench, +and was at no pains whether to conceal or to express his disappointment. +"Well, ye have a long jaunt before ye yet!" he might observe, yawning, +and fall back on his own thoughts (as like as not) until the time came +for separation, and my lord would take the decanter and the glass, and +be off to the back chamber looking on the Meadows, where he toiled on +his cases till the hours were small. There was no "fuller man" on the +Bench; his memory was marvellous, though wholly legal; if he had to +"advise" extempore, none did it better; yet there was none who more +earnestly prepared. As he thus watched in the night, or sat at table and +forgot the presence of his son, no doubt but he tasted deeply of +recondite pleasures. To be wholly devoted to some intellectual exercise +is to have succeeded in life; and perhaps only in law and the higher +mathematics may this devotion be maintained, suffice to itself without +reaction, and find continual rewards without excitement. This atmosphere +of his father's sterling industry was the best of Archie's education. +Assuredly it did not attract him; assuredly it rather rebutted and +depressed. Yet it was still present, unobserved like the ticking of a +clock, an arid ideal, a tasteless stimulant in the boy's life. + +But Hermiston was not all of one piece. He was, besides, a mighty toper; +he could sit at wine until the day dawned, and pass directly from the +table to the Bench with a steady hand and a clear head. Beyond the third +bottle, he showed the plebeian in a larger print; the low, gross accent, +the low, foul mirth, grew broader and commoner; he became less +formidable, and infinitely more disgusting. Now, the boy had inherited +from Jean Rutherford a shivering delicacy, unequally mated with +potential violence. In the playing-fields, and amongst his own +companions, he repaid a coarse expression with a blow; at his father's +table (when the time came for him to join these revels) he turned pale +and sickened in silence. Of all the guests whom he there encountered, he +had toleration for only one: David Keith Carnegie, Lord Glenalmond. Lord +Glenalmond was tall and emaciated, with long features and long delicate +hands. He was often compared with the statue of Forbes of Culloden in +the Parliament House; and his blue eye, at more than sixty, preserved +some of the fire of youth. His exquisite disparity with any of his +fellow-guests, his appearance as of an artist and an aristocrat stranded +in rude company, riveted the boy's attention; and as curiosity and +interest are the things in the world that are the most immediately and +certainly rewarded, Lord Glenalmond was attracted by the boy. + +"And so this is your son, Hermiston?" he asked, laying his hand on +Archie's shoulder. "He's getting a big lad." + +"Hout!" said the gracious father, "just his mother over again--daurna +say boo to a goose!" + +But the stranger retained the boy, talked to him, drew him out, found in +him a taste for letters, and a fine, ardent, modest, youthful soul; and +encouraged him to be a visitor on Sunday evenings in his bare, cold, +lonely dining-room, where he sat and read in the isolation of a bachelor +grown old in refinement. The beautiful gentleness and grace of the old +judge, and the delicacy of his person, thoughts, and language, spoke to +Archie's heart in its own tongue. He conceived the ambition to be such +another; and, when the day came for him to choose a profession, it was +in emulation of Lord Glenalmond, not of Lord Hermiston, that he chose +the Bar. Hermiston looked on at this friendship with some secret pride, +but openly with the intolerance of scorn. He scarce lost an opportunity +to put them down with a rough jape; and, to say truth, it was not +difficult, for they were neither of them quick. He had a word of +contempt for the whole crowd of poets, painters, fiddlers, and their +admirers, the bastard race of amateurs, which was continually on his +lips. "Signor Feedle-eerie!" he would say. "O, for Goad's sake, no more +of the Signor!" + +"You and my father are great friends, are you not?" asked Archie once. + +"There is no man that I more respect, Archie," replied Lord Glenalmond. +"He is two things of price: he is a great lawyer, and he is upright as +the day." + +"You and he are so different," said the boy, his eyes dwelling on those +of his old friend, like a lover's on his mistress's. + +"Indeed so," replied the judge; "very different. And so I fear are you +and he. Yet I would like it very ill if my young friend were to misjudge +his father. He has all the Roman virtues: Cato and Brutus were such; I +think a son's heart might well be proud of such an ancestry of one." + +"And I would sooner he were a plaided herd," cried Archie, with sudden +bitterness. + +"And that is neither very wise, nor I believe entirely true," returned +Glenalmond. "Before you are done you will find some of these expressions +rise on you like a remorse. They are merely literary and decorative; +they do not aptly express your thought, nor is your thought clearly +apprehended, and no doubt your father (if he were here) would say, +'Signor Feedle-eerie!'" + +With the infinitely delicate sense of youth, Archie avoided the subject +from that hour. It was perhaps a pity. Had he but talked--talked +freely--let himself gush out in words (the way youth loves to do, and +should), there might have been no tale to write upon the Weirs of +Hermiston. But the shadow of a threat of ridicule sufficed; in the +slight tartness of these words he read a prohibition; and it is likely +that Glenalmond meant it so. + +Besides the veteran, the boy was without confidant or friend. Serious +and eager, he came through school and college, and moved among a crowd +of the indifferent, in the seclusion of his shyness. He grew up +handsome, with an open, speaking countenance, with graceful, youthful +ways; he was clever, he took prizes, he shone in the Speculative +Society. It should seem he must become the centre of a crowd of friends; +but something that was in part the delicacy of his mother, in part the +austerity of his father, held him aloof from all. It is a fact, and a +strange one, that among his contemporaries Hermiston's son was thought +to be a chip of the old block. "You're a friend of Archie Weir's?" said +one to Frank Innes; and Innes replied, with his usual flippancy and more +than his usual insight: "I know Weir, but I never met Archie." No one +had met Archie, a malady most incident to only sons. He flew his private +signal, and none heeded it; it seemed he was abroad in a world from +which the very hope of intimacy was banished; and he looked round about +him on the concourse of his fellow-students, and forward to the trivial +days and acquaintances that were to come, without hope or interest. + +As time went on, the tough and rough old sinner felt himself drawn to +the son of his loins and sole continuator of his new family, with +softnesses of sentiment that he could hardly credit and was wholly +impotent to express. With a face, voice, and manner trained through +forty years to terrify and repel, Rhadamanthus may be great, but he will +scarce be engaging. It is a fact that he tried to propitiate Archie, but +a fact that cannot be too lightly taken; the attempt was so +unconspicuously made, the failure so stoically supported. Sympathy is +not due to these steadfast iron natures. If he failed to gain his son's +friendship, or even his son's toleration, on he went up the great, bare +staircase of his duty, uncheered and undepressed. There might have been +more pleasure in his relations with Archie, so much he may have +recognised at moments; but pleasure was a by-product of the singular +chemistry of life, which only fools expected. + +An idea of Archie's attitude, since we are all grown up and have +forgotten the days of our youth, it is more difficult to convey. He made +no attempt whatsoever to understand the man with whom he dined and +breakfasted. Parsimony of pain, glut of pleasure, these are the two +alternating ends of youth; and Archie was of the parsimonious. The wind +blew cold out of a certain quarter--he turned his back upon it; stayed +as little as was possible in his father's presence; and when there, +averted his eyes as much as was decent from his father's face. The lamp +shone for many hundred days upon these two at table--my lord ruddy, +gloomy, and unreverend; Archie with a potential brightness that was +always dimmed and veiled in that society; and there were not, perhaps, +in Christendom two men more radically strangers. The father, with a +grand simplicity, either spoke of what interested himself, or maintained +an unaffected silence. The son turned in his head for some topic that +should be quite safe, that would spare him fresh evidences either of my +lord's inherent grossness or of the innocence of his inhumanity; +treading gingerly the ways of intercourse, like a lady gathering up her +skirts in a by-path. If he made a mistake, and my lord began to abound +in matter of offence, Archie drew himself up, his brow grew dark, his +share of the talk expired; but my lord would faithfully and cheerfully +continue to pour out the worst of himself before his silent and offended +son. + +"Well, it's a poor hert that never rejoices!" he would say, at the +conclusion of such a nightmare interview. "But I must get to my +plew-stilts." And he would seclude himself as usual in the back room, +and Archie go forth into the night and the city quivering with animosity +and scorn. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +IN THE MATTER OF THE HANGING OF DUNCAN JOPP + + +It chanced in the year 1813 that Archie strayed one day into the +Justiciary Court. The macer made room for the son of the presiding +judge. In the dock, the centre of men's eyes, there stood a +whey-coloured, misbegotten caitiff, Duncan Jopp, on trial for his life. +His story, as it was raked out before him in that public scene, was one +of disgrace and vice and cowardice, the very nakedness of crime; and the +creature heard, and it seemed at times as though he understood--as if at +times he forgot the horror of the place he stood in, and remembered the +shame of what had brought him there. He kept his head bowed and his +hands clutched upon the rail; his hair dropped in his eyes and at times +he flung it back; and now he glanced about the audience in a sudden +fellness of terror, and now looked in the face of his judge and gulped. +There was pinned about his throat a piece of dingy flannel; and this it +was perhaps that turned the scale in Archie's mind between disgust and +pity. The creature stood in a vanishing point; yet a little while, and +he was still a man, and had eyes and apprehension; yet a little longer, +and with a last sordid piece of pageantry, he would cease to be. And +here, in the meantime, with a trait of human nature that caught at the +beholder's breath, he was tending a sore throat. + +Over against him, my Lord Hermiston occupied the Bench in the red robes +of criminal jurisdiction, his face framed in the white wig. Honest all +through, he did not affect the virtue of impartiality; this was no case +for refinement; there was a man to be hanged, he would have said, and +he was hanging him. Nor was it possible to see his lordship, and acquit +him of gusto in the task. It was plain he gloried in the exercise of his +trained faculties, in the clear sight which pierced at once into the +joint of fact, in the rude, unvarnished gibes with which he demolished +every figment of defence. He took his ease and jested, unbending in that +solemn place with some of the freedom of the tavern; and the rag of man +with the flannel round his neck was hunted gallowsward with jeers. + +Duncan had a mistress, scarce less forlorn and greatly older than +himself, who came up, whimpering and curtseying, to add the weight of +her betrayal. My lord gave her the oath in his most roaring voice, and +added an intolerant warning. + +"Mind what ye say now, Janet," said he. "I have an e'e upon ye, I'm ill +to jest with." + +Presently, after she was tremblingly embarked on her story, "And what +made ye do this, ye auld runt?" the Court interposed. "Do ye mean to +tell me ye was the panel's mistress?" + +"If you please, ma loard," whined the female. + +"Godsake! ye made a bonny couple," observed his lordship; and there was +something so formidable and ferocious in his scorn that not even the +galleries thought to laugh. + +The summing up contained some jewels. + +"These two peetiable creatures seem to have made up thegither, it's not +for us to explain why."--"The panel, who (whatever else he may be) +appears to be equally ill set-out in mind and boady."--"Neither the +panel nor yet the old wife appears to have had so much common sense as +even to tell a lie when it was necessary." And in the course of +sentencing, my lord had this _obiter dictum_: "I have been the means, +under God, of haanging a great number, but never just such a disjaskit +rascal as yourself." The words were strong in themselves; the light and +heat and detonation of their delivery, and the savage pleasure of the +speaker in his task, made them tingle in the ears. + +When all was over, Archie came forth again into a changed world. Had +there been the least redeeming greatness in the crime, any obscurity, +any dubiety, perhaps he might have understood. But the culprit stood, +with his sore throat, in the sweat of his mortal agony, without defence +or excuse: a thing to cover up with blushes: a being so much sunk +beneath the zones of sympathy that pity might seem harmless. And the +judge had pursued him with a monstrous, relishing gaiety, horrible to be +conceived, a trait for nightmares. It is one thing to spear a tiger, +another to crush a toad; there are æsthetics even of the +slaughter-house; and the loathsomeness of Duncan Jopp enveloped and +infected the image of his judge. + +Archie passed by his friends in the High Street with incoherent words +and gestures. He saw Holyrood in a dream, remembrance of its romance +awoke in him and faded; he had a vision of the old radiant stories, of +Queen Mary and Prince Charlie, of the hooded stag, of the splendour and +crime, the velvet and bright iron of the past; and dismissed them with a +cry of pain. He lay and moaned in the Hunter's Bog, and the heavens were +dark above him and the grass of the field an offence. "This is my +father," he said. "I draw my life from him; the flesh upon my bones is +his, the bread I am fed with is the wages of these horrors." He recalled +his mother, and ground his forehead in the earth. He thought of flight, +and where was he to flee to? of other lives, but was there any life +worth living in this den of savage and jeering animals? + +The interval before the execution was like a violent dream. He met his +father; he would not look at him, he could not speak to him. It seemed +there was no living creature but must have been swift to recognise that +imminent animosity; but the hide of the Justice-Clerk remained +impenetrable. Had my lord been talkative, the truce could never have +subsisted; but he was by fortune in one of his humours of sour silence; +and under the very guns of his broadside, Archie nursed the enthusiasm +of rebellion. It seemed to him, from the top of his nineteen years' +experience, as if he were marked at birth to be the perpetrator of some +signal action, to set back fallen Mercy, to overthrow the usurping devil +that sat, horned and hoofed, on her throne. Seductive Jacobin figments, +which he had often refuted at the Speculative, swam up in his mind and +startled him as with voices: and he seemed to himself to walk +accompanied by an almost tangible presence of new beliefs and duties. + +On the named morning he was at the place of execution. He saw the +fleering rabble, the flinching wretch produced. He looked on for a while +at a certain parody of devotion, which seemed to strip the wretch of his +last claim to manhood. Then followed the brutal instant of extinction, +and the paltry dangling of the remains like a broken jumping-jack. He +had been prepared for something terrible, not for this tragic meanness. +He stood a moment silent, and then--"I denounce this God-defying +murder," he shouted; and his father, if he must have disclaimed the +sentiment, might have owned the stentorian voice with which it was +uttered. + +Frank Innes dragged him from the spot. The two handsome lads followed +the same course of study and recreation, and felt a certain mutual +attraction, founded mainly on good looks. It had never gone deep; Frank +was by nature a thin, jeering creature, not truly susceptible whether of +feeling or inspiring friendship; and the relation between the pair was +altogether on the outside, a thing of common knowledge and the +pleasantries that spring from a common acquaintance. The more credit to +Frank that he was appalled by Archie's outburst, and at least conceived +the design of keeping him in sight, and, if possible, in hand for the +day. But Archie, who had just defied--was it God or Satan?--would not +listen to the word of a college companion. + +"I will not go with you," he said. "I do not desire your company, sir; I +would be alone." + +"Here, Weir, man, don't be absurd," said Innes, keeping a tight hold +upon his sleeve. "I will not let you go until I know what you mean to do +with yourself; it's no use brandishing that staff." For indeed at that +moment Archie had made a sudden--perhaps a warlike--movement. "This has +been the most insane affair; you know it has. You know very well that +I'm playing the good Samaritan. All I wish is to keep you quiet." + +"If quietness is what you wish, Mr. Innes," said Archie, "and you will +promise to leave me entirely to myself, I will tell you so much, that I +am going to walk in the country and admire the beauties of nature." + +"Honour bright?" asked Frank. + +"I am not in the habit of lying, Mr. Innes," retorted Archie. "I have +the honour of wishing you good-day." + +"You won't forget the Spec.?" asked Innes. + +"The Spec.?" said Archie. "O no, I won't forget the Spec." + +And the one young man carried his tortured spirit forth of the city and +all the day long, by one road and another, in an endless pilgrimage of +misery; while the other hastened smilingly to spread the news of Weir's +access of insanity, and to drum up for that night a full attendance at +the Speculative, where further eccentric developments might certainly be +looked for. I doubt if Innes had the least belief in his prediction; I +think it flowed rather from a wish to make the story as good and the +scandal as great as possible; not from any ill-will to Archie--from the +mere pleasure of beholding interested faces. But for all that his words +were prophetic. Archie did not forget the Spec.; he put in an appearance +there at the due time, and, before the evening was over, had dealt a +memorable shock to his companions. It chanced he was the president of +the night. He sat in the same room where the Society still meets--only +the portraits were not there: the men who afterwards sat for them were +then but beginning their careers. The same lustre of many tapers shed +its light over the meeting; the same chair, perhaps, supported him that +so many of us have sat in since. At times he seemed to forget the +business of the evening, but even in these periods he sat with a great +air of energy and determination. At times he meddled bitterly, and +launched with defiance those fines which are the precious and rarely +used artillery of the president. He little thought, as he did so, how he +resembled his father, but his friends remarked upon it, chuckling. So +far, in his high place above his fellow-students, he seemed set beyond +the possibility of any scandal; but his mind was made up--he was +determined to fulfil the sphere of his offence. He signed to Innes (whom +he had just fined and who had just impeached his ruling) to succeed him +in the chair, stepped down from the platform, and took his place by the +chimney-piece, the shine of many wax tapers from above illuminating his +pale face, the glow of the great red fire relieving from behind his slim +figure. He had to propose, as an amendment to the next subject in the +case-book, "Whether capital punishment be consistent with God's will or +man's policy?" + +A breath of embarrassment, of something like alarm, passed round the +room, so daring did these words appear upon the lips of Hermiston's only +son. But the amendment was not seconded; the previous question was +promptly moved and unanimously voted, and the momentary scandal smuggled +by. Innes triumphed in the fulfilment of his prophecy. He and Archie +were now become the heroes of the night; but whereas every one crowded +about Innes, when the meeting broke up, but one of all his companions +came to speak to Archie. + +"Weir, man! That was an extraordinary raid of yours!" observed this +courageous member, taking him confidentially by the arm as they went +out. + +"I don't think it a raid," said Archie grimly. "More like a war. I saw +that poor brute hanged this morning, and my gorge rises at it yet." + +"Hut-tut," returned his companion, and, dropping his arm like something +hot, he sought the less tense society of others. + +Archie found himself alone. The last of the faithful--or was it only the +boldest of the curious?--had fled. He watched the black huddle of his +fellow-students draw off down and up the street, in whispering or +boisterous gangs. And the isolation of the moment weighed upon him like +an omen and an emblem of his destiny in life. Bred up in unbroken fear +himself, among trembling servants, and in a house which (at the least +ruffle in the master's voice) shuddered into silence, he saw himself on +the brink of the red valley of war, and measured the danger and length +of it with awe. He made a détour in the glimmer and shadow of the +streets, came into the back stable lane, and watched for a long while +the light burn steady in the judge's room. The longer he gazed upon that +illuminated window-blind, the more blank became the picture of the man +who sat behind it, endlessly turning over sheets of process, pausing to +sip a glass of port, or rising and passing heavily about his book-lined +walls to verify some reference. He could not combine the brutal judge +and the industrious, dispassionate student; the connecting link escaped +him; from such a dual nature it was impossible he should predict +behaviour; and he asked himself if he had done well to plunge into a +business of which the end could not be foreseen? and presently after, +with a sickening decline of confidence, if he had done loyally to strike +his father? For he had struck him--defied him twice over and before a +cloud of witnesses--struck him a public buffet before crowds. Who had +called him to judge his father in these precarious and high questions? +The office was usurped. It might have become a stranger; in a son--there +was no blinking it--in a son, it was disloyal. And now, between these +two natures so antipathetic, so hateful to each other, there was +depending an unpardonable affront: and the providence of God alone might +foresee the manner in which it would be resented by Lord Hermiston. + +These misgivings tortured him all night and arose with him in the +winter's morning; they followed him from class to class, they made him +shrinkingly sensitive to every shade of manner in his companions, they +sounded in his ears through the current voice of the professor; and he +brought them home with him at night unabated and indeed increased. The +cause of this increase lay in a chance encounter with the celebrated Dr. +Gregory. Archie stood looking vaguely in the lighted window of a +book-shop, trying to nerve himself for the approaching ordeal. My lord +and he had met and parted in the morning as they had now done for long, +with scarcely the ordinary civilities of life; and it was plain to the +son that nothing had yet reached the father's ears. Indeed, when he +recalled the awful countenance of my lord, a timid hope sprang up in him +that perhaps there would be found no one bold enough to carry tales. If +this were so, he asked himself, would he begin again? and he found no +answer. It was at this moment that a hand was laid upon his arm, and a +voice said in his ear, "My dear Mr. Archie, you had better come and see +me." + +He started, turned round, and found himself face to face with Dr. +Gregory. "And why should I come to see you?" he asked, with the defiance +of the miserable. + +"Because you are looking exceedingly ill," said the doctor, "and you +very evidently want looking after, my young friend. Good folk are +scarce, you know; and it is not every one that would be quite so much +missed as yourself. It is not every one that Hermiston would miss." + +And with a nod and a smile, the doctor passed on. + +A moment after, Archie was in pursuit, and had in turn, but more +roughly, seized him by the arm. + +"What do you mean? what did you mean by saying that? What makes you +think that Hermis--my father would have missed me?" + +The doctor turned about and looked him all over with a clinical eye. A +far more stupid man than Dr. Gregory might have guessed the truth; but +ninety-nine out of a hundred, even if they had been equally inclined to +kindness, would have blundered by some touch of charitable exaggeration. +The doctor was better inspired. He knew the father well; in that white +face of intelligence and suffering, he divined something of the son; and +he told, without apology or adornment, the plain truth. + +"When you had the measles, Mr. Archibald, you had them gey and ill; and +I thought you were going to slip between my fingers," he said. "Well, +your father was anxious. How did I know it? says you. Simply because I +am a trained observer. The sign that I saw him make, ten thousand would +have missed; and perhaps--_perhaps_, I say, because he's a hard man to +judge of--but perhaps he never made another. A strange thing to +consider! It was this. One day I came to him: 'Hermiston,' said I, +'there's a change.' He never said a word, just glowered at me (if ye'll +pardon the phrase) like a wild beast. 'A change for the better,' said I. +And I distinctly heard him take his breath." + +The doctor left no opportunity for anti-climax; nodding his cocked hat +(a piece of antiquity to which he clung) and repeating "Distinctly" with +raised eyebrows, he took his departure, and left Archie speechless in +the street. + +The anecdote might be called infinitely little, and yet its meaning for +Archie was immense. "I did not know the old man had so much blood in +him." He had never dreamed this sire of his, this aboriginal antique, +this adamantine Adam, had even so much of a heart as to be moved in the +least degree for another--and that other himself, who had insulted him! +With the generosity of youth, Archie was instantly under arms upon the +other side: had instantly created a new image of Lord Hermiston, that of +a man who was all iron without and all sensibility within. The mind of +the vile jester, the tongue that had pursued Duncan Jopp with unmanly +insults, the unbeloved countenance that he had known and feared for so +long, were all forgotten; and he hastened home, impatient to confess his +misdeeds, impatient to throw himself on the mercy of this imaginary +character. + +He was not to be long without a rude awakening. It was in the gloaming +when he drew near the doorstep of the lighted house, and was aware of +the figure of his father approaching from the opposite side. Little +daylight lingered; but on the door being opened, the strong yellow shine +of the lamp gushed out upon the landing and shone full on Archie, as he +stood, in the old-fashioned observance of respect, to yield precedence. +The judge came without haste, stepping stately and firm; his chin +raised, his face (as he entered the lamplight) strongly illumined, his +mouth set hard. There was never a wink of change in his expression; +without looking to the right or left, he mounted the stair, passed close +to Archie, and entered the house. Instinctively, the boy, upon his first +coming, had made a movement to meet him; instinctively he recoiled +against the railing, as the old man swept by him in a pomp of +indignation. Words were needless; he knew all--perhaps more than +all--and the hour of judgment was at hand. + +It is possible that, in this sudden revulsion of hope and before these +symptoms of impending danger, Archie might have fled. But not even that +was left to him. My lord, after hanging up his cloak and hat, turned +round in the lighted entry, and made him an imperative and silent +gesture with his thumb, and with the strange instinct of obedience, +Archie followed him into the house. + +All dinner-time there reigned over the judge's table a palpable silence, +and as soon as the solids were despatched he rose to his feet. + +"M'Killop, tak' the wine into my room," said he; and then to his son: +"Archie, you and me has to have a talk." + +It was at this sickening moment that Archie's courage, for the first and +last time, entirely deserted him. "I have an appointment," said he. + +"It'll have to be broken, then," said Hermiston, and led the way into +his study. + +The lamp was shaded, the fire trimmed to a nicety, the table covered +deep with orderly documents, the backs of law-books made a frame upon +all sides that was only broken by the window and the doors. + +For a moment Hermiston warmed his hands at the fire, presenting his back +to Archie; then suddenly disclosed on him the terrors of the Hanging +Face. + +"What's this I hear of ye?" he asked. + +There was no answer possible to Archie. + +"I'll have to tell ye, then," pursued Hermiston. "It seems ye've been +skirling against the father that begot ye, and one of his Maijesty's +judges in this land; and that in the public street, and while an order +of the Court was being executit. Forbye which, it would appear that +ye've been airing your opeenions in a Coallege Debatin' Society"; he +paused a moment: and then, with extraordinary bitterness, added: "Ye +damned eediot." + +"I had meant to tell you," stammered Archie. "I see you are well +informed." + +"Muckle obleeged to ye," said his lordship, and took his usual seat. +"And so you disapprove of caapital punishment?" he added. + +"I am sorry, sir, I do," said Archie. + +"I am sorry, too," said his lordship. "And now, if you please, we shall +approach this business with a little more parteecularity. I hear that at +the hanging of Duncan Jopp--and, man! ye had a fine client there--in the +middle of all the riffraff of the ceety, ye thought fit to cry out, +'This is a damned murder, and my gorge rises at the man that haangit +him.'" + +"No, sir, these were not my words," cried Archie. + +"What were yer words, then?" asked the judge. + +"I believe I said, 'I denounce it as a murder!'" said the son. "I beg +your pardon--a God-defying murder. I have no wish to conceal the truth," +he added, and looked his father for a moment in the face. + +"God, it would only need that of it next!" cried Hermiston. "There was +nothing about your gorge rising, then?" + +"That was afterwards, my lord, as I was leaving the Speculative. I said +I had been to see the miserable creature hanged, and my gorge rose at +it." + +"Did ye, though?" said Hermiston. "And I suppose ye knew who haangit +him?" + +"I was present at the trial; I ought to tell you that, I ought to +explain. I ask your pardon beforehand for any expression that may seem +undutiful. The position in which I stand is wretched," said the unhappy +hero, now fairly face to face with the business he had chosen. "I have +been reading some of your cases. I was present while Jopp was tried. It +was a hideous business. Father, it was a hideous thing! Grant he was +vile, why should you hunt him with a vileness equal to his own? It was +done with glee--that is the word--you did it with glee; and I looked on, +God help me! with horror." + +"You're a young gentleman that doesna approve of caapital punishment," +said Hermiston. "Weel, I'm an auld man that does. I was glad to get Jopp +haangit, and what for would I pretend I wasna? You're all for honesty, +it seems; you couldn't even steik your mouth on the public street. What +for should I steik mines upon the Bench, the King's officer, bearing the +sword, a dreid to evil-doers, as I was from the beginning, and as I will +be to the end! Mair than enough of it! Heedious! I never gave twa +thoughts to heediousness, I have no call to be bonny. I'm a man that +gets through with my day's business, and let that suffice." + +The ring of sarcasm had died out of his voice as he went on; the plain +words became invested with some of the dignity of the Justice-seat. + +"It would be telling you if you could say as much," the speaker resumed. +"But ye cannot. Ye've been reading some of my cases, ye say. But it was +not for the law in them, it was to spy out your faither's nakedness, a +fine employment in a son. You're splairging; you're running at lairge +in life like a wild nowt. It's impossible you should think any longer of +coming to the Bar. You're not fit for it; no splairger is. And another +thing: son of mines or no son of mines, you have flung fylement in +public on one of the Senators of the Coallege of Justice, and I would +make it my business to see that ye were never admitted there yourself. +There is a kind of a decency to be observit. Then comes the next of +it--what am I to do with ye next? Ye'll have to find some kind of a +trade, for I'll never support ye in idleset. What do ye fancy ye'll be +fit for? The pulpit? Na, they could never get diveenity into that +bloackhead. Him that the law of man whammles is no likely to do muckle +better by the law of God. What would ye make of hell? Wouldna your gorge +rise at that? Na, there's no room for splairgers under the fower +quarters of John Calvin. What else is there? Speak up. Have ye got +nothing of your own?" + +"Father, let me go to the Peninsula," said Archie. "That's all I'm fit +for--to fight." + +"All? quo' he!" returned the judge. "And it would be enough too, if I +thought it. But I'll never trust ye so near the French, you that's so +Frenchifeed." + +"You do me injustice there, sir," said Archie. "I am loyal; I will not +boast; but any interest I may have ever felt in the French--" + +"Have ye been so loyal to me?" interrupted his father. + +There came no reply. + +"I think not," continued Hermiston. "And I would send no man to be a +servant to the King, God bless him! that has proved such a shauchling +son to his own faither. You can splairge here on Edinburgh street, and +where's the hairm? It doesna play buff on me! And if there were twenty +thousand eediots like yourself, sorrow a Duncan Jopp would hang the +fewer. But there's no splairging possible in a camp; and if you were to +go to it, you would find out for yourself whether Lord Well'n'ton +approves of caapital punishment or not. You a sodger!" he cried, with a +sudden burst of scorn. "Ye auld wife, the sodgers would bray at ye like +cuddies!" + +As at the drawing of a curtain, Archie was aware of some illogicality in +his position, and stood abashed. He had a strong impression, besides, of +the essential valour of the old gentleman before him, how conveyed it +would be hard to say. + +"Well, have ye no other proposeetion?" said my lord again. + +"You have taken this so calmly, sir, that I cannot but stand ashamed," +began Archie. + +"I'm nearer voamiting, though, than you would fancy," said my lord. + +The blood rose to Archie's brow. + +"I beg your pardon, I should have said that you had accepted my +affront.... I admit it was an affront; I did not think to apologise, but +I do, I ask your pardon; it will not be so again, I pass you my word of +honour.... I should have said that I admired your magnanimity +with--this--offender," Archie concluded with a gulp. + +"I have no other son, ye see," said Hermiston. "A bonny one I have +gotten! But I must just do the best I can wi' him, and what am I to do? +If ye had been younger, I would have wheepit ye for this rideeculous +exhibeetion. The way it is, I have just to grin and bear. But one thing +is to be clearly understood. As a faither, I must grin and bear it; but +if I had been the Lord Advocate instead of the Lord Justice-Clerk, son +or no son, Mr. Erchibald Weir would have been in a jyle the night." + +Archie was now dominated. Lord Hermiston was coarse and cruel; and yet +the son was aware of a bloomless nobility, an ungracious abnegation of +the man's self in the man's office. At every word, this sense of the +greatness of Lord Hermiston's spirit struck more home; and along with it +that of his own impotence, who had struck--and perhaps basely struck--at +his own father, and not reached so far as to have even nettled him. + +"I place myself in your hands without reserve," he said. + +"That's the first sensible word I've had of ye the night," said +Hermiston. "I can tell ye, that would have been the end of it, the one +way or the other; but it's better ye should come there yourself, than +what I would have had to hirstle ye. Weel, by my way of it--and my way +is the best--there's just the one thing it's possible that ye might be +with decency, and that's a laird. Ye'll be out of hairm's way at the +least of it. If ye have to rowt, ye can rowt amang the kye; and the +maist feck of the caapital punishment ye're like to come across'll be +guddling trouts. Now, I'm for no idle lairdies; every man has to work, +if it's only at peddling ballants; to work, or to be wheeped, or to be +haangit. If I set ye down at Hermiston, I'll have to see you work that +place the way it has never been workit yet; ye must ken about the sheep +like a herd; ye must be my grieve there, and I'll see that I gain by ye. +Is that understood?" + +"I will do my best," said Archie. + +"Well, then, I'll send Kirstie word the morn, and ye can go yourself the +day after," said Hermiston. "And just try to be less of an eediot!" he +concluded, with a freezing smile, and turned immediately to the papers +on his desk. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OPINIONS OF THE BENCH + + +Late the same night, after a disordered walk, Archie was admitted into +Lord Glenalmond's dining-room, where he sat, with a book upon his knee, +beside three frugal coals of fire. In his robes upon the Bench, +Glenalmond had a certain air of burliness: plucked of these, it was a +may-pole of a man that rose unsteadily from his chair to give his +visitor welcome. Archie had suffered much in the last days, he had +suffered again that evening; his face was white and drawn, his eyes wild +and dark. But Lord Glenalmond greeted him without the least mark of +surprise or curiosity. + +"Come in, come in," said he. "Come in and take a seat. Carstairs" (to +his servant), "make up the fire, and then you can bring a bit of +supper," and again to Archie, with a very trivial accent: "I was half +expecting you," he added. + +"No supper," said Archie. "It is impossible that I should eat." + +"Not impossible," said the tall old man, laying his hand upon his +shoulder, "and, if you will believe me, necessary." + +"You know what brings me?" said Archie, as soon as the servant had left +the room. + +"I have a guess, I have a guess," replied Glenalmond. "We will talk of +it presently--when Carstairs has come and gone, and you have had a piece +of my good Cheddar cheese and a pull at the porter tankard: not before." + +"It is impossible I should eat," repeated Archie. + +"Tut, tut!" said Lord Glenalmond. "You have eaten nothing to-day, and I +venture to add, nothing yesterday. There is no case that may not be made +worse; this may be a very disagreeable business, but if you were to +fall sick and die, it would be still more so, and for all concerned--for +all concerned." + +"I see you must know all," said Archie. "Where did you hear it?" + +"In the mart of scandal, in the Parliament House," said Glenalmond. "It +runs riot below among the Bar and the public, but it sifts up to us upon +the Bench, and rumour has some of her voices even in the divisions." + +Carstairs returned at this moment, and rapidly laid out a little supper; +during which Lord Glenalmond spoke at large and a little vaguely on +indifferent subjects, so that it might be rather said of him that he +made a cheerful noise, than that he contributed to human conversation; +and Archie sat upon the other side, not heeding him, brooding over his +wrongs and errors. + +But so soon as the servant was gone, he broke forth again at once. "Who +told my father? Who dared to tell him? Could it have been you?" + +"No, it was not me," said the judge; "although--to be quite frank with +you, after I had seen and warned you--it might have been me. I believe +it was Glenkindie." + +"That shrimp!" cried Archie. + +"As you say, that shrimp," returned my lord; "although really it is +scarce a fitting mode of expression for one of the senators of the +College of Justice. We were hearing the parties in a long, crucial case, +before the fifteenth; Creech was moving at some length for an +infeftment; when I saw Glenkindie lean forward to Hermiston with his +hand over his mouth and make him a secret communication. No one could +have guessed its nature from your father; from Glenkindie, yes, his +malice sparked out of him a little grossly. But your father, no. A man +of granite. The next moment he pounced upon Creech. 'Mr. Creech,' says +he, 'I'll take a look of that sasine,' and for thirty minutes after," +said Glenalmond, with a smile, "Messrs. Creech and Co. were fighting a +pretty uphill battle, which resulted, I need hardly add, in their total +rout. The case was dismissed. No, I doubt if ever I heard Hermiston +better inspired. He was literally rejoicing _in apicibus juris_." + +Archie was able to endure no longer. He thrust his plate away and +interrupted the deliberate and insignificant stream of talk. "Here," he +said, "I have made a fool of myself, if I have not made something worse. +Do you judge between us--judge between a father and a son. I can speak +to you; it is not like ... I will tell you what I feel and what I mean +to do; and you shall be the judge," he repeated. + +"I decline jurisdiction," said Glenalmond, with extreme seriousness. +"But, my dear boy, if it will do you any good to talk, and if it will +interest you at all to hear what I may choose to say when I have heard +you, I am quite at your command. Let an old man say it, for once, and +not need to blush: I love you like a son." + +There came a sudden sharp sound in Archie's throat. "Ay," he cried, "and +there it is! Love! Like a son! And how do you think I love my father?" + +"Quietly, quietly," says my lord. + +"I will be very quiet," replied Archie. "And I will be baldly frank. I +do not love my father; I wonder sometimes if I do not hate him. There's +my shame; perhaps my sin; at least, and in the sight of God, not my +fault. How was I to love him? He has never spoken to me, never smiled +upon me; I do not think he ever touched me. You know the way he talks? +You do not talk so, yet you can sit and hear him without shuddering, and +I cannot. My soul is sick when he begins with it; I could smite him in +the mouth. And all that's nothing. I was at the trial of this Jopp. You +were not there, but you must have heard him often; the man's notorious +for it, for being--look at my position! he's my father and this is how I +have to speak of him--notorious for being a brute and cruel and a +coward. Lord Glenalmond, I give you my word, when I came out of that +Court, I longed to die--the shame of it was beyond my strength: but +I--I----" he rose from his seat and began to pace the room in a +disorder. "Well, who am I? A boy, who have never been tried, have never +done anything except this twopenny impotent folly with my father. But I +tell you, my lord, and I know myself, I am at least that kind of a +man--or that kind of a boy, if you prefer it--that I could die in +torments rather than that any one should suffer as that scoundrel +suffered. Well, and what have I done? I see it now. I have made a fool +of myself, as I said in the beginning; and I have gone back, and asked +my father's pardon, and placed myself wholly in his hands--and he has +sent me to Hermiston," with a wretched smile, "for life, I suppose--and +what can I say? he strikes me as having done quite right, and let me off +better than I had deserved." + +"My poor, dear boy!" observed Glenalmond. "My poor, dear and, if you +will allow me to say so, very foolish boy! You are only discovering +where you are; to one of your temperament, or of mine, a painful +discovery. The world was not made for us; it was made for ten hundred +millions of men, all different from each other and from us; there's no +royal road there, we just have to sclamber and tumble. Don't think that +I am at all disposed to be surprised; don't suppose that I ever think of +blaming you; indeed I rather admire! But there fall to be offered one or +two observations on the case which occur to me and which (if you will +listen to them dispassionately) may be the means of inducing you to view +the matter more calmly. First of all, I cannot acquit you of a good deal +of what is called intolerance. You seem to have been very much offended +because your father talks a little sculduddery after dinner, which it is +perfectly licit for him to do, and which (although I am not very fond of +it myself) appears to be entirely an affair of taste. Your father, I +scarcely like to remind you, since it is so trite a commonplace, is +older than yourself. At least, he is _major_ and _sui juris_, and may +please himself in the matter of his conversation. And, do you know, I +wonder if he might not have as good an answer against you and me? We say +we sometimes find him _coarse_, but I suspect he might retort that he +finds us always dull. Perhaps a relevant exception." + +He beamed on Archie, but no smile could be elicited. + +"And now," proceeded the judge, "for 'Archibald on Capital Punishment.' +This is a very plausible academic opinion; of course I do not and I +cannot hold it; but that's not to say that many able and excellent +persons have not done so in the past. Possibly, in the past also, I may +have a little dipped myself in the same heresy. My third client, or +possibly my fourth, was the means of a return in my opinions. I never +saw the man I more believed in; I would have put my hand in the fire; I +would have gone to the cross for him; and when it came to trial he was +gradually pictured before me, by undeniable probation, in the light of +so gross, so cold-blooded, and so black-hearted a villain, that I had a +mind to have cast my brief upon the table. I was then boiling against +the man with even a more tropical temperature than I had been boiling +for him. But I said to myself: 'No, you have taken up his case; and +because you have changed your mind it must not be suffered to let drop. +All that rich tide of eloquence that you prepared last night with so +much enthusiasm is out of place, and yet you must not desert him, you +must say something.' So I said something, and I got him off. It made my +reputation. But an experience of that kind is formative. A man must not +bring his passions to the Bar--or to the Bench," he added. + +The story had slightly rekindled Archie's interest. "I could never +deny," he began--"I mean I can conceive that some men would be better +dead. But who are we to know all the springs of God's unfortunate +creatures? Who are we to trust ourselves where it seems that God Himself +must think twice before He treads, and to do it with delight? Yes, with +delight. _Tigris ut aspera_." + +"Perhaps not a pleasant spectacle," said Glenalmond. "And yet, do you +know, I think somehow a great one." + +"I've had a long talk with him to-night," said Archie. + +"I was supposing so," said Glenalmond. + +"And he struck me--I cannot deny that he struck me as something very +big," pursued the son. "Yes, he is big. He never spoke about himself; +only about me. I suppose I admired him. The dreadful part----" + +"Suppose we did not talk about that," interrupted Glenalmond. "You know +it very well, it cannot in any way help that you should brood upon it, +and I sometimes wonder whether you and I--who are a pair of +sentimentalists--are quite good judges of plain men." + +"How do you mean?" asked Archie. + +"_Fair_ judges, I mean," replied Glenalmond. "Can we be just to them? Do +we not ask too much? There was a word of yours just now that impressed +me a little when you asked me who we were to know all the springs of +God's unfortunate creatures. You applied that, as I understood, to +capital cases only. But does it--I ask myself--does it not apply all +through? Is it any less difficult to judge of a good man or of a +half-good man, than of the worst criminal at the bar? And may not each +have relevant excuses?" + +"Ah, but we do not talk of punishing the good," cried Archie. + +"No, we do not talk of it," said Glenalmond. "But I think we do it. Your +father, for instance." + +"You think I have punished him?" cried Archie. + +Lord Glenalmond bowed his head. + +"I think I have," said Archie. "And the worst is, I think he feels it! +How much, who can tell, with such a being? But I think he does." + +"And I am sure of it," said Glenalmond. + +"Has he spoken to you, then?" cried Archie. + +"O no," replied the judge. + +"I tell you honestly," said Archie, "I want to make it up to him. I +will go, I have already pledged myself to go, to Hermiston. That was to +him. And now I pledge myself to you, in the sight of God, that I will +close my mouth on capital punishment and all other subjects where our +views may clash, for--how long shall I say? when shall I have sense +enough?--ten years. Is that well?" + +"It is well," said my lord. + +"As far as it goes," said Archie. "It is enough as regards myself, it is +to lay down enough of my conceit. But as regards him, whom I have +publicly insulted? What am I to do to him? How do you pay attentions to +a--an Alp like that?" + +"Only in one way," replied Glenalmond. "Only by obedience, punctual, +prompt, and scrupulous." + +"And I promise that he shall have it," answered Archie. "I offer you my +hand in pledge of it." + +"And I take your hand as a solemnity," replied the judge. "God bless +you, my dear, and enable you to keep your promise. God guide you in the +true way, and spare your days, and preserve to you your honest heart." +At that, he kissed the young man upon the forehead in a gracious, +distant, antiquated way; and instantly launched, with a marked change of +voice, into another subject. "And now, let us replenish the tankard; and +I believe, if you will try my Cheddar again, you would find you had a +better appetite. The Court has spoken, and the case is dismissed." + +"No, there is one thing I must say," cried Archie. "I must say it in +justice to himself. I know--I believe faithfully, slavishly, after our +talk--he will never ask me anything unjust. I am proud to feel it, that +we have that much in common, I am proud to say it to you." + +The judge, with shining eyes, raised his tankard. "And I think perhaps +that we might permit ourselves a toast," said he. "I should like to +propose the health of a man very different from me and very much my +superior--a man from whom I have often differed, who has often (in the +trivial expression) rubbed me the wrong way, but whom I have never +ceased to respect and, I may add, to be not a little afraid of. Shall I +give you his name?" + +"The Lord Justice-Clerk, Lord Hermiston," said Archie, almost with +gaiety; and the pair drank the toast deeply. + +It was not precisely easy to re-establish, after these emotional +passages, the natural flow of conversation. But the judge eked out what +was wanting with kind looks, produced his snuff-box (which was very +rarely seen) to fill in a pause, and at last, despairing of any further +social success, was upon the point of getting down a book to read a +favourite passage, when there came a rather startling summons at the +front door, and Carstairs ushered in my Lord Glenkindie, hot from a +midnight supper. I am not aware that Glenkindie was ever a beautiful +object, being short, and gross-bodied, and with an expression of +sensuality comparable to a bear's. At that moment, coming in hissing +from many potations, with a flushed countenance and blurred eyes, he was +strikingly contrasted with the tall, pale, kingly figure of Glenalmond. +A rush of confused thought came over Archie--of shame that this was one +of his father's elect friends; of pride, that at the least of it +Hermiston could carry his liquor; and last of all, of rage, that he +should have here under his eyes the man that had betrayed him. And then +that too passed away; and he sat quiet, biding his opportunity. + +The tipsy senator plunged at once into an explanation with Glenalmond. +There was a point reserved yesterday, he had been able to make neither +head nor tail of it, and seeing lights in the house, he had just dropped +in for a glass of porter--and at this point he became aware of the third +person. Archie saw the cod's mouth and the blunt lips of Glenkindie gape +at him for a moment, and the recognition twinkle in his eyes. + +"Who's this?" said he. "What? is this possibly you, Don Quickshot? And +how are ye? And how's your father? And what's all this we hear of you? +It seems you're a most extraordinary leveller, by all tales. No king, +no parliaments, and your gorge rises at the macers, worthy men! Hoot, +toot! Dear, dear me! Your father's son too! Most rideeculous!" + +Archie was on his feet, flushing a little at the reappearance of his +unhappy figure of speech, but perfectly self-possessed. "My lord--and +you, Lord Glenalmond, my dear friend," he began, "this is a happy chance +for me, that I can make my confession and offer my apologies to two of +you at once." + +"Ah, but I don't know about that. Confession? It'll be judeecial, my +young friend," cried the jocular Glenkindie. "And I'm afraid to listen +to ye. Think if ye were to make me a coanvert!" + +"If you would allow me, my lord," returned Archie, "what I have to say +is very serious to me; and be pleased to be humorous after I am gone!" + +"Remember, I'll hear nothing against the macers!" put in the +incorrigible Glenkindie. + +But Archie continued as though he had not spoken. "I have played, both +yesterday and to-day, a part for which I can only offer the excuse of +youth. I was so unwise as to go to an execution; it seems I made a scene +at the gallows; not content with which, I spoke the same night in a +college society against capital punishment. This is the extent of what I +have done, and in case you hear more alleged against me, I protest my +innocence. I have expressed my regret already to my father, who is so +good as to pass my conduct over--in a degree, and upon the condition +that I am to leave my law studies." ... + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WINTER ON THE MOORS + + + 1. _At Hermiston_ + +The road to Hermiston runs for a great part of the way up the valley of +a stream, a favourite with anglers and with midges, full of falls and +pools, and shaded by willows and natural woods of birch. Here and there, +but at great distances, a byway branches off, and a gaunt farmhouse may +be descried above in a fold of the hill; but the more part of the time, +the road would be quite empty of passage and the hills of habitation. +Hermiston parish is one of the least populous in Scotland; and, by the +time you came that length, you would scarce be surprised at the +inimitable smallness of the kirk, a dwarfish, ancient place seated for +fifty, and standing in a green by the burn-side among two-score +gravestones. The manse close by, although no more than a cottage, is +surrounded by the brightness of a flower-garden and the straw roofs of +bees; and the whole colony, kirk and manse, garden and graveyard, finds +harbourage in a grove of rowans, and is all the year round in a great +silence broken only by the drone of the bees, the tinkle of the burn, +and the bell on Sundays. A mile beyond the kirk the road leaves the +valley by a precipitous ascent, and brings you a little after to the +place of Hermiston, where it comes to an end in the back-yard before the +coach-house. All beyond and about is the great field of the hills; the +plover, the curlew, and the lark cry there; the wind blows as it blows +in a ship's rigging, hard and cold and pure; and the hill-tops huddle +one behind another, like a herd of cattle, into the sunset. + +The house was sixty years old, unsightly, comfortable; a farmyard and a +kitchen-garden on the left, with a fruit wall where little hard green +pears came to their maturity about the end of October. + +The policy (as who should say the park) was of some extent, but very ill +reclaimed; heather and moor-fowl had crossed the boundary wall and +spread and roosted within; and it would have tasked a landscape gardener +to say where policy ended and unpolicied nature began. My lord had been +led by the influence of Mr. Sheriff Scott into a considerable design of +planting; many acres were accordingly set out with fir, and the little +feathery besoms gave a false scale and lent a strange air of a toy-shop +to the moors. A great, rooty sweetness of bogs was in the air, and at +all seasons an infinite melancholy piping of hill birds. Standing so +high and with so little shelter, it was a cold, exposed house, splashed +by showers, drenched by continuous rains that made the gutters to spout, +beaten upon and buffeted by all the winds of heaven; and the prospect +would be often black with tempest, and often white with the snows of +winter. But the house was wind and weather proof, the hearths were kept +bright, and the rooms pleasant with live fires of peat; and Archie might +sit of an evening and hear the squalls bugle on the moorland, and watch +the fire prosper in the earthy fuel, and the smoke winding up the +chimney, and drink deep of the pleasures of shelter. + +Solitary as the place was, Archie did not want neighbours. Every night, +if he chose, he might go down to the manse and share a "brewst" of toddy +with the minister--a hare-brained ancient gentleman, long and light and +still active, though his knees were loosened with age, and his voice +broke continually in childish trebles--and his lady wife, a heavy, +comely dame, without a word to say for herself beyond good-even and +good-day. Harum-scarum, clodpole young lairds of the neighbourhood paid +him the compliment of a visit. Young Hay of Romanes rode down to call, +on his crop-eared pony; young Pringle of Drumanno came up on his bony +grey. Hay remained on the hospitable field, and must be carried to bed; +Pringle got somehow to his saddle about 3 A.M., and (as Archie stood +with the lamp on the upper doorstep) lurched, uttered a senseless +view-holloa, and vanished out of the small circle of illumination like a +wraith. Yet a minute or two longer the clatter of his break-neck flight +was audible, then it was cut off by the intervening steepness of the +hill; and again, a great while after, the renewed beating of phantom +horsehoofs, far in the valley of the Hermiston, showed that the horse at +least, if not his rider, was still on the homeward way. + +There was a Tuesday club at the "Crosskeys" in Crossmichael, where the +young bloods of the countryside congregated and drank deep on a +percentage of the expense, so that he was left gainer who should have +drunk the most. Archie had no great mind to this diversion, but he took +it like a duty laid upon him, went with a decent regularity, did his +manfullest with the liquor, held up his head in the local jests, and got +home again and was able to put up his horse, to the admiration of +Kirstie and the lass that helped her. He dined at Driffel, supped at +Windielaws. He went to the new year's ball at Huntsfield and was made +welcome, and thereafter rode to hounds with my Lord Muirfell, upon whose +name, as that of a legitimate Lord of Parliament, in a work so full of +Lords of Session, my pen should pause reverently. Yet the same fate +attended him here as in Edinburgh. The habit of solitude tends to +perpetuate itself, and an austerity of which he was quite unconscious, +and a pride which seemed arrogance, and perhaps was chiefly shyness, +discouraged and offended his new companions. Hay did not return more +than twice, Pringle never at all, and there came a time when Archie even +desisted from the Tuesday Club, and became in all things--what he had +had the name of almost from the first--the Recluse of Hermiston. +High-nosed Miss Pringle of Drumanno and high-stepping Miss Marshall of +the Mains were understood to have had a difference of opinion about him +the day after the ball--he was none the wiser, he could not suppose +himself to be remarked by these entrancing ladies. At the ball itself my +Lord Muirfell's daughter, the Lady Flora, spoke to him twice, and the +second time with a touch of appeal, so that her colour rose and her +voice trembled a little in his ear, like a passing grace in music. He +stepped back with a heart on fire, coldly and not ungracefully excused +himself, and a little after watched her dancing with young Drumanno of +the empty laugh, and was harrowed at the sight, and raged to himself +that this was a world in which it was given to Drumanno to please, and +to himself only to stand aside and envy. He seemed excluded, as of +right, from the favour of such society--seemed to extinguish mirth +wherever he came, and was quick to feel the wound, and desist, and +retire into solitude. If he had but understood the figure he presented, +and the impression he made on these bright eyes and tender hearts; if he +had but guessed that the Recluse of Hermiston, young, graceful, well +spoken, but always cold, stirred the maidens of the county with the +charm of Byronism when Byronism was new, it may be questioned whether +his destiny might not even yet have been modified. It may be questioned, +and I think it should be doubted. It was in his horoscope to be +parsimonious of pain to himself, or of the chance of pain, even to the +avoidance of any opportunity of pleasure; to have a Roman sense of duty, +an instinctive aristocracy of manners and taste; to be the son of Adam +Weir and Jean Rutherford. + + + 2. _Kirstie_ + +Kirstie was now over fifty, and might have sat to a sculptor. Long of +limb, and still light of foot, deep-breasted, robust-loined, her golden +hair not yet mingled with any trace of silver, the years had but +caressed and embellished her. By the lines of a rich and vigorous +maternity, she seemed destined to be the bride of heroes and the mother +of their children; and behold, by the iniquity of fate, she had passed +through her youth alone, and drew near to the confines of age, a +childless woman. The tender ambitions that she had received at birth had +been, by time and disappointment, diverted into a certain barren zeal of +industry and fury of interference. She carried her thwarted ardours into +housework, she washed floors with her empty heart. If she could not win +the love of one with love, she must dominate all by her temper. Hasty, +wordy, and wrathful, she had a drawn quarrel with most of her +neighbours, and with the others not much more than armed neutrality. The +grieve's wife had been "sneisty"; the sister of the gardener who kept +house for him had shown herself "upsitten"; and she wrote to Lord +Hermiston about once a year demanding the discharge of the offenders, +and justifying the demand by much wealth of detail. For it must not be +supposed that the quarrel rested with the wife and did not take in the +husband also--or with the gardener's sister, and did not speedily +include the gardener himself. As the upshot of all this petty +quarrelling and intemperate speech, she was practically excluded (like a +lightkeeper on his tower) from the comforts of human association; except +with her own indoor drudge, who, being but a lassie and entirely at her +mercy, must submit to the shifty weather of "the mistress's" moods +without complaint, and be willing to take buffets or caresses according +to the temper of the hour. To Kirstie, thus situate and in the Indian +summer of her heart, which was slow to submit to age, the gods sent this +equivocal good thing of Archie's presence. She had known him in the +cradle and paddled him when he misbehaved; and yet, as she had not so +much as set eyes on him since he was eleven and had his last serious +illness, the tall, slender, refined, and rather melancholy young +gentleman of twenty came upon her with the shock of a new acquaintance. +He was "Young Hermiston," "the laird himsel'": he had an air of +distinctive superiority, a cold straight glance of his black eyes, that +abashed the woman's tantrums in the beginning, and therefore the +possibility of any quarrel was excluded. He was new, and therefore +immediately aroused her curiosity; he was reticent, and kept it awake. +And lastly he was dark and she fair, and he was male and she female, the +everlasting fountains of interest. + +Her feeling partook of the loyalty of a clanswoman, the hero-worship of +a maiden aunt, and the idolatry due to a god. No matter what he had +asked of her, ridiculous or tragic, she would have done it and joyed to +do it. Her passion, for it was nothing less, entirely filled her. It was +a rich physical pleasure to make his bed or light his lamp for him when +he was absent, to pull off his wet boots or wait on him at dinner when +he returned. A young man who should have so doted on the idea, moral and +physical, of any woman, might be properly described as being in love, +head and heels, and would have behaved himself accordingly. But +Kirstie--though her heart leaped at his coming footsteps--though, when +he patted her shoulder, her face brightened for the day--had not a hope +or thought beyond the present moment and its perpetuation to the end of +time. Till the end of time she would have had nothing altered, but still +continue delightedly to serve her idol, and be repaid (say twice in the +month) with a clap on the shoulder. + +I have said her heart leaped--it is the accepted phrase. But rather, +when she was alone in any chamber of the house, and heard his foot +passing on the corridors, something in her bosom rose slowly until her +breath was suspended, and as slowly fell again with a deep sigh, when +the steps had passed and she was disappointed of her eyes' desire. This +perpetual hunger and thirst of his presence kept her all day on the +alert. When he went forth at morning, she would stand and follow him +with admiring looks. As it grew late and drew to the time of his return, +she would steal forth to a corner of the policy wall and be seen +standing there sometimes by the hour together, gazing with shaded eyes, +waiting the exquisite and barren pleasure of his view a mile off on the +mountains. When at night she had trimmed and gathered the fire, turned +down his bed, and laid out his night-gear--when there was no more to be +done for the king's pleasure, but to remember him fervently in her +usually very tepid prayers, and go to bed brooding upon his perfections, +his future career, and what she should give him the next day for +dinner--there still remained before her one more opportunity; she was +still to take in the tray and say good-night. Sometimes Archie would +glance up from his book with a preoccupied nod and a perfunctory +salutation which was in truth a dismissal; sometimes--and by degrees +more often--the volume would be laid aside, he would meet her coming +with a look of relief; and the conversation would be engaged, last out +the supper, and be prolonged till the small hours by the waning fire. It +was no wonder that Archie was fond of company after his solitary days; +and Kirstie, upon her side, exerted all the arts of her vigorous nature +to ensnare his attention. She would keep back some piece of news during +dinner to be fired off with the entrance of the supper tray, and form as +it were the _lever de rideau_ of the evening's entertainment. Once he +had heard her tongue wag, she made sure of the result. From one subject +to another she moved by insidious transitions, fearing the least +silence, fearing almost to give him time for an answer lest it should +slip into a hint of separation. Like so many people of her class, she +was a brave narrator; her place was on the hearthrug and she made it a +rostrum, miming her stories as she told them, fitting them with vital +detail, spinning them out with endless "quo' he's" and "quo' she's," her +voice sinking into a whisper over the supernatural or the horrific; +until she would suddenly spring up in affected surprise, and pointing to +the clock, "Mercy, Mr. Archie!" she would say, "whatten a time o' night +is this of it! God forgive me for a daft wife!" So it befell, by good +management, that she was not only the first to begin these nocturnal +conversations, but invariably the first to break them off; so she +managed to retire and not to be dismissed. + + + 3. _A Border Family_ + +Such an unequal intimacy has never been uncommon in Scotland, where the +clan spirit survives; where the servant tends to spend her life in the +same service, a help-meet at first, then a tyrant, and at last a +pensioner; where, besides, she is not necessarily destitute of the pride +of birth, but is, perhaps, like Kirstie, a connection of her master's, +and at least knows the legend of her own family, and may count kinship +with some illustrious dead. For that is the mark of the Scot of all +classes: that he stands in an attitude towards the past unthinkable to +Englishmen, and remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, +good or bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the +dead even to the twentieth generation. No more characteristic instance +could be found than in the family of Kirstie Elliott. They were all, and +Kirstie the first of all, ready and eager to pour forth the particulars +of their genealogy, embellished with every detail that memory had handed +down or fancy fabricated; and, behold! from every ramification of that +tree there dangled a halter. The Elliotts themselves have had a +chequered history; but these Elliotts deduced, besides, from three of +the most unfortunate of the border clans--the Nicksons, the Ellwalds, +and the Crozers. One ancestor after another might be seen appearing a +moment out of the rain and the hill mist upon his furtive business, +speeding home, perhaps, with a paltry booty of lame horses and lean +kine, or squealing and dealing death in some moorland feud of the +ferrets and the wild cats. One after another closed his obscure +adventures in mid-air, triced up to the arm of the royal gibbet or the +Baron's dule-tree. For the rusty blunderbuss of Scots criminal justice, +which usually hurt nobody but jurymen, became a weapon of precision for +the Nicksons, the Ellwalds, and the Crozers. The exhilaration of their +exploits seemed to haunt the memories of their descendants alone, and +the shame to be forgotten. Pride glowed in their bosoms to publish their +relationship to "Andrew Ellwald of the Laverockstanes, called 'Unchancy +Dand,' who was justifeed wi' seeven mair of the same name at Jeddart in +the days of King James the Sax." In all this tissue of crime and +misfortune, the Elliotts of Cauldstaneslap had one boast which must +appear legitimate: the males were gallows-birds, born outlaws, petty +thieves, and deadly brawlers; but, according to the same tradition, the +females were all chaste and faithful. The power of ancestry on the +character is not limited to the inheritance of cells. If I buy ancestors +by the gross from the benevolence of Lyon King of Arms, my grandson (if +he is Scottish) will feel a quickening emulation of their deeds. The men +of the Elliotts were proud, lawless, violent as of right, cherishing and +prolonging a tradition. In like manner with the women. And the woman, +essentially passionate and reckless, who crouched on the rug, in the +shine of the peat fire, telling these tales, had cherished through life +a wild integrity of virtue. + +Her father Gilbert had been deeply pious, a savage disciplinarian in the +antique style, and withal a notorious smuggler. "I mind when I was a +bairn getting mony a skelp and being shoo'd to bed like pou'try," she +would say. "That would be when the lads and their bit kegs were on the +road. We've had the riffraff of two-three counties in our kitchen, +mony's the time, betwix' the twelve and the three; and their lanterns +would be standing in the forecourt, ay, a score o' them at once. But +there was nae ungodly talk permitted at Cauldstaneslap; my faither was a +consistent man in walk and conversation; just let slip an aith, and +there was the door to ye! He had that zeal for the Lord, it was a fair +wonder to hear him pray, but the faim'ly has aye had a gift that way." +This father was twice married, once to a dark woman of the old Ellwald +stock, by whom he had Gilbert, presently of Cauldstaneslap; and, +secondly, to the mother of Kirstie. "He was an auld man when he married +her, a fell auld man wi' a muckle voice--you could hear him rowting from +the top o' the Kye-skairs," she said; "but for her, it appears she was a +perfit wonder. It was gentle blood she had, Mr. Archie, for it was your +ain. The country-side gaed gyte about her and her gowden hair. Mines is +no to be mentioned wi' it, and there's few weemen has mair hair than +what I have, or yet a bonnier colour. Often would I tell my dear Miss +Jeannie--that was your mother, dear, she was cruel ta'en up about her +hair, it was unco tender, ye see--'Hoots, Miss Jeannie,' I would say, +'just fling your washes and your French dentifrishes in the back o' the +fire, for that's the place for them; and awa' down to a burn side, and +wash yersel' in cauld hill water, and dry your bonny hair in the caller +wind o' the muirs, the way that my mother aye washed hers, and that I +have aye made it a practice to have wishen mines--just you do what I +tell ye, my dear, and ye'll give me news of it! Ye'll have hair, and +routh of hair, a pigtail as thick's my arm,' I said, 'and the bonniest +colour like the clear gowden guineas, so as the lads in kirk'll no can +keep their eyes off it!' Weel, it lasted out her time, puir thing! I +cuttit a lock of it upon her corp that was lying there sae cauld. I'll +show it ye some of thir days if ye're good. But, as I was sayin', my +mither----" + +On the death of the father there remained golden-haired Kirstie, who +took service with her distant kinsfolk, the Rutherfords, and +black-a-vised Gilbert, twenty years older, who farmed the +Cauldstaneslap, married, and begot four sons between 1773 and 1784, and +a daughter, like a postscript, in '97, the year of Camperdown and Cape +St. Vincent. It seemed it was a tradition in the family to wind up with +a belated girl. In 1804, at the age of sixty, Gilbert met an end that +might be called heroic. He was due home from market any time from eight +at night till five in the morning, and in any condition from the +quarrelsome to the speechless, for he maintained to that age the goodly +customs of the Scots farmer. It was known on this occasion that he had a +good bit of money to bring home; the word had gone round loosely. The +laird had shown his guineas, and if anybody had but noticed it, there +was an ill-looking, vagabond crew, the scum of Edinburgh, that drew out +of the market long ere it was dusk and took the hill-road by Hermiston, +where it was not to be believed that they had lawful business. One of +the country-side, one Dickieson, they took with them to be their guide, +and dear he paid for it! Of a sudden, in the ford of the Broken Dykes, +this vermin clan fell on the laird, six to one, and him three parts +asleep, having drunk hard. But it is ill to catch an Elliott. For a +while, in the night and the black water that was deep as to his +saddle-girths, he wrought with his staff like a smith at his stithy, and +great was the sound of oaths and blows. With that the ambuscade was +burst, and he rode for home with a pistol-ball in him, three knife +wounds, the loss of his front teeth, a broken rib and bridle, and a +dying horse. That was a race with death that the laird rode. In the mirk +night, with his broken bridle and his head swimming, he dug his spurs to +the rowels in the horse's side, and the horse, that was even worse off +than himself, the poor creature! screamed out like a person as he went, +so that the hills echoed with it, and the folks at Cauldstaneslap got to +their feet about the table and looked at each other with white faces. +The horse fell dead at the yard gate, the laird won the length of the +house and fell there on the threshold. To the son that raised him he +gave the bag of money. "Hae," said he. All the way up the thieves had +seemed to him to be at his heels, but now the hallucination left him--he +saw them again in the place of the ambuscade--and the thirst of +vengeance seized on his dying mind. Raising himself and pointing with an +imperious finger into the black night from which he had come, he uttered +the single command, "Brocken Dykes," and fainted. He had never been +loved, but he had been feared in honour. At that sight, at that word, +gasped out at them from a toothless and bleeding mouth, the old Elliott +spirit awoke with a shout in the four sons. "Wanting the hat," continues +my author, Kirstie, whom I but haltingly follow, for she told this tale +like one inspired, "wanting guns, for there wasna twa grains o' pouder +in the house, wi' nae mair weepons than their sticks into their hands, +the fower o' them took the road. Only Hob, and that was the eldest, +hunkered at the door-sill where the blood had rin, fyled his hand wi' +it, and haddit it up to Heeven in the way o' the auld Border aith. 'Hell +shall have her ain again this nicht!' he raired, and rode forth upon his +earrand." It was three miles to Broken Dykes, down hill, and a sore +road. Kirstie had seen men from Edinburgh dismounting there in plain day +to lead their horses. But the four brothers rode it as if Auld Hornie +were behind and Heaven in front. Come to the ford, and there was +Dickieson. By all tales, he was not dead, but breathed and reared upon +his elbow, and cried out to them for help. It was at a graceless face +that he asked mercy. As soon as Hob saw, by the glint of the lantern, +the eyes shining and the whiteness of the teeth in the man's face, "Damn +you!" says he; "ye hae your teeth, hae ye?" and rode his horse to and +fro upon that human remnant. Beyond that, Dandie must dismount with the +lantern to be their guide; he was the youngest son, scarce twenty at the +time. "A' nicht long they gaed in the wet heath and jennipers, and whaur +they gaed they neither knew nor cared, but just followed the +bluid-stains and the footprints o' their faither's murderers. And a' +nicht Dandie had his nose to the grund like a tyke, and the ithers +followed and spak' naething, neither black nor white. There was nae +noise to be heard, but just the sough of the swalled burns, and Hob, the +dour yin, risping his teeth as he gaed." With the first glint of the +morning they saw they were on the drove-road, and at that the four +stopped and had a dram to their breakfasts, for they knew that Dand must +have guided them right, and the rogues could be but little ahead, hot +foot for Edinburgh by the way of the Pentland Hills. By eight o'clock +they had word of them--a shepherd had seen four men "uncoly mishandled" +go by in the last hour. "That's yin a piece," says Clem, and swung his +cudgel. "Five o' them!" says Hob. "God's death, but the faither was a +man! And him drunk!" And then there befell them what my author termed "a +sair misbegowk," for they were overtaken by a posse of mounted +neighbours come to aid in the pursuit. Four sour faces looked on the +reinforcement. "The Deil's broughten you!" said Clem, and they rode +thenceforward in the rear of the party with hanging heads. Before ten +they had found and secured the rogues, and by three of the afternoon, as +they rode up the Vennel with their prisoners, they were aware of a +concourse of people bearing in their midst something that dripped. "For +the boady of the saxt," pursued Kirstie, "wi' his head smashed like a +hazel-nit, had been a' that nicht in the chairge o' Hermiston Water, and +it dunting in on the stanes, and grunding it on the shallows, and +flinging the deid thing heels-ower-hurdie at the Fa's o' Spango; and in +the first o' the day, Tweed had got a hold o' him and carried him off +like a wind, for it was uncoly swalled, and raced wi' him, bobbing under +braesides, and was long playing with the creature in the drumlie lynns +under the castle, and at the hinder end of all cuist him up on the +sterling of Crossmichael brig. Sae there they were a'thegither at last +(for Dickieson had been brought in on a cart long syne), and folk could +see what mainner o' man my brither had been that had held his head again +sax and saved the siller, and him drunk!" Thus died of honourable +injuries and in the savour of fame Gilbert Elliott of the +Cauldstaneslap; but his sons had scarce less glory out of the business. +Their savage haste, the skill with which Dand had found and followed the +trail, the barbarity to the wounded Dickieson (which was like an open +secret in the county), and the doom which it was currently supposed they +had intended for the others, struck and stirred popular imagination. +Some century earlier the last of the minstrels might have fashioned the +last of the ballads out of that Homeric fight and chase; but the spirit +was dead, or had been reincarnated already in Mr. Sheriff Scott, and the +degenerate moorsmen must be content to tell the tale in prose, and to +make of the "Four Black Brothers" a unit after the fashion of the +"Twelve Apostles" or the "Three Musketeers." + +Robert, Gilbert, Clement, and Andrew--in the proper Border diminutives, +Hob, Gib, Clem, and Dand Elliott--these ballad heroes, had much in +common; in particular, their high sense of the family and the family +honour; but they went diverse ways, and prospered and failed in +different businesses. According to Kirstie, "they had a' bees in their +bonnets but Hob." Hob the laird was, indeed, essentially a decent man. +An elder of the Kirk, nobody had heard an oath upon his lips, save, +perhaps, thrice or so at the sheep-washing, since the chase of his +father's murderers. The figure he had shown on that eventful night +disappeared as if swallowed by a trap. He who had ecstatically dipped +his hand in the red blood, he who had ridden down Dickieson, became, +from that moment on, a stiff and rather graceless model of the rustic +proprieties; cannily profiting by the high war prices, and yearly +stowing away a little nest-egg in the bank against calamity; approved of +and sometimes consulted by the greater lairds for the massive and placid +sense of what he said, when he could be induced to say anything; and +particularly valued by the minister, Mr. Torrance, as a right-hand man +in the parish, and a model to parents. The transfiguration had been for +the moment only; some Barbarossa, some old Adam of our ancestors, sleeps +in all of us till the fit circumstance shall call it into action; and, +for as sober as he now seemed, Hob had given once for all the measure of +the devil that haunted him. He was married, and, by reason of the +effulgence of that legendary night, was adored by his wife. He had a mob +of little lusty, barefoot children who marched in a caravan the long +miles to school, the stages of whose pilgrimage were marked by acts of +spoliation and mischief, and who were qualified in the country-side as +"fair pests." But in the house, if "faither was in," they were quiet as +mice. In short, Hob moved through life in a great peace--the reward of +any one who shall have killed his man, with any formidable and +figurative circumstance, in the midst of a country gagged and swaddled +with civilisation. + +It was a current remark that the Elliotts were "guid and bad, like +sanguishes"; and certainly there was a curious distinction, the men of +business coming alternately with the dreamers. The second brother, Gib, +was a weaver by trade, had gone out early into the world to Edinburgh, +and come home again with his wings singed. There was an exaltation in +his nature which had led him to embrace with enthusiasm the principles +of the French Revolution, and had ended by bringing him under the hawse +of my Lord Hermiston in that furious onslaught of his upon the Liberals, +which sent Muir and Palmer into exile and dashed the party into chaff. +It was whispered that my lord, in his great scorn for the movement, and +prevailed upon a little by a sense of neighbourliness, had given Gib a +hint. Meeting him one day in the Potterrow, my lord had stopped in front +of him: "Gib, ye eediot," he had said, "what's this I hear of you? +Poalitics, poalitics, poalitics, weaver's poalitics, is the way of it, I +hear. If ye arena a'thegither dozened with eediocy, ye'll gang your ways +back to Cauldstaneslap, and ca' your loom, and ca' your loom, man!" And +Gilbert had taken him at the word and returned, with an expedition +almost to be called flight, to the house of his father. The clearest of +his inheritance was that family gift of prayer of which Kirstie had +boasted; and the baffled politician now turned his attention to +religious matters--or, as others said, to heresy and schism. Every +Sunday morning he was in Crossmichael, where he had gathered together, +one by one, a sect of about a dozen persons, who called themselves +"God's Remnant of the True Faithful," or, for short, "God's Remnant." To +the profane they were known as "Gib's Deils." Bailie Sweedie, a noted +humorist in the town, vowed that the proceedings always opened to the +tune of "The Deil Fly Away with the Exciseman," and that the sacrament +was dispensed in the form of hot whisky-toddy; both wicked hits at the +evangelist, who had been suspected of smuggling in his youth, and had +been overtaken (as the phrase went) on the streets of Crossmichael one +Fair day. It was known that every Sunday they prayed for a blessing on +the arms of Buonaparte. For this, "God's Remnant," as they were +"skailing" from the cottage that did duty for a temple, had been +repeatedly stoned by the bairns, and Gib himself hooted by a squadron of +Border volunteers in which his own brother, Dand, rode in a uniform and +with a drawn sword. The "Remnant" were believed, besides, to be +"antinomian in principle," which might otherwise have been a serious +charge, but the way public opinion then blew it was quite swallowed up +and forgotten in the scandal about Buonaparte. For the rest, Gilbert had +set up his loom in an outhouse at Cauldstaneslap, where he laboured +assiduously six days of the week. His brothers, appalled by his +political opinions, and willing to avoid dissension in the household, +spoke but little to him; he less to them, remaining absorbed in the +study of the Bible and almost constant prayer. The gaunt weaver was +dry-nurse at Cauldstaneslap, and the bairns loved him dearly. Except +when he was carrying an infant in his arms, he was rarely seen to +smile--as, indeed, there were few smilers in that family. When his +sister-in-law rallied him, and proposed that he should get a wife and +bairns of his own, since he was so fond of them, "I have no clearness of +mind upon that point," he would reply. If nobody called him in to +dinner, he stayed out. Mrs. Hob, a hard, unsympathetic woman, once tried +the experiment. He went without food all day, but at dusk, as the light +began to fail him, he came into the house of his own accord, looking +puzzled. "I've had a great gale of prayer upon my speerit," said he. "I +canna mind sae muckle's what I had for denner." The creed of God's +Remnant was justified in the life of its founder. "And yet I dinna +ken," said Kirstie. "He's maybe no more stock-fish than his neeghbours! +He rode wi' the rest o' them, and had a good stamach to the work, by a' +that I hear! God's Remnant! The deil's clavers! There wasna muckle +Christianity in the way Hob guided Johnny Dickieson, at the least of it; +but Guid kens! Is he a Christian even? He might be a Mahommedan or a +Deevil or a Fireworshipper, for what I ken." + +The third brother had his name on a door-plate, no less, in the city of +Glasgow, "Mr. Clement Elliott," as long as your arm. In this case, that +spirit of innovation which had shown itself timidly in the case of Hob +by the admission of new manures, and which had run to waste with Gilbert +in subversive politics and heretical religions, bore useful fruit in +many ingenious mechanical improvements. In boyhood, from his addiction +to strange devices of sticks and string, he had been counted the most +eccentric of the family. But that was all by now; and he was a partner +of his firm, and looked to die a bailie. He too had married, and was +rearing a plentiful family in the smoke and din of Glasgow; he was +wealthy, and could have bought out his brother, the cock-laird, six +times over, it was whispered; and when he slipped away to Cauldstaneslap +for a well-earned holiday, which he did as often as he was able, he +astonished the neighbours with his broadcloth, his beaver hat, and the +ample plies of his neckcloth. Though an eminently solid man at bottom, +after the pattern of Hob, he had contracted a certain Glasgow briskness +and _aplomb_ which set him off. All the other Elliotts were as lean as a +rake, but Clement was laying on fat, and he panted sorely when he must +get into his boots. Dand said, chuckling: "Ay, Clem has the elements of +a corporation." "A provost and corporation," returned Clem. And his +readiness was much admired. + +The fourth brother, Dand, was a shepherd to his trade, and by starts, +when he could bring his mind to it, excelled in the business. Nobody +could train a dog like Dandie; nobody, through the peril of great storms +in the winter time, could do more gallantly. But if his dexterity were +exquisite, his diligence was but fitful; and he served his brother for +bed and board, and a trifle of pocket-money when he asked for it. He +loved money well enough, knew very well how to spend it, and could make +a shrewd bargain when he liked. But he preferred a vague knowledge that +he was well to windward to any counted coins in the pocket; he felt +himself richer so. Hob would expostulate: "I'm an amature herd." Dand +would reply, "I'll keep your sheep to you when I'm so minded, but I'll +keep my liberty too. Thir's no man can coandescend on what I'm worth." +Clem would expound to him the miraculous results of compound interest, +and recommend investments. "Ay, man?" Dand would say; "and do you think, +if I took Hob's siller, that I wouldna drink it or wear it on the +lassies? And, anyway, my kingdom is no of this world. Either I'm a poet +or else I'm nothing." Clem would remind him of old age. "I'll die young, +like Robbie Burns," he would say stoutly. No question but he had a +certain accomplishment in minor verse. His "Hermiston Burn," with its +pretty refrain-- + + "I love to gang thinking whaur ye gang linking, + Hermiston burn, in the howe"; + +his "Auld, auld Elliotts, clay-cauld Elliotts, dour, bauld Elliotts of +auld," and his really fascinating piece about the Praying Weaver's +Stone, had gained him in the neighbourhood the reputation, still +possible in Scotland, of a local bard; and, though not printed himself, +he was recognised by others who were and who had become famous. Walter +Scott owed to Dandie the text of the "Raid of Wearie" in the +"Minstrelsy"; and made him welcome at his house, and appreciated his +talents, such as they were, with all his usual generosity. The Ettrick +Shepherd was his sworn crony; they would meet, drink to excess, roar out +their lyrics in each other's faces, and quarrel and make it up again +till bedtime. And besides these recognitions, almost to be called +official, Dandie was made welcome for the sake of his gift through the +farmhouses of several contiguous dales, and was thus exposed to manifold +temptations which he rather sought than fled. He had figured on the +stool of repentance, for once fulfilling to the letter the tradition of +his hero and model. His humorous verses to Mr. Torrance on that +occasion--"Kenspeckle here my lane I stand"--unfortunately too +indelicate for further citation, ran through the country like a fiery +cross; they were recited, quoted, paraphrased, and laughed over as far +away as Dumfries on the one hand and Dunbar on the other. + +These four brothers were united by a close bond, the bond of that mutual +admiration--or rather mutual hero-worship--which is so strong among the +members of secluded families who have much ability and little culture. +Even the extremes admired each other. Hob, who had as much poetry as the +tongs, professed to find pleasure in Dand's verses; Clem, who had no +more religion than Claverhouse, nourished a heartfelt, at least an +open-mouthed, admiration of Gib's prayers; and Dandie followed with +relish the rise of Clem's fortunes. Indulgence followed hard on the +heels of admiration. The laird, Clem, and Dand, who were Tories and +patriots of the hottest quality, excused to themselves, with a certain +bashfulness, the radical and revolutionary heresies of Gib. By another +division of the family, the laird, Clem, and Gib, who were men exactly +virtuous, swallowed the dose of Dand's irregularities as a kind of clog +or drawback in the mysterious providence of God affixed to bards, and +distinctly probative of poetical genius. To appreciate the simplicity of +their mutual admiration it was necessary to hear Clem, arrived upon one +of his visits, and dealing in a spirit of continuous irony with the +affairs and personalities of that great city of Glasgow where he lived +and transacted business. The various personages, ministers of the +church, municipal officers, mercantile big-wigs, whom he had occasion +to introduce, were all alike denigrated, all served but as reflectors to +cast back a flattering side-light on the house of Cauldstaneslap. The +Provost, for whom Clem by exception entertained a measure of respect, he +would liken to Hob. "He minds me o' the laird there," he would say. "He +has some of Hob's grand, whunstane sense, and the same way with him of +steiking his mouth when he's no very pleased." And Hob, all unconscious, +would draw down his upper lip and produce, as if for comparison, the +formidable grimace referred to. The unsatisfactory incumbent of St. +Enoch's Kirk was thus briefly dismissed: "If he had but twa fingers o' +Gib's, he would waken them up." And Gib, honest man! would look down and +secretly smile. Clem was a spy whom they had sent out into the world of +men. He had come back with the good news that there was nobody to +compare with the Four Black Brothers, no position that they would not +adorn, no official that it would not be well they should replace, no +interest of mankind, secular or spiritual, which would not immediately +bloom under their supervision. The excuse of their folly is in two +words: scarce the breadth of a hair divided them from the peasantry. The +measure of their sense is this: that these symposia of rustic vanity +were kept entirely within the family, like some secret ancestral +practice. To the world their serious faces were never deformed by the +suspicion of any simper of self-contentment. Yet it was known. "They hae +a guid pride o' themsel's!" was the word in the country-side. + +Lastly, in a Border story, there should be added their "two-names." Hob +was The Laird. "Roy ne puis, prince ne daigne"; he was the laird of +Cauldstaneslap--say fifty acres--_ipsissimus_. Clement was Mr. Elliott, +as upon his door-plate, the earlier Dafty having been discarded as no +longer applicable, and indeed only a reminder of misjudgment and the +imbecility of the public; and the youngest, in honour of his perpetual +wanderings, was known by the sobriquet of Randy Dand. + +It will be understood that not all this information was communicated by +the aunt, who had too much of the family failing herself to appreciate +it thoroughly in others. But as time went on, Archie began to observe an +omission in the family chronicle. + +"Is there not a girl too?" he asked. + +"Ay: Kirstie. She was named for me, or my grandmother at least--it's the +same thing," returned the aunt, and went on again about Dand, whom she +secretly preferred by reason of his gallantries. + +"But what is your niece like?" said Archie at the next opportunity. + +"Her? As black's your hat! But I dinna suppose she would maybe be what +you would ca' _ill-looked_ a'thegither. Na, she's a kind of a handsome +jaud--a kind o' gipsy," said the aunt, who had two sets of scales for +men and women--or perhaps it would be more fair to say that she had +three, and the third and the most loaded was for girls. + +"How comes it that I never see her in church?" said Archie. + +"'Deed, and I believe she's in Glesgie with Clem and his wife. A heap +good she's like to get of it! I dinna say for men folk, but where weemen +folk are born, there let them bide. Glory to God, I was never far'er +from here than Crossmichael." + +In the meanwhile it began to strike Archie as strange, that while she +thus sang the praises of her kinsfolk, and manifestly relished their +virtues and (I may say) their vices like a thing creditable to herself, +there should appear not the least sign of cordiality between the house +of Hermiston and that of Cauldstaneslap. Going to church of a Sunday, as +the lady housekeeper stepped with her skirts kilted, three tucks of her +white petticoat showing below, and her best India shawl upon her back +(if the day were fine) in a pattern of radiant dyes, she would sometimes +overtake her relatives preceding her more leisurely in the same +direction. Gib of course was absent: by skreigh of day he had been gone +to Crossmichael and his fellow-heretics; but the rest of the family +would be seen marching in open order: Hob and Dand, stiff-necked, +straight-backed six-footers, with severe dark faces, and their plaids +about their shoulders; the convoy of children scattering (in a state of +high polish) on the wayside, and every now and again collected by the +shrill summons of the mother; and the mother herself, by a suggestive +circumstance which might have afforded matter of thought to a more +experienced observer than Archie, wrapped in a shawl nearly identical +with Kirstie's, but a thought more gaudy and conspicuously newer. At the +sight, Kirstie grew more tall--Kirstie showed her classical profile, +nose in air and nostril spread, the pure blood came in her cheek evenly +in a delicate living pink. + +"A braw day to ye, Mistress Elliott," said she, and hostility and +gentility were nicely mingled in her tones. "A fine day, mem," the +laird's wife would reply with a miraculous curtsey, spreading the while +her plumage--setting off, in other words, and with arts unknown to the +mere man, the pattern of her India shawl. Behind her, the whole +Cauldstaneslap contingent marched in closer order, and with an +indescribable air of being in the presence of the foe; and while Dandie +saluted his aunt with a certain familiarity as of one who was well in +court, Hob marched on in awful immobility. There appeared upon the face +of this attitude in the family the consequences of some dreadful feud. +Presumably the two women had been principals in the original encounter, +and the laird had probably been drawn into the quarrel by the ears, too +late to be included in the present skin-deep reconciliation. + +"Kirstie," said Archie one day, "what is this you have against your +family?" + +"I dinna complean," said Kirstie, with a flush. "I say naething." + +"I see you do not--not even good-day to your own nephew," said he. + +"I hae naething to be ashamed of," said she. "I can say the Lord's +Prayer with a good grace. If Hob was ill, or in preeson or poverty, I +would see to him blithely. But for curtchying and complimenting and +colloguing, thank ye kindly!" + +Archie had a bit of a smile: he leaned back in his chair. "I think you +and Mrs. Robert are not very good friends," says he slily, "when you +have your India shawls on?" + +She looked upon him in silence, with a sparkling eye but an +indecipherable expression; and that was all that Archie was ever +destined to learn of the battle of the India shawls. + +"Do none of them ever come here to see you?" he inquired. + +"Mr. Archie," said she, "I hope that I ken my place better. It would be +a queer thing, I think, if I was to clamjamfry up your faither's +house--that I should say it!--wi' a dirty, black-a-vised clan, no ane o' +them it was worth while to mar soap upon but just mysel'! Na, they're +all damnifeed wi' the black Ellwalds. I have nae patience wi' black +folk." Then, with a sudden consciousness of the case of Archie, "No that +it maitters for men sae muckle," she made haste to add, "but there's +naebody can deny that it's unwomanly. Long hair is the ornament o' woman +ony way; we've good warrandise for that--it's in the Bible--and wha can +doubt that the Apostle had some gowden-haired lassie in his +mind--Apostle and all, for what was he but just a man like yersel'?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A LEAF FROM CHRISTINA'S PSALM-BOOK + + +Archie was sedulous at church. Sunday after Sunday he sat down and stood +up with that small company, heard the voice of Mr. Torrance leaping like +an ill-played clarionet from key to key, and had an opportunity to study +his moth-eaten gown and the black thread mittens that he joined together +in prayer, and lifted up with a reverent solemnity in the act of +benediction. Hermiston pew was a little square box, dwarfish in +proportion with the kirk itself, and enclosing a table not much bigger +than a footstool. There sat Archie, an apparent prince, the only +undeniable gentleman and the only great heritor in the parish, taking +his ease in the only pew, for no other in the kirk had doors. Thence he +might command an undisturbed view of that congregation of solid plaided +men, strapping wives and daughters, oppressed children, and uneasy +sheep-dogs. It was strange how Archie missed the look of race; except +the dogs, with their refined foxy faces and inimitably curling tails, +there was no one present with the least claim to gentility. The +Cauldstaneslap party was scarcely an exception; Dandie perhaps, as he +amused himself making verses through the interminable burden of the +service, stood out a little by the glow in his eye and a certain +superior animation of face and alertness of body; but even Dandie +slouched like a rustic. The rest of the congregation, like so many +sheep, oppressed him with a sense of hob-nailed routine, day following +day--of physical labour in the open air, oatmeal porridge, peas bannock, +the somnolent fireside in the evening, and the night-long nasal slumbers +in a box-bed. Yet he knew many of them to be shrewd and humorous, men +of character, notable women, making a bustle in the world and radiating +an influence from their low-browed doors. He knew besides they were like +other men; below the crust of custom, rapture found a way; he had heard +them beat the timbrel before Bacchus--had heard them shout and carouse +over their whisky-toddy; and not the most Dutch-bottomed and severe +faces among them all, not even the solemn elders themselves, but were +capable of singular gambols at the voice of love. Men drawing near to an +end of life's adventurous journey--maids thrilling with fear and +curiosity on the threshold of entrance--women who had borne and perhaps +buried children, who could remember the clinging of the small dead hands +and the patter of the little feet now silent--he marvelled that among +all those faces there should be no face of expectation, none that was +mobile, none into which the rhythm and poetry of life had entered. "O +for a live face," he thought; and at times he had a memory of Lady +Flora; and at times he would study the living gallery before him with +despair, and would see himself go on to waste his days in that joyless, +pastoral place, and death come to him, and his grave be dug under the +rowans, and the Spirit of the Earth laugh out in a thunder-peal at the +huge fiasco. + +On this particular Sunday, there was no doubt but that the spring had +come at last. It was warm, with a latent shiver in the air that made the +warmth only the more welcome. The shallows of the stream glittered and +tinkled among bunches of primrose. Vagrant scents of the earth arrested +Archie by the way with moments of ethereal intoxication. The grey, +Quakerish dale was still only awakened in places and patches from the +sobriety of its winter colouring; and he wondered at its beauty; an +essential beauty of the old earth it seemed to him, not resident in +particulars but breathing to him from the whole. He surprised himself by +a sudden impulse to write poetry--he did so sometimes, loose, galloping +octosyllabics in the vein of Scott--and when he had taken his place on a +boulder, near some fairy falls and shaded by a whip of a tree that was +already radiant with new leaves, it still more surprised him that he +should find nothing to write. His heart perhaps beat in time to some +vast indwelling rhythm of the universe. By the time he came to a corner +of the valley and could see the kirk, he had so lingered by the way that +the first psalm was finishing. The nasal psalmody, full of turns and +trills and graceless graces, seemed the essential voice of the kirk +itself upraised in thanksgiving. "Everything's alive," he said; and +again cries it aloud, "thank God, everything's alive!" He lingered yet a +while in the kirkyard. A tuft of primroses was blooming hard by the leg +of an old, black table tombstone, and he stopped to contemplate the +random apologue. They stood forth on the cold earth with a trenchancy of +contrast; and he was struck with a sense of incompleteness in the day, +the season, and the beauty that surrounded him--the chill there was in +the warmth, the gross black clods about the opening primroses, the damp +earthy smell that was everywhere intermingled with the scents. The voice +of the aged Torrance within rose in an ecstasy. And he wondered if +Torrance also felt in his old bones the joyous influence of the spring +morning; Torrance, or the shadow of what once was Torrance, that must +come so soon to lie outside here in the sun and rain with all his +rheumatisms, while a new minister stood in his room and thundered from +his own familiar pulpit? The pity of it, and something of the chill of +the grave, shook him for a moment as he made haste to enter. + +He went up the aisle reverently, and took his place in the pew with +lowered eyes, for he feared he had already offended the kind old +gentleman in the pulpit, and was sedulous to offend no further. He could +not follow the prayer, not even the heads of it. Brightnesses of azure, +clouds of fragrance, a tinkle of falling water and singing birds, rose +like exhalations from some deeper, aboriginal memory, that was not his, +but belonged to the flesh on his bones. His body remembered; and it +seemed to him that his body was in no way gross, but ethereal and +perishable like a strain of music; and he felt for it an exquisite +tenderness as for a child, an innocent, full of beautiful instincts and +destined to an early death. And he felt for old Torrance--of the many +supplications, of the few days--a pity that was near to tears. The +prayer ended. Right over him was a tablet in the wall, the only ornament +in the roughly masoned chapel--for it was no more; the tablet +commemorated, I was about to say the virtues, but rather the existence +of a former Rutherford of Hermiston; and Archie, under that trophy of +his long descent and local greatness, leaned back in the pew and +contemplated vacancy with the shadow of a smile between playful and sad, +that became him strangely. Dandie's sister, sitting by the side of Clem +in her new Glasgow finery, chose that moment to observe the young laird. +Aware of the stir of his entrance, the little formalist had kept her +eyes fastened and her face prettily composed during the prayer. It was +not hypocrisy, there was no one further from a hypocrite. The girl had +been taught to behave: to look up, to look down, to look unconscious, to +look seriously impressed in church, and in every conjuncture to look her +best. That was the game of female life, and she played it frankly. +Archie was the one person in church who was of interest, who was +somebody new, reputed eccentric, known to be young, and a laird, and +still unseen by Christina. Small wonder that, as she stood there in her +attitude of pretty decency, her mind should run upon him! If he spared a +glance in her direction, he should know she was a well-behaved young +lady who had been to Glasgow. In reason he must admire her clothes, and +it was possible that he should think her pretty. At that her heart beat +the least thing in the world; and she proceeded, by way of a corrective, +to call up and dismiss a series of fancied pictures of the young man who +should now, by rights, be looking at her. She settled on the plainest of +them--a pink short young man with a dish face and no figure, at whose +admiration she could afford to smile; but for all that, the +consciousness of his gaze (which was really fixed on Torrance and his +mittens) kept her in something of a flutter till the word Amen. Even +then, she was far too well-bred to gratify her curiosity with any +impatience. She resumed her seat languidly--this was a Glasgow +touch--she composed her dress, rearranged her nosegay of primroses, +looked first in front, then behind upon the other side, and at last +allowed her eyes to move, without hurry, in the direction of the +Hermiston pew. For a moment they were riveted. Next she had plucked her +gaze home again like a tame bird who should have meditated flight. +Possibilities crowded on her; she hung over the future and grew dizzy; +the image of this young man, slim, graceful, dark, with the inscrutable +half-smile, attracted and repelled her like a chasm. "I wonder, will I +have met my fate?" she thought, and her heart swelled. + +Torrance was got some way into his first exposition, positing a deep +layer of texts as he went along, laying the foundations of his +discourse, which was to deal with a nice point in divinity, before +Archie suffered his eyes to wander. They fell first of all on Clem, +looking insupportably prosperous, and patronising Torrance with the +favour of a modified attention, as of one who was used to better things +in Glasgow. Though he had never before set eyes on him, Archie had no +difficulty in identifying him, and no hesitation in pronouncing him +vulgar, the worst of the family. Clem was leaning lazily forward when +Archie first saw him. Presently he leaned nonchalantly back; and that +deadly instrument, the maiden, was suddenly unmasked in profile. Though +not quite in the front of the fashion (had anybody cared!), certain +artful Glasgow mantua-makers, and her own inherent taste, had arrayed +her to great advantage. Her accoutrement was, indeed, a cause of +heart-burning, and almost of scandal, in that infinitesimal kirk +company. Mrs. Hob had said her say at Cauldstaneslap. "Daftlike!" she +had pronounced it. "A jaiket that'll no meet! Whaur's the sense of a +jaiket that'll no button upon you, if it should come to be weet? What +do ye ca' thir things? Demmy brokens, d'ye say? They'll be brokens wi' a +vengeance or ye can win back! Weel, I have naething to do wi' it--it's +no good taste." Clem, whose purse had thus metamorphosed his sister, and +who was not insensible to the advertisement, had come to the rescue with +a "Hoot, woman! What do you ken of good taste that has never been to the +ceety?" And Hob, looking on the girl with pleased smiles, as she timidly +displayed her finery in the midst of the dark kitchen, had thus ended +the dispute: "The cutty looks weel," he had said, "and it's no very like +rain. Wear them the day, hizzie; but it's no a thing to make a practice +o'." In the breasts of her rivals, coming to the kirk very conscious of +white under-linen, and their faces splendid with much soap, the sight of +the toilet had raised a storm of varying emotion, from the mere +unenvious admiration that was expressed in a long-drawn "Eh!" to the +angrier feeling that found vent in an emphatic "Set her up!" Her frock +was of straw-coloured jaconet muslin, cut low at the bosom and short at +the ankle, so as to display her _demi-broquins_ of Regency violet, +crossing with many straps upon a yellow cobweb stocking. According to +the pretty fashion in which our grandmothers did not hesitate to appear, +and our great-aunts went forth armed for the pursuit and capture of our +great-uncles, the dress was drawn up so as to mould the contour of both +breasts, and in the nook between, a cairngorm brooch maintained it. +Here, too, surely in a very enviable position, trembled the nosegay of +primroses. She wore on her shoulders--or rather, on her back and not her +shoulders, which it scarcely passed--a French coat of sarsenet, tied in +front with Margate braces, and of the same colour with her violet shoes. +About her face clustered a disorder of dark ringlets, a little garland +of yellow French roses surmounted her brow, and the whole was crowned by +a village hat of chipped straw. Amongst all the rosy and all the +weathered faces that surrounded her in church, she glowed like an open +flower--girl and raiment, and the cairngorm that caught the daylight +and returned it in a fiery flash, and the threads of bronze and gold +that played in her hair. + +Archie was attracted by the bright thing like a child. He looked at her +again and yet again, and their looks crossed. The lip was lifted from +her little teeth. He saw the red blood work vividly under her tawny +skin. Her eye, which was great as a stag's, struck and held his gaze. He +knew who she must be--Kirstie, she of the harsh diminutive, his +housekeeper's niece, the sister of the rustic prophet, Gib--and he found +in her the answer to his wishes. + +Christina felt the shock of their encountering glances, and seemed to +rise, clothed in smiles, into a region of the vague and bright. But the +gratification was not more exquisite than it was brief. She looked away +abruptly, and immediately began to blame herself for that abruptness. +She knew what she should have done, too late--turned slowly with her +nose in the air. And meantime his look was not removed, but continued to +play upon her like a battery of cannon constantly aimed, and now seemed +to isolate her alone with him, and now seemed to uplift her, as on a +pillory, before the congregation. For Archie continued to drink her in +with his eyes, even as a wayfarer comes to a well-head on a mountain, +and stoops his face, and drinks with thirst unassuageable. In the cleft +of her little breasts the fiery eye of the topaz and the pale florets of +primrose fascinated him. He saw the breasts heave, and the flowers shake +with the heaving, and marvelled what should so much discompose the girl. +And Christina was conscious of his gaze--saw it, perhaps, with the +dainty plaything of an ear that peeped among her ringlets; she was +conscious of changing colour, conscious of her unsteady breath. Like a +creature tracked, run down, surrounded, she sought in a dozen ways to +give herself a countenance. She used her handkerchief--it was a really +fine one--then she desisted in a panic: "He would only think I was too +warm." She took to reading in the metrical psalms, and then remembered +it was sermon-time. Last she put a "sugar-bool" in her mouth, and the +next moment repented of the step. It was such a homely-like thing! Mr. +Archie would never be eating sweeties in kirk; and, with a palpable +effort, she swallowed it whole, and her colour flamed high. At this +signal of distress Archie awoke to a sense of his ill-behaviour. What +had he been doing? He had been exquisitely rude in church to the niece +of his housekeeper; he had stared like a lackey and a libertine at a +beautiful and modest girl. It was possible, it was even likely, he would +be presented to her after service in the kirkyard, and then how was he +to look? And there was no excuse. He had marked the tokens of her shame, +of her increasing indignation, and he was such a fool that he had not +understood them. Shame bowed him down, and he looked resolutely at Mr. +Torrance: who little supposed, good, worthy man, as he continued to +expound justification by faith, what was his true business: to play the +part of derivative to a pair of children at the old game of falling in +love. + +Christina was greatly relieved at first. It seemed to her that she was +clothed again. She looked back on what had passed. All would have been +right if she had not blushed, a silly fool! There was nothing to blush +at, if she _had_ taken a sugar-bool. Mrs. MacTaggart, the elder's wife +in St. Enoch's, took them often. And if he had looked at her, what was +more natural than that a young gentleman should look at the best-dressed +girl in church? And at the same time, she knew far otherwise, she knew +there was nothing casual or ordinary in the look, and valued herself on +its memory like a decoration. Well, it was a blessing he had found +something else to look at! And presently she began to have other +thoughts. It was necessary, she fancied, that she should put herself +right by a repetition of the incident, better managed. If the wish was +father to the thought, she did not know or she would not recognise it. +It was simply as a manoeuvre of propriety, as something called for to +lessen the significance of what had gone before, that she should a +second time meet his eyes, and this time without blushing. And at the +memory of the blush, she blushed again, and became one general blush +burning from head to foot. Was ever anything so indelicate, so forward, +done by a girl before? And here she was, making an exhibition of herself +before the congregation about nothing! She stole a glance upon her +neighbours, and behold! they were steadily indifferent, and Clem had +gone to sleep. And still the one idea was becoming more and more potent +with her, that in common prudence she must look again before the service +ended. Something of the same sort was going forward in the mind of +Archie, as he struggled with the load of penitence. So it chanced that, +in the flutter of the moment when the last psalm was given out, and +Torrance was reading the verse, and the leaves of every psalm-book in +church were rustling under busy fingers, two stealthy glances were sent +out like antennæ among the pews and on the indifferent and absorbed +occupants, and drew timidly nearer to the straight line between Archie +and Christina. They met, they lingered together for the least fraction +of time, and that was enough. A charge as of electricity passed through +Christina, and behold! the leaf of her psalm-book was torn across. + +Archie was outside by the gate of the graveyard, conversing with Hob and +the minister and shaking hands all round with the scattering +congregation, when Clem and Christina were brought up to be presented. +The laird took off his hat and bowed to her with grace and respect. +Christina made her Glasgow curtsey to the laird, and went on again up +the road for Hermiston and Cauldstaneslap, walking fast, breathing +hurriedly with a heightened colour, and in this strange frame of mind, +that when she was alone she seemed in high happiness, and when any one +addressed her she resented it like a contradiction. A part of the way +she had the company of some neighbour girls and a loutish young man; +never had they seemed so insipid, never had she made herself so +disagreeable. But these struck aside to their various destinations or +were out-walked and left behind; and when she had driven off with sharp +words the proffered convoy of some of her nephews and nieces, she was +free to go on alone up Hermiston brae, walking on air, dwelling +intoxicated among clouds of happiness. Near to the summit she heard +steps behind her, a man's steps, light and very rapid. She knew the foot +at once and walked the faster. "If it's me he's wanting, he can run for +it," she thought, smiling. + +Archie overtook her like a man whose mind was made up. + +"Miss Kirstie," he began. + +"Miss Christina, if you please, Mr. Weir," she interrupted. "I canna +bear the contraction." + +"You forget it has a friendly sound for me. Your aunt is an old friend +of mine, and a very good one. I hope we shall see much of you at +Hermiston?" + +"My aunt and my sister-in-law doesna agree very well. Not that I have +much ado with it. But still when I'm stopping in the house, if I was to +be visiting my aunt, it would not look considerate-like." + +"I am sorry," said Archie. + +"I thank you kindly, Mr. Weir," she said. "I whiles think myself it's a +great peety." + +"Ah, I am sure your voice would always be for peace!" he cried. + +"I wouldna be too sure of that," she said. "I have my days like other +folk, I suppose." + +"Do you know, in our old kirk, among our good old grey dames, you made +an effect like sunshine." + +"Ah, but that would be my Glasgow clothes!" + +"I did not think I was so much under the influence of pretty frocks." + +She smiled with a half look at him. "There's more than you!" she said. +"But you see I'm only Cinderella. I'll have to put all these things by +in my trunk; next Sunday I'll be as grey as the rest. They're Glasgow +clothes, you see, and it would never do to make a practice of it. It +would seem terrible conspicuous." + +By that they were come to the place where their ways severed. The old +grey moors were all about them; in the midst a few sheep wandered; and +they could see on the one hand the straggling caravan scaling the braes +in front of them for Cauldstaneslap, and on the other, the contingent +from Hermiston bending off and beginning to disappear by detachments +into the policy gate. It was in these circumstances that they turned to +say farewell, and deliberately exchanged a glance as they shook hands. +All passed as it should, genteelly; and in Christina's mind, as she +mounted the first steep ascent for Cauldstaneslap, a gratifying sense of +triumph prevailed over the recollection of minor lapses and mistakes. +She had kilted her gown, as she did usually at that rugged pass; but +when she spied Archie still standing and gazing after her, the skirts +came down again as if by enchantment. Here was a piece of nicety for +that upland parish, where the matrons marched with their coats kilted in +the rain, and the lasses walked barefoot to kirk through the dust of +summer, and went bravely down by the burn-side, and sat on stones to +make a public toilet before entering! It was perhaps an air wafted from +Glasgow; or perhaps it marked a stage of that dizziness of gratified +vanity, in which the instinctive act passed unperceived. He was looking +after! She unloaded her bosom of a prodigious sigh that was all +pleasure, and betook herself to run. When she had overtaken the +stragglers of her family, she caught up the niece whom she had so +recently repulsed, and kissed and slapped her, and drove her away again, +and ran after her with pretty cries and laughter. Perhaps she thought +the laird might still be looking! But it chanced the little scene came +under the view of eyes less favourable; for she overtook Mrs. Hob +marching with Clem and Dand. + +"You're shürely fey, lass!" quoth Dandie. + +"Think shame to yersel', miss!" said the strident Mrs. Hob. "Is this the +gait to guide yersel' on the way hame frae kirk? You're shürely no +sponsible the day! And anyway I would mind my guid claes." + +"Hoot!" said Christina, and went on before them, head in air, treading +the rough track with the tread of a wild doe. + +She was in love with herself, her destiny, the air of the hills, the +benediction of the sun. All the way home, she continued under the +intoxication of these sky-scraping spirits. At table she could talk +freely of young Hermiston; gave her opinion of him off-hand and with a +loud voice, that he was a handsome young gentleman, real well-mannered +and sensible-like, but it was a pity he looked doleful. Only--the moment +after--a memory of his eyes in church embarrassed her. But for this +inconsiderable check, all through meal-time she had a good appetite, and +she kept them laughing at table, until Gib (who had returned before them +from Crossmichael and his separative worship) reproved the whole of them +for their levity. + +Singing "in to herself" as she went, her mind still in the turmoil of a +glad confusion, she rose and tripped upstairs to a little loft, lighted +by four panes in the gable, where she slept with one of her nieces. The +niece, who followed her, presuming on "Auntie's" high spirits, was +flounced out of the apartment with small ceremony, and retired, smarting +and half tearful, to bury her woes in the byre among the hay. Still +humming, Christina divested herself of her finery, and put her treasures +one by one in her great green trunk. The last of these was the +psalm-book; it was a fine piece, the gift of Mistress Clem, in distinct +old-faced type, on paper that had begun to grow foxy in the +warehouse--not by service--and she was used to wrap it in a handkerchief +every Sunday after its period of service was over, and bury it end-wise +at the head of her trunk. As she now took it in hand the book fell open +where the leaf was torn, and she stood and gazed upon that evidence of +her bygone discomposure. There returned again the vision of the two +brown eyes staring at her, intent and bright, out of that dark corner +of the kirk. The whole appearance and attitude, the smile, the suggested +gesture of young Hermiston came before her in a flash at the sight of +the torn page. "I was surely fey!" she said, echoing the words of +Dandie, and at the suggested doom her high spirits deserted her. She +flung herself prone upon the bed, and lay there, holding the psalm-book +in her hands for hours, for the more part in a mere stupor of +unconsenting pleasure and unreasoning fear. The fear was superstitious; +there came up again and again in her memory Dandie's ill-omened words, +and a hundred grisly and black tales out of the immediate neighbourhood +read her a commentary on their force. The pleasure was never realised. +You might say the joints of her body thought and remembered, and were +gladdened, but her essential self, in the immediate theatre of +consciousness, talked feverishly of something else, like a nervous +person at a fire. The image that she most complacently dwelt on was that +of Miss Christina in her character of the Fair Lass of Cauldstaneslap, +carrying all before her in the straw-coloured frock, the violet mantle, +and the yellow cobweb stockings. Archie's image, on the other hand, when +it presented itself was never welcomed--far less welcomed with any +ardour, and it was exposed at times to merciless criticism. In the long +vague dialogues she held in her mind, often with imaginary, often with +unrealised interlocutors, Archie, if he were referred to at all, came in +for savage handling. He was described as "looking like a stirk," +"staring like a caulf," "a face like a ghaist's." "Do you call that +manners?" she said; or, "I soon put him in his place." "'_Miss +Christina, if you please, Mr. Weir!_' says I, and just flyped up my +skirt tails." With gabble like this she would entertain herself long +whiles together, and then her eye would perhaps fall on the torn leaf, +and the eyes of Archie would appear again from the darkness of the wall, +and the voluble words deserted her, and she would lie still and stupid, +and think upon nothing with devotion, and be sometimes raised by a quiet +sigh. Had a doctor of medicine come into that loft, he would have +diagnosed a healthy, well-developed, eminently vivacious lass lying on +her face in a fit of the sulks; not one who had just contracted, or was +just contracting, a mortal sickness of the mind which should yet carry +her towards death and despair. Had it been a doctor of psychology, he +might have been pardoned for divining in the girl a passion of childish +vanity, self-love _in excelsis_, and no more. It is to be understood +that I have been painting chaos and describing the inarticulate. Every +lineament that appears is too precise, almost every word used too +strong. Take a finger-post in the mountains on a day of rolling mists; I +have but copied the names that appear upon the pointers, the names of +definite and famous cities far distant, and now perhaps basking in +sunshine; but Christina remained all these hours, as it were, at the +foot of the post itself, not moving, and enveloped in mutable and +blinding wreaths of haze. + +The day was growing late and the sunbeams long and level, when she sat +suddenly up, and wrapped in its handkerchief and put by that psalm-book +which had already played a part so decisive in the first chapter of her +love-story. In the absence of the mesmerist's eye, we are told nowadays +that the head of a bright nail may fill his place, if it be steadfastly +regarded. So that torn page had riveted her attention on what might else +have been but little, and perhaps soon forgotten; while the ominous +words of Dandie--heard, not heeded, and still remembered--had lent to +her thoughts, or rather to her mood, a cast of solemnity, and that idea +of Fate--a pagan Fate, uncontrolled by any Christian deity, obscure, +lawless, and august--moving undissuadably in the affairs of Christian +men. Thus even that phenomenon of love at first sight, which is so rare +and seems so simple and violent, like a disruption of life's tissue, may +be decomposed into a sequence of accidents happily concurring. + +She put on a grey frock and a pink kerchief, looked at herself a moment +with approval in the small square of glass that served her for a toilet +mirror, and went softly downstairs through the sleeping house that +resounded with the sound of afternoon snoring. Just outside the door, +Dandie was sitting with a book in his hand, not reading, only honouring +the Sabbath by a sacred vacancy of mind. She came near him and stood +still. + +"I'm for off up the muirs, Dandie," she said. + +There was something unusually soft in her tones that made him look up. +She was pale, her eyes dark and bright; no trace remained of the levity +of the morning. + +"Ay, lass? Ye'll have yer ups and downs like me, I'm thinkin'," he +observed. + +"What for do ye say that?" she asked. + +"O, for naething," says Dand. "Only I think ye're mair like me than the +lave of them. Ye've mair of the poetic temper, tho' Guid kens little +enough of the poetic taalent. It's an ill gift at the best. Look at +yoursel'. At denner you were all sunshine and flowers and laughter, and +now you're like the star of evening on a lake." + +She drank in this hackneyed compliment like wine, and it glowed in her +veins. + +"But I'm saying, Dand"--she came nearer him--"I'm for the muirs. I must +have a braith of air. If Clem was to be speiring for me, try and quaiet +him, will ye no?" + +"What way?" said Dandie. "I ken but the ae way, and that's leein'. I'll +say ye had a sair heed, if ye like." + +"But I havena," she objected. + +"I daursay no," he returned. "I said I would say ye had; and if ye like +to nay-say me when ye come back, it'll no mateerially maitter, for my +chara'ter's clean gane a'ready past reca'." + +"O, Dand, are ye a leear?" she asked, lingering. + +"Folks say sae," replied the bard. + +"Wha says sae?" she pursued. + +"Them that should ken the best," he responded. "The lassies, for ane." + +"But, Dand, you would never lee to me?" she asked. + +"I'll leave that for your pairt of it, ye girzie," said he. "Ye'll lee +to me fast eneuch, when ye hae gotten a jo. I'm tellin' ye and it's +true; when you have a jo, Miss Kirstie, it'll be for guid and ill. I +ken: I was made that way mysel', but the deil was in my luck! Here, gang +awa' wi' ye to your muirs, and let me be; I'm in an hour of +inspiraution, ye upsetting tawpie!" + +But she clung to her brother's neighbourhood, she knew not why. + +"Will ye no gie's a kiss, Dand?" she said. "I aye likit ye fine." + +He kissed her and considered her a moment; he found something strange in +her. But he was a libertine through and through, nourished equal +contempt and suspicion of all womankind, and paid his way among them +habitually with idle compliments. + +"Gae wa' wi' ye!" said he. "Ye're a dentie baby, and be content wi' +that!" + +That was Dandie's way; a kiss and a comfit to Jenny--a bawbee and my +blessing to Jill--and good-night to the whole clan of ye, my dears! When +anything approached the serious, it became a matter for men, he both +thought and said. Women, when they did not absorb, were only children to +be shoo'd away. Merely in his character of connoisseur, however, Dandle +glanced carelessly after his sister as she crossed the meadow. "The +brat's no that bad!" he thought with surprise, for though he had just +been paying her compliments, he had not really looked at her. "Hey! +what's yon?" For the grey dress was cut with short sleeves and skirts, +and displayed her trim strong legs clad in pink stockings of the same +shade as the kerchief she wore round her shoulders, and that shimmered +as she went. This was not her way in undress; he knew her ways and the +ways of the whole sex in the country-side, no one better; when they did +not go barefoot, they wore stout "rig and furrow" woollen hose of an +invisible blue mostly, when they were not black outright; and Dandie, +at sight of this daintiness, put two and two together. It was a silk +handkerchief, then they would be silken hose; they matched--then the +whole outfit was a present of Clem's, a costly present, and not +something to be worn through bog and briar, or on a late afternoon of +Sunday. He whistled. "My denty May, either your heid's fair turned, or +there's some ongoings!" he observed, and dismissed the subject. + +She went slowly at first, but ever straighter and faster for the +Cauldstaneslap, a pass among the hills to which the farm owed its name. +The Slap opened like a doorway between two rounded hillocks; and through +this ran the short cut to Hermiston. Immediately on the other side it +went down through the Deil's Hags, a considerable marshy hollow of the +hill tops, full of springs, and crouching junipers, and pools where the +black peat-water slumbered. There was no view from here. A man might +have sat upon the Praying Weaver's Stone a half-century, and seen none +but the Cauldstaneslap children twice in the twenty-four hours on their +way to the school and back again, an occasional shepherd, the irruption +of a clan of sheep, or the birds who haunted about the springs, drinking +and shrilly piping. So, when she had once passed the Slap, Kirstie was +received into seclusion. She looked back a last time at the farm. It +still lay deserted except for the figure of Dandie, who was now seen to +be scribbling in his lap, the hour of expected inspiration having come +to him at last. Thence she passed rapidly through the morass, and came +to the farther end of it, where a sluggish burn discharges, and the path +for Hermiston accompanies it on the beginning of its downward way. From +this corner a wide view was opened to her of the whole stretch of braes +upon the other side, still sallow and in places rusty with the winter, +with the path marked boldly, here and there by the burn-side a tuft of +birches, and--two miles off as the crow flies--from its enclosures and +young plantations, the windows of Hermiston glittering in the western +sun. + +Here she sat down and waited, and looked for a long time at these +far-away bright panes of glass. It amused her to have so extended a +view, she thought. It amused her to see the house of Hermiston--to see +"folk"; and there was an indistinguishable human unit, perhaps the +gardener, visibly sauntering on the gravel paths. + +By the time the sun was down and all the easterly braes lay plunged in +clear shadow, she was aware of another figure coming up the path at a +most unequal rate of approach, now half running, now pausing and seeming +to hesitate. She watched him at first with a total suspension of +thought. She held her thought as a person holds his breathing. Then she +consented to recognise him. "He'll no be coming here, he canna be; it's +no possible." And there began to grow upon her a subdued choking +suspense. He _was_ coming; his hesitations had quite ceased, his step +grew firm and swift; no doubt remained; and the question loomed up +before her instant: what was she to do? It was all very well to say that +her brother was a laird himself; it was all very well to speak of casual +intermarriages and to count cousinship, like Auntie Kirstie. The +difference in their social station was trenchant; propriety, prudence, +all that she had ever learned, all that she knew, bade her flee. But on +the other hand the cup of life now offered to her was too enchanting. +For one moment, she saw the question clearly, and definitely made her +choice. She stood up and showed herself an instant in the gap relieved +upon the sky line; and the next, fled trembling and sat down glowing +with excitement on the Weaver's Stone. She shut her eyes, seeking, +praying for composure. Her hand shook in her lap, and her mind was full +of incongruous and futile speeches. What was there to make a work about? +She could take care of herself, she supposed! There was no harm in +seeing the laird. It was the best thing that could happen. She would +mark a proper distance to him once and for all. Gradually the wheels of +her nature ceased to go round so madly, and she sat in passive +expectation, a quiet, solitary figure in the midst of the grey moss. I +have said she was no hypocrite, but here I am at fault. She never +admitted to herself that she had come up the hill to look for Archie. +And perhaps after all she did not know, perhaps came as a stone falls. +For the steps of love in the young, and especially in girls, are +instinctive and unconscious. + +In the meantime Archie was drawing rapidly near, and he at least was +consciously seeking her neighbourhood. The afternoon had turned to ashes +in his mouth; the memory of the girl had kept him from reading and drawn +him as with cords; and at last, as the cool of the evening began to come +on, he had taken his hat and set forth, with a smothered ejaculation, by +the moor path to Cauldstaneslap. He had no hope to find her, he took the +off chance without expectation of result and to relieve his uneasiness. +The greater was his surprise, as he surmounted the slope and came into +the hollow of the Deil's Hags, to see there, like an answer to his +wishes, the little womanly figure in the grey dress and the pink +kerchief sitting little, and low, and lost, and acutely solitary, in +these desolate surroundings and on the weather-beaten stone of the dead +weaver. Those things that still smacked of winter were all rusty about +her, and those things that already relished of the spring had put forth +the tender and lively colours of the season. Even in the unchanging face +of the death-stone, changes were to be remarked; and in the channeled +lettering, the moss began to renew itself in jewels of green. By an +afterthought that was a stroke of art, she had turned up over her head +the back of the kerchief; so that it now framed becomingly her vivacious +and yet pensive face. Her feet were gathered under her on the one side, +and she leaned on her bare arm, which showed out strong and round, +tapered to a slim wrist, and shimmered in the fading light. + +Young Hermiston was struck with a certain chill. He was reminded that he +now dealt in serious matters of life and death. This was a grown woman +he was approaching, endowed with her mysterious potencies and +attractions, the treasury of the continued race, and he was neither +better nor worse than the average of his sex and age. He had a certain +delicacy which had preserved him hitherto unspotted, and which (had +either of them guessed it) made him a more dangerous companion when his +heart should be really stirred. His throat was dry as he came near; but +the appealing sweetness of her smile stood between them like a guardian +angel. + +For she turned to him and smiled, though without rising. There was a +shade in this cavalier greeting that neither of them perceived; neither +he, who simply thought it gracious and charming as herself; nor yet she, +who did not observe (quick as she was) the difference between rising to +meet the laird, and remaining seated to receive the expected admirer. + +"Are ye stepping west, Hermiston?" said she, giving him his territorial +name after the fashion of the countryside. + +"I was," said he, a little hoarsely, "but I think I will be about the +end of my stroll now. Are you like me, Miss Christina? The house would +not hold me. I came here seeking air." + +He took his seat at the other end of the tombstone and studied her, +wondering what was she. There was infinite import in the question alike +for her and him. + +"Ay," said she. "I couldna bear the roof either. It's a habit of mine to +come up here about the gloaming when it's quaiet and caller." + +"It was a habit of my mother's also," he said gravely. The recollection +half startled him as he expressed it. He looked around. "I have scarce +been here since. It's peaceful," he said, with a long breath. + +"It's no like Glasgow," she replied. "A weary place, yon Glasgow! But +what a day have I had for my hame-coming, and what a bonny evening!" + +"Indeed, it was a wonderful day," said Archie. "I think I will remember +it years and years until I come to die. On days like this--I do not know +if you feel as I do--but everything appears so brief, and fragile, and +exquisite, that I am afraid to touch life. We are here for so short a +time; and all the old people before us--Rutherfords of Hermiston, +Elliotts of the Cauldstaneslap--that were here but a while since riding +about and keeping up a great noise in this quiet corner--making love +too, and marrying--why, where are they now? It's deadly commonplace, +but, after all, the commonplaces are the great poetic truths." + +He was sounding her, semi-consciously, to see if she could understand +him; to learn if she were only an animal the colour of flowers, or had a +soul in her to keep her sweet. She, on her part, her means well in hand, +watched, woman-like, for any opportunity to shine, to abound in his +humour, whatever that might be. The dramatic artist, that lies dormant +or only half awake in most human beings, had in her sprung to his feet +in a divine fury, and chance had served her well. She looked upon him +with a subdued twilight look that became the hour of the day and the +train of thought; earnestness shone through her like stars in the purple +west; and from the great but controlled upheaval of her whole nature +there passed into her voice, and ran in her lightest words, a thrill of +emotion. + +"Have you mind of Dand's song?" she answered. "I think he'll have been +trying to say what you have been thinking." + +"No, I never heard it," he said. "Repeat it to me, can you?" + +"It's nothing wanting the tune," said Kirstie. + +"Then sing it me," said he. + +"On the Lord's Day? That would never do, Mr. Weir!" + +"I am afraid I am not so strict a keeper of the Sabbath, and there is no +one in this place to hear us unless the poor old ancient under the +stone." + +"No that I'm thinking that really," she said. "By my way of thinking, +it's just as serious as a psalm. Will I sooth it to ye, then?" + +"If you please," said he, and, drawing near to her on the tombstone, +prepared to listen. + +She sat up as if to sing. "I'll only can sooth it to ye," she explained. +"I wouldna like to sing out loud on the Sabbath. I think the birds would +carry news of it to Gilbert," and she smiled. "It's about the Elliotts," +she continued, "and I think there's few bonnier bits in the book-poets, +though Dand has never got printed yet." + +And she began, in the low, clear tones of her half voice, now sinking +almost to a whisper, now rising to a particular note which was her best, +and which Archie learned to wait for with growing emotion:-- + + "O they rade in the rain, in the days that are gane, + In the rain and the wind and the lave, + They shoutit in the ha' and they routit on the hill, + But they're a' quaitit noo in the grave. + Auld, auld Elliotts, clay-cauld Elliotts, dour, bauld Elliotts of auld!" + +All the time she sang she looked steadfastly before her, her knees +straight, her hands upon her knee, head cast back and up. The expression +was admirable throughout, for had she not learned it from the lips and +under the criticism of the author? When it was done, she turned upon +Archie a face softly bright, and eyes gently suffused and shining in the +twilight, and his heart rose and went out to her with boundless pity and +sympathy. His question was answered. She was a human being tuned to a +sense of the tragedy of life; there were pathos and music and a great +heart in the girl. + +He arose instinctively, she also; for she saw she had gained a point, +and scored the impression deeper, and she had wit enough left to flee +upon a victory. They were but commonplaces that remained to be +exchanged, but the low, moved voices in which they passed made them +sacred in the memory. In the falling greyness of the evening he watched +her figure winding through the morass, saw it turn a last time and wave +a hand, and then pass through the Slap; and it seemed to him as if +something went along with her out of the deepest of his heart. And +something surely had come, and come to dwell there. He had retained from +childhood a picture, now half obliterated by the passage of time and the +multitude of fresh impressions, of his mother telling him, with the +fluttered earnestness of her voice, and often with dropping tears, the +tale of the "Praying Weaver," on the very scene of his brief tragedy and +long repose. And now there was a companion piece; and he beheld, and he +should behold for ever, Christina perched on the same tomb, in the grey +colours of the evening, gracious, dainty, perfect as a flower, and she +also singing-- + + "Of old, unhappy far off things, + And battles long ago," + +of their common ancestors now dead, of their rude wars composed, their +weapons buried with them, and of these strange changelings, their +descendants, who lingered a little in their places, and would soon be +gone also, and perhaps sung of by others at the gloaming hour. By one of +the unconscious arts of tenderness the two women were enshrined together +in his memory. Tears, in that hour of sensibility, came into his eyes +indifferently at the thought of either; and the girl, from being +something merely bright and shapely, was caught up into the zone of +things serious as life and death and his dead mother. So that in all +ways and on either side, Fate played his game artfully with this poor +pair of children. The generations were prepared, the pangs were made +ready, before the curtain rose on the dark drama. + +In the same moment of time that she disappeared from Archie, there +opened before Kirstie's eyes the cup-like hollow in which the farm lay. +She saw, some five hundred feet below her, the house making itself +bright with candles, and this was a broad hint to her to hurry. For they +were only kindled on a Sabbath night with a view to that family worship +which rounded in the incomparable tedium of the day and brought on the +relaxation of supper. Already she knew that Robert must be withinsides +at the head of the table, "waling the portions"; for it was Robert in +his quality of family priest and judge, not the gifted Gilbert, who +officiated. She made good time accordingly down the steep ascent, and +came up to the door panting as the three younger brothers, all roused at +last from slumber, stood together in the cool and the dark of the +evening with a fry of nephews and nieces about them, chatting and +awaiting the expected signal. She stood back; she had no mind to direct +attention to her late arrival or to her labouring breath. + +"Kirstie, ye have shaved it this time, my lass," said Clem. "Whaur were +ye?" + +"O, just taking a dander by mysel'," said Kirstie. + +And the talk continued on the subject of the American War, without +further reference to the truant who stood by them in the covert of the +dusk, thrilling with happiness and the sense of guilt. + +The signal was given, and the brothers began to go in one after another, +amid the jostle and throng of Hob's children. + +Only Dandie, waiting till the last, caught Kirstie by the arm. "When did +ye begin to dander in pink hosen, Mistress Elliott?" he whispered slily. + +She looked down; she was one blush. "I maun have forgotten to change +them," said she; and went in to prayers in her turn with a troubled +mind, between anxiety as to whether Dand should have observed her yellow +stockings at church, and should thus detect her in a palpable falsehood, +and shame that she had already made good his prophecy. She remembered +the words of it, how it was to be when she had gotten a jo, and that +that would be for good and evil. "Will I have gotten my jo now?" she +thought with a secret rapture. + +And all through prayers, where it was her principal business to conceal +the pink stockings from the eyes of the indifferent Mrs. Hob--and all +through supper, as she made a feint of eating and sat at the table +radiant and constrained--and again when she had left them and come into +her chamber, and was alone with her sleeping niece, and could at last +lay aside the armour of society--the same words sounded within her, the +same profound note of happiness, of a world all changed and renewed, of +a day that had been passed in Paradise, and of a night that was to be +heaven opened. All night she seemed to be conveyed smoothly upon a +shallow stream of sleep and waking, and through the bowers of Beulah; +all night she cherished to her heart that exquisite hope; and if, +towards morning, she forgot it a while in a more profound +unconsciousness, it was to catch again the rainbow thought with her +first moment of awaking. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ENTER MEPHISTOPHELES + + +Two days later a gig from Crossmichael deposited Frank Innes at the +doors of Hermiston. Once in a way, during the past winter, Archie, in +some acute phase of boredom, had written him a letter. It had contained +something in the nature of an invitation, or a reference to an +invitation--precisely what, neither of them now remembered. When Innes +had received it, there had been nothing further from his mind than to +bury himself in the moors with Archie; but not even the most acute +political heads are guided through the steps of life with unerring +directness. That would require a gift of prophecy which has been denied +to man. For instance, who could have imagined that, not a month after he +had received the letter, and turned it into mockery, and put off +answering it, and in the end lost it, misfortunes of a gloomy cast +should begin to thicken over Frank's career? His case may be briefly +stated. His father, a small Morayshire laird with a large family, became +recalcitrant and cut off the supplies; he had fitted himself out with +the beginnings of quite a good law library, which, upon some sudden +losses on the turf, he had been obliged to sell before they were paid +for; and his bookseller, hearing some rumour of the event, took out a +warrant for his arrest. Innes had early word of it, and was able to take +precautions. In this immediate welter of his affairs, with an unpleasant +charge hanging over him, he had judged it the part of prudence to be off +instantly, had written a fervid letter to his father at Inverauld, and +put himself in the coach for Crossmichael. Any port in a storm! He was +manfully turning his back on the Parliament House and its gay babble, +on porter and oysters, the racecourse and the ring; and manfully +prepared, until these clouds should have blown by, to share a living +grave with Archie Weir at Hermiston. + +To do him justice, he was no less surprised to be going than Archie was +to see him come; and he carried off his wonder with an infinitely better +grace. + +"Well, here I am!" said he, as he alighted. "Pylades has come to Orestes +at last. By the way, did you get my answer? No? How very provoking! +Well, here I am to answer for myself, and that's better still." + +"I am very glad to see you, of course," said Archie. "I make you +heartily welcome, of course. But you surely have not come to stay, with +the Courts still sitting; is that not most unwise?" + +"Damn the Courts!" says Frank. "What are the Courts to friendship and a +little fishing?" + +And so it was agreed that he was to stay, with no term to the visit but +the term which he had privily set to it himself--the day, namely, when +his father should have come down with the dust, and he should be able to +pacify the bookseller. On such vague conditions there began for these +two young men (who were not even friends) a life of great familiarity +and, as the days drew on, less and less intimacy. They were together at +meal-times, together o' nights when the hour had come for whisky-toddy; +but it might have been noticed (had there been any one to pay heed) that +they were rarely so much together by day. Archie had Hermiston to attend +to, multifarious activities in the hills, in which he did not require, +and had even refused, Frank's escort. He would be off sometimes in the +morning and leave only a note on the breakfast-table to announce the +fact; and sometimes with no notice at all, he would not return for +dinner until the hour was long past. Innes groaned under these +desertions; it required all his philosophy to sit down to a solitary +breakfast with composure and all his unaffected good-nature to be able +to greet Archie with friendliness on the more rare occasions when he +came home late for dinner. + +"I wonder what on earth he finds to do, Mrs. Elliott?" said he one +morning, after he had just read the hasty billet and sat down to table. + +"I suppose it will be business, sir," replied the housekeeper drily, +measuring his distance off to him by an indicated curtsey. + +"But I can't imagine what business!" he reiterated. + +"I suppose it will be _his_ business," retorted the austere Kirstie. + +He turned to her with that happy brightness that made the charm of his +disposition, and broke into a peal of healthy and natural laughter. + +"Well played, Mrs. Elliott!" he cried; and the housekeeper's face +relaxed into the shadow of an iron smile. "Well played indeed!" said he. +"But you must not be making a stranger of me like that. Why, Archie and +I were at the High School together, and we've been to College together, +and we were going to the Bar together, when--you know! Dear, dear me! +what a pity that was! A life spoiled, a fine young fellow as good as +buried here in the wilderness with rustics; and all for what? A frolic, +silly, if you like, but no more. God, how good your scones are, Mrs. +Elliott!" + +"They're no mines, it was the lassie made them," said Kirstie; "and, +saving your presence, there's little sense in taking the Lord's name in +vain about idle vivers that you fill your kyte wi'." + +"I daresay you're perfectly right, ma'am," quoth the imperturbable +Frank. "But as I was saying, this is a pitiable business, this about +poor Archie; and you and I might do worse than put our heads together, +like a couple of sensible people, and bring it to an end. Let me tell +you, ma'am, that Archie is really quite a promising young man, and in my +opinion he would do well at the Bar. As for his father, no one can deny +his ability, and I don't fancy any one would care to deny that he has +the deil's own temper----" + +"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Innes, I think the lass is crying on me," said +Kirstie, and flounced from the room. + +"The damned, cross-grained, old broom-stick!" ejaculated Innes. + +In the meantime, Kirstie had escaped into the kitchen, and before her +vassal gave vent to her feelings. + +"Here, ettercap! Ye'll have to wait on yon Innes! I canna hand myself +in. 'Puir Erchie!' I'd 'puir Erchie' him, if I had my way! And Hermiston +with the deil's ain temper! God, let him take Hermiston's scones out of +his mouth first. There's no a hair on ayther o' the Weirs that hasna +mair spunk and dirdum to it than what he has in his hale dwaibly body! +Settin' up his snash to me! Let him gang to the black toon where he's +mebbe wantit--birling on a curricle--wi' pimatum on his heid--making a +mess o' himsel' wi' nesty hizzies--a fair disgrace!" It was impossible +to hear without admiration Kirstie's graduated disgust, as she brought +forth, one after another, these somewhat baseless charges. Then she +remembered her immediate purpose, and turned again on her fascinated +auditor. "Do ye no hear me, tawpie? Do ye no hear what I'm tellin' ye? +Will I have to shoo ye into him? If I come to attend to ye, mistress!" +And the maid fled the kitchen, which had become practically dangerous, +to attend on Innes's wants in the front parlour. + +_Tantaene irae_? Has the reader perceived the reason? Since Frank's +coming there were no more hours of gossip over the supper-tray! All his +blandishments were in vain; he had started handicapped on the race for +Mrs. Elliott's favour. + +But it was a strange thing how misfortune dogged him in his efforts to +be genial. I must guard the reader against accepting Kirstie's epithets +as evidence; she was more concerned for their vigour than for their +accuracy. Dwaibly, for instance; nothing could be more calumnious. +Frank was the very picture of good looks, good humour, and manly youth. +He had bright eyes with a sparkle and a dance to them, curly hair, a +charming smile, brilliant teeth, an admirable carriage of the head, the +look of a gentleman, the address of one accustomed to please at first +sight and to improve the impression. And with all these advantages, he +failed with every one about Hermiston; with the silent shepherd, with +the obsequious grieve, with the groom who was also the ploughman, with +the gardener and the gardener's sister--a pious, down-hearted woman with +a shawl over her ears--he failed equally and flatly. They did not like +him, and they showed it. The little maid, indeed, was an exception; she +admired him devoutly, probably dreamed of him in her private hours; but +she was accustomed to play the part of silent auditor to Kirstie's +tirades and silent recipient of Kirstie's buffets, and she had learned +not only to be a very capable girl of her years, but a very secret and +prudent one besides. Frank was thus conscious that he had one ally and +sympathiser in the midst of that general union of disfavour that +surrounded, watched, and waited on him in the house of Hermiston; but he +had little comfort or society from that alliance, and the demure little +maid (twelve on her last birthday) preserved her own counsel, and +tripped on his service, brisk, dumbly responsive, but inexorably +unconversational. For the others, they were beyond hope and beyond +endurance. Never had a young Apollo been cast among such rustic +barbarians. But perhaps the cause of his ill-success lay in one trait +which was habitual and unconscious with him, yet diagnostic of the man. +It was his practice to approach any one person at the expense of some +one else. He offered you an alliance against the some one else; he +flattered you by slighting him; you were drawn into a small intrigue +against him before you knew how. Wonderful are the virtues of this +process generally; but Frank's mistake was in the choice of the some one +else. He was not politic in that; he listened to the voice of +irritation. Archie had offended him at first by what he had felt to be +rather a dry reception, had offended him since by his frequent absences. +He was besides the one figure continually present in Frank's eye; and it +was to his immediate dependants that Frank could offer the snare of his +sympathy. Now the truth is that the Weirs, father and son, were +surrounded by a posse of strenuous loyalists. Of my lord they were +vastly proud. It was a distinction in itself to be one of the vassals of +the "Hanging Judge," and his gross, formidable joviality was far from +unpopular in the neighbourhood of his home. For Archie they had, one and +all, a sensitive affection and respect which recoiled from a word of +belittlement. + +Nor was Frank more successful when he went farther afield. To the Four +Black Brothers, for instance, he was antipathetic in the highest degree. +Hob thought him too light, Gib too profane. Clem, who saw him but for a +day or two before he went to Glasgow, wanted to know what the fule's +business was, and whether he meant to stay here all session time! "Yon's +a drone," he pronounced. As for Dand, it will be enough to describe +their first meeting, when Frank had been whipping a river and the rustic +celebrity chanced to come along the path. + +"I'm told you're quite a poet," Frank had said. + +"Wha tell't ye that, mannie?" had been the unconciliating answer. + +"O, everybody!" says Frank. + +"God! Here's fame!" said the sardonic poet, and he had passed on his +way. + +Come to think of it, we have here perhaps a truer explanation of Frank's +failures. Had he met Mr. Sheriff Scott, he could have turned a neater +compliment, because Mr. Scott would have been a friend worth making. +Dand, on the other hand, he did not value sixpence, and he showed it +even while he tried to flatter. Condescension is an excellent thing, but +it is strange how one-sided the pleasure of it is! He who goes fishing +among the Scots peasantry with condescension for a bait will have an +empty basket by evening. + +In proof of this theory Frank made a great success of it at the +Crossmichael Club, to which Archie took him immediately on his arrival; +his own last appearance on that scene of gaiety. Frank was made welcome +there at once, continued to go regularly, and had attended a meeting (as +the members ever after loved to tell) on the evening before his death. +Young Hay and young Pringle appeared again. There was another supper at +Windielaws, another dinner at Driffel; and it resulted in Frank being +taken to the bosom of the county people as unreservedly as he had been +repudiated by the country folk. He occupied Hermiston after the manner +of an invader in a conquered capital. He was perpetually issuing from +it, as from a base, to toddy parties, fishing parties, and dinner +parties, to which Archie was not invited, or to which Archie would not +go. It was now that the name of The Recluse became general for the young +man. Some say that Innes invented it; Innes, at least, spread it abroad. + +"How's all with your Recluse to-day?" people would ask. + +"O, reclusing away!" Innes would declare, with his bright air of saying +something witty; and immediately interrupt the general laughter which he +had provoked much more by his air than his words, "Mind you, it's all +very well laughing, but I'm not very well pleased. Poor Archie is a good +fellow, an excellent fellow, a fellow I always liked. I think it small +of him to take his little disgrace so hard and shut himself up. 'Grant +that it is a ridiculous story, painfully ridiculous,' I keep telling +him. 'Be a man! Live it down, man!' But not he. Of course it's just +solitude, and shame, and all that. But I confess I'm beginning to fear +the result. It would be all the pities in the world if a really +promising fellow like Weir was to end ill. I'm seriously tempted to +write to Lord Hermiston, and put it plainly to him." + +"I would if I were you," some of his auditors would say, shaking the +head, sitting bewildered and confused at this new view of the matter, +so deftly indicated by a single word. "A capital idea!" they would add, +and wonder at the _aplomb_ and position of this young man, who talked as +a matter of course of writing to Hermiston and correcting him upon his +private affairs. + +And Frank would proceed, sweetly confidential: "I'll give you an idea, +now. He's actually sore about the way that I'm received and he's left +out in the county--actually jealous and sore. I've rallied him and I've +reasoned with him, told him that every one was most kindly inclined +towards him, told him even that _I_ was received merely because I was +his guest. But it's no use. He will neither accept the invitations he +gets, nor stop brooding about the ones where he's left out. What I'm +afraid of is that the wound's ulcerating. He had always one of those +dark, secret, angry natures--a little underhand and plenty of bile--you +know the sort. He must have inherited it from the Weirs, whom I suspect +to have been a worthy family of weavers somewhere; what's the cant +phrase?--sedentary occupation. It's precisely the kind of character to +go wrong in a false position like what his father's made for him, or +he's making for himself, whichever you like to call it. And for my part, +I think it a disgrace," Frank would say generously. + +Presently the sorrow and anxiety of this disinterested friend took +shape. He began in private, in conversations of two, to talk vaguely of +bad habits and low habits. "I must say I'm afraid he's going wrong +altogether," he would say. "I'll tell you plainly, and between +ourselves, I scarcely like to stay there any longer; only, man, I'm +positively afraid to leave him alone. You'll see, I shall be blamed for +it later on. I'm staying at a great sacrifice. I'm hindering my chances +at the Bar, and I can't blind my eyes to it. And what I'm afraid of is, +that I'm going to get kicked for it all round before all's done. You +see, nobody believes in friendship nowadays." + +"Well, Innes," his interlocutor would reply, "it's very good of you, I +must say that. If there's any blame going, you'll always be sure of _my_ +good word, for one thing." + +"Well," Frank would continue, "candidly, I don't say it's pleasant. He +has a very rough way with him; his father's son, you know. I don't say +he's rude--of course, I couldn't be expected to stand that--but he +steers very near the wind. No, it's not pleasant; but I tell ye, man, in +conscience I don't think it would be fair to leave him. Mind you, I +don't say there's anything actually wrong. What I say is that I don't +like the looks of it, man!" and he would press the arm of his momentary +confidant. + +In the early stages I am persuaded there was no malice. He talked but +for the pleasure of airing himself. He was essentially glib, as becomes +the young advocate, and essentially careless of the truth, which is the +mark of the young ass; and so he talked at random. There was no +particular bias, but that one which is indigenous and universal, to +flatter himself and to please and interest the present friend. And by +thus milling air out of his mouth, he had presently built up a +presentation of Archie which was known and talked of in all corners of +the county. Wherever there was a residential house and a walled garden, +wherever there was a dwarfish castle and a park, wherever a quadruple +cottage by the ruins of a peel-tower showed an old family going down, +and wherever a handsome villa with a carriage approach and a shrubbery +marked the coming up of a new one--probably on the wheels of +machinery--Archie began to be regarded in the light of a dark, perhaps a +vicious mystery, and the future developments of his career to be looked +for with uneasiness and confidential whispering. He had done something +disgraceful, my dear. What, was not precisely known, and that good kind +young man, Mr. Innes, did his best to make light of it. But there it +was. And Mr. Innes was very anxious about him now; he was really uneasy, +my dear; he was positively wrecking his own prospects because he dared +not leave him alone. How wholly we all lie at the mercy of a single +prater, not needfully with any malign purpose! And if a man but talks +of himself in the right spirit, refers to his virtuous actions by the +way, and never applies to them the name of virtue, how easily his +evidence is accepted in the court of public opinion! + +All this while, however, there was a more poisonous ferment at work +between the two lads, which came late indeed to the surface, but had +modified and magnified their dissensions from the first. To an idle, +shallow, easy-going customer like Frank, the smell of a mystery was +attractive. It gave his mind something to play with, like a new toy to a +child; and it took him on the weak side, for like many young men coming +to the Bar, and before they have been tried and found wanting, he +flattered himself he was a fellow of unusual quickness and penetration. +They knew nothing of Sherlock Holmes in those days, but there was a good +deal said of Talleyrand. And if you could have caught Frank off his +guard, he would have confessed with a smirk that, if he resembled any +one, it was the Marquis de Talleyrand-Périgord. It was on the occasion +of Archie's first absence that this interest took root. It was vastly +deepened when Kirstie resented his curiosity at breakfast, and that same +afternoon there occurred another scene which clinched the business. He +was fishing Swingleburn, Archie accompanying him, when the latter looked +at his watch. + +"Well, good-bye," said he. "I have something to do. See you at dinner." + +"Don't be in such a hurry," cries Frank. "Hold on till I get my rod up. +I'll go with you; I'm sick of flogging this ditch." + +And he began to reel up his line. + +Archie stood speechless. He took a long while to recover his wits under +this direct attack; but by the time he was ready with his answer, and +the angle was almost packed up, he had become completely Weir, and the +hanging face gloomed on his young shoulders. He spoke with a laboured +composure, a laboured kindness even; but a child could see that his mind +was made up. + +"I beg your pardon, Innes; I don't want to be disagreeable, but let us +understand one another from the beginning. When I want your company, +I'll let you know." + +"O!" cries Frank, "you don't want my company, don't you?" + +"Apparently not just now," replied Archie. "I even indicated to you when +I did, if you'll remember--and that was at dinner. If we two fellows are +to live together pleasantly--and I see no reason why we should not--it +can only be by respecting each other's privacy. If we begin +intruding----" + +"O, come! I'll take this at no man's hands. Is this the way you treat a +guest and an old friend?" cried Innes. + +"Just go home and think over what I said by yourself," continued Archie, +"whether it's reasonable, or whether it's really offensive or not; and +let's meet at dinner as though nothing had happened. I'll put it this +way, if you like--that I know my own character, that I'm looking forward +(with great pleasure, I assure you) to a long visit from you, and that +I'm taking precautions at the first. I see the thing that we--that I, if +you like--might fall out upon, and I step in and _obsto principiis_. I +wager you five pounds you'll end by seeing that I mean friendliness, and +I assure you, Francie, I do," he added, relenting. + +Bursting with anger, but incapable of speech, Innes shouldered his rod, +made a gesture of farewell, and strode off down the burn-side. Archie +watched him go without moving. He was sorry, but quite unashamed. He +hated to be inhospitable, but in one thing he was his father's son. He +had a strong sense that his house was his own and no man else's; and to, +lie at a guest's mercy was what he refused. He hated to seem harsh. But +that was Frank's look-out. If Frank had been commonly discreet, he would +have been decently courteous. And there was another consideration. The +secret he was protecting was not his own merely; it was hers: it +belonged to that inexpressible she who was fast taking possession of his +soul, and whom he would soon have defended at the cost of burning +cities. By the time he had watched Frank as far as the Swingleburnfoot, +appearing and disappearing in the tarnished heather, still stalking at a +fierce gait, but already dwindled in the distance into less than the +smallness of Lilliput, he could afford to smile at the occurrence. +Either Frank would go, and that would be a relief--or he would continue +to stay, and his host must continue to endure him. And Archie was now +free--by devious paths, behind hillocks and in the hollow of burns--to +make for the trysting-place where Kirstie, cried about by the curlew and +the plover, waited and burned for his coming by the Covenanter's Stone. + +Innes went off down-hill in a passion of resentment, easy to be +understood, but which yielded progressively to the needs of his +situation. He cursed Archie for a cold-hearted, unfriendly, rude, rude +dog; and himself still more passionately for a fool in having come to +Hermiston when he might have sought refuge in almost any other house in +Scotland. But the step, once taken, was practically irretrievable. He +had no more ready money to go anywhere else; he would have to borrow +from Archie the next club-night; and ill as he thought of his host's +manners, he was sure of his practical generosity. Frank's resemblance to +Talleyrand strikes me as imaginary; but at least not Talleyrand himself +could have more obediently taken his lesson from the facts. He met +Archie at dinner without resentment, almost with cordiality. You must +take your friends as you find them, he would have said. Archie couldn't +help being his father's son, or his grandfather's, the hypothetical +weaver's, grandson. The son of a hunks, he was still a hunks at heart, +incapable of true generosity and consideration: but he had other +qualities with which Frank could divert himself in the meanwhile, and to +enjoy which it was necessary that Frank should keep his temper. + +So excellently was it controlled that he awoke next morning with his +head full of a different, though a cognate subject. What was Archie's +little game? Why did he shun Frank's company? What was he keeping +secret? Was he keeping tryst with somebody, and was it a woman? It would +be a good joke and a fair revenge to discover. To that task he set +himself with a great deal of patience, which might have surprised his +friends, for he had been always credited not with patience so much as +brilliancy; and little by little, from one point to another, he at last +succeeded in piecing out the situation. First he remarked that, although +Archie set out in all the directions of the compass, he always came home +again from some point between the south and west. From the study of a +map, and in consideration of the great expanse of untenanted moorland +running in that direction towards the sources of the Clyde, he laid his +finger on Cauldstaneslap and two other neighbouring farms, Kingsmuirs +and Polintarf. But it was difficult to advance farther. With his rod for +a pretext, he vainly visited each of them in turn; nothing was to be +seen suspicious about this trinity of moorland settlements. He would +have tried to follow Archie, had it been the least possible, but the +nature of the land precluded the idea. He did the next best, ensconced +himself in a quiet corner, and pursued his movements with a telescope. +It was equally in vain, and he soon wearied of his futile vigilance, +left the telescope at home, and had almost given the matter up in +despair, when, on the twenty-seventh day of his visit, he was suddenly +confronted with the person whom he sought. The first Sunday Kirstie had +managed to stay away from kirk on some pretext of indisposition, which +was more truly modesty; the pleasure of beholding Archie seeming too +sacred, too vivid for that public place. On the two following, Frank had +himself been absent on some of his excursions among the neighbouring +families. It was not until the fourth, accordingly, that Frank had +occasion to set eyes on the enchantress. With the first look, all +hesitation was over. She came with the Cauldstaneslap party; then she +lived at Cauldstaneslap. Here was Archie's secret, here was the woman, +and more than that--though I have need here of every manageable +attenuation of language--with the first look, he had already entered +himself as rival. It was a good deal in pique, it was a little in +revenge, it was much in genuine admiration: the devil may decide the +proportions! I cannot, and it is very likely that Frank could not. + +"Mighty attractive milkmaid," he observed, on the way home. + +"Who?" said Archie. + +"O, the girl you're looking at--aren't you? Forward there on the road. +She came attended by the rustic bard; presumably, therefore, belongs to +his exalted family. The single objection! for the Four Black Brothers +are awkward customers. If anything were to go wrong, Gib would gibber, +and Clem would prove inclement; and Dand fly in danders, and Hob blow up +in gobbets. It would be a Helliott of a business!" + +"Very humorous, I am sure," said Archie. + +"Well, I am trying to be so," said Frank. "It's none too easy in this +place, and with your solemn society, my dear fellow. But confess that +the milkmaid has found favour in your eyes, or resign all claim to be a +man of taste." + +"It is no matter," returned Archie. + +But the other continued to look at him, steadily and quizzically, and +his colour slowly rose and deepened under the glance, until not +impudence itself could have denied that he was blushing. And at this +Archie lost some of his control. He changed his stick from one hand to +the other, and--"O, for God's sake, don't be an ass!" he cried. + +"Ass? That's the retort delicate without doubt," says Frank. "Beware of +the home-spun brothers, dear. If they come into the dance, you'll see +who's an ass. Think now, if they only applied (say) a quarter as much +talent as I have applied to the question of what Mr. Archie does with +his evening hours, and why he is so unaffectedly nasty when the +subject's touched on----" + +"You are touching on it now," interrupted Archie, with a wince. + +"Thank you. That was all I wanted, an articulate confession," said +Frank. + +"I beg to remind you----" began Archie. + +But he was interrupted in turn. "My dear fellow, don't. It's quite +needless. The subject's dead and buried." + +And Frank began to talk hastily on other matters, an art in which he was +an adept, for it was his gift to be fluent on anything or nothing. But +although Archie had the grace or the timidity to suffer him to rattle +on, he was by no means done with the subject. When he came home to +dinner he was greeted with a sly demand, how things were looking +"Cauldstaneslap ways." Frank took his first glass of port out after +dinner to the toast of Kirstie, and later in the evening he returned to +the charge again. + +"I say, Weir, you'll excuse me for returning again to this affair. I've +been thinking it over, and I wish to beg you very seriously to be more +careful. It's not a safe business. Not safe, my boy," said he. + +"What?" said Archie. + +"Well, it's your own fault if I must put a name on the thing; but +really, as a friend, I cannot stand by and see you rushing head down +into these dangers. My dear boy," said he, holding up a warning cigar, +"consider! What is to be the end of it?" + +"The end of what?"--Archie, helpless with irritation, persisted in this +dangerous and ungracious guard. + +"Well, the end of the milkmaid; or, to speak more by the card, the end +of Miss Christina Elliott of the Cauldstaneslap." + +"I assure you," Archie broke out, "this is all a figment of your +imagination. There is nothing to be said against that young lady; you +have no right to introduce her name into the conversation." + +"I'll make a note of it," said Frank. "She shall henceforth be nameless, +nameless, nameless, Gregarach! I make a note besides of your valuable +testimony to her character. I only want to look at this thing as a man +of the world. Admitted she's an angel--but, my good fellow, is she a +lady?" + +This was torture to Archie. "I beg your pardon," he said, struggling to +be composed, "but because you have wormed yourself into my +confidence----" + +"O, come!" cried Frank. "Your confidence? It was rosy but unconsenting. +Your confidence, indeed? Now, look! This is what I must say, Weir, for +it concerns your safety and good character, and therefore my honour as +your friend. You say I wormed myself into your confidence. Wormed is +good. But what have I done? I have put two and two together, just as the +parish will be doing to-morrow, and the whole of Tweeddale in two weeks, +and the Black Brothers--well, I won't put a date on that; it will be a +dark and stormy morning! Your secret, in other words, is poor Poll's. +And I want to ask of you as a friend whether you like the prospect? +There are two horns to your dilemma, and I must say for myself I should +look mighty ruefully on either. Do you see yourself explaining to the +Four Black Brothers? or do you see yourself presenting the milkmaid to +papa as the future lady of Hermiston? Do you? I tell you plainly, I +don't!" + +Archie rose. "I will hear no more of this," he said, in a trembling +voice. + +But Frank again held up his cigar. "Tell me one thing first. Tell me if +this is not a friend's part that I am playing?" + +"I believe you think it so," replied Archie. "I can go as far as that. I +can do so much justice to your motives. But I will hear no more of it. I +am going to bed." + +"That's right, Weir," said Frank heartily. "Go to bed and think over it; +and I say, man, don't forget your prayers! I don't often do the +moral--don't go in for that sort of thing--but when I do, there's one +thing sure, that I mean it." + +So Archie marched off to bed, and Frank sat alone by the table for +another hour or so, smiling to himself richly. There was nothing +vindictive in his nature; but, if revenge came in his way, it might as +well be good, and the thought of Archie's pillow reflections that night +was indescribably sweet to him. He felt a pleasant sense of power. He +looked down on Archie as on a very little boy whose strings he +pulled--as on a horse whom he had backed and bridled by sheer power of +intelligence, and whom he might ride to glory or the grave at pleasure. +Which was it to be? He lingered long, relishing the details of schemes +that he was too idle to pursue. Poor cork upon a torrent, he tasted that +night the sweets of omnipotence, and brooded like a deity over the +strands of that intrigue which was to shatter him before the summer +waned. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A NOCTURNAL VISIT + + +Kirstie had many causes of distress. More and more as we grow old--and +yet more and more as we grow old and are women, frozen by the fear of +age--we come to rely on the voice as the single outlet of the soul. Only +thus, in the curtailment of our means, can we relieve the straitened cry +of the passion within us; only thus, in the bitter and sensitive shyness +of advancing years, can we maintain relations with those vivacious +figures of the young that still show before us and tend daily to become +no more than the moving wall-paper of life. Talk is the last link, the +last relation. But with the end of the conversation, when the voice +stops and the bright face of the listener is turned away, solitude falls +again on the bruised heart. Kirstie had lost her "cannie hour at e'en"; +she could no more wander with Archie, a ghost if you will, but a happy +ghost, in fields Elysian. And to her it was as if the whole world had +fallen silent; to him, but an unremarkable change of amusements. And she +raged to know it. The effervescency of her passionate and irritable +nature rose within her at times to bursting point. + +This is the price paid by age for unseasonable ardours of feeling. It +must have been so for Kirstie at any time when the occasion chanced; but +it so fell out that she was deprived of this delight in the hour when +she had most need of it, when she had most to say, most to ask, and when +she trembled to recognise her sovereignty not merely in abeyance but +annulled. For, with the clairvoyance of a genuine love, she had pierced +the mystery that had so long embarrassed Frank. She was conscious, even +before it was carried out, even on that Sunday night when it began, of +an invasion of her rights; and a voice told her the invader's name. +Since then, by arts, by accident, by small things observed, and by the +general drift of Archie's humour, she had passed beyond all possibility +of doubt. With a sense of justice that Lord Hermiston might have envied, +she had that day in church considered and admitted the attractions of +the younger Kirstie; and with the profound humanity and sentimentality +of her nature, she had recognised the coming of fate. Not thus would she +have chosen. She had seen, in imagination, Archie wedded to some tall, +powerful, and rosy heroine of the golden locks, made in her own image, +for whom she would have strewed the bride-bed with delight; and now she +could have wept to see the ambition falsified. But the gods had +pronounced, and her doom was otherwise. + +She lay tossing in bed that night, besieged with feverish thoughts. +There were dangerous matters pending, a battle was toward, over the fate +of which she hung in jealousy, sympathy, fear, and alternate loyalty and +disloyalty to either side. Now she was reincarnated in her niece, and +now in Archie. Now she saw, through the girl's eyes, the youth on his +knees to her, heard his persuasive instances with a deadly weakness, and +received his overmastering caresses. Anon, with a revulsion, her temper +raged to see such utmost favours of fortune and love squandered on a +brat of a girl, one of her own house, using her own name--a deadly +ingredient--and that "didna ken her ain mind an' was as black's your +hat." Now she trembled lest her deity should plead in vain, loving the +idea of success for him like a triumph of nature; anon, with returning +loyalty to her own family and sex, she trembled for Kirstie and the +credit of the Elliotts. And again she had a vision of herself, the day +over for her old-world tales and local gossip, bidding farewell to her +last link with life and brightness and love; and behind and beyond, she +saw but the blank butt-end where she must crawl to die. Had she then +come to the lees? she, so great, so beautiful, with a heart as fresh as +a girl's and strong as womanhood? It could not be, and yet it was so; +and for a moment her bed was horrible to her as the sides of the grave. +And she looked forward over a waste of hours, and saw herself go on to +rage, and tremble, and be softened, and rage again, until the day came +and the labours of the day must be renewed. + +Suddenly she heard feet on the stairs--his feet, and soon after the +sound of a window-sash flung open. She sat up with her heart beating. He +had gone to his room alone, and he had not gone to bed. She might again +have one of her night cracks; and at the entrancing prospect, a change +came over her mind; with the approach of this hope of pleasure, all the +baser metal became immediately obliterated from her thoughts. She rose, +all woman, and all the best of woman, tender, pitiful, hating the wrong, +loyal to her own sex--and all the weakest of that dear miscellany, +nourishing, cherishing next her soft heart, voicelessly flattering, +hopes that she would have died sooner than have acknowledged. She tore +off her nightcap, and her hair fell about her shoulders in profusion. +Undying coquetry awoke. By the faint light of her nocturnal rush, she +stood before the looking-glass, carried her shapely arms above her head, +and gathered up the treasures of her tresses. She was never backward to +admire herself; that kind of modesty was a stranger to her nature; and +she paused, struck with a pleased wonder at the sight. "Ye daft auld +wife!" she said, answering a thought that was not; and she blushed with +the innocent consciousness of a child. Hastily she did up the massive +and shining coils, hastily donned a wrapper, and with the rushlight in +her hand, stole into the hall. Below stairs she heard the clock ticking +the deliberate seconds, and Frank jingling with the decanters in the +dining-room. Aversion rose in her, bitter and momentary. "Nesty tippling +puggy!" she thought; and the next moment she had knocked guardedly at +Archie's door and was bidden enter. + +Archie had been looking out into the ancient blackness, pierced here and +there with a rayless star; taking the sweet air of the moors and the +night into his bosom deeply; seeking, perhaps finding, peace after the +manner of the unhappy. He turned round as she came in, and showed her a +pale face against the window-frame. + +"Is that you, Kirstie?" he asked. "Come in!" + +"It's unco late, my dear," said Kirstie, affecting unwillingness. + +"No, no," he answered, "not at all. Come in, if you want a crack. I am +not sleepy, God knows!" + +She advanced, took a chair by the toilet-table and the candle, and set +the rushlight at her foot. Something--it might be in the comparative +disorder of her dress, it might be the emotion that now welled in her +bosom--had touched her with a wand of transformation, and she seemed +young with the youth of goddesses. + +"Mr. Erchie," she began, "what's this that's come to ye?" + +"I am not aware of anything that has come," said Archie, and blushed, +and repented bitterly that he had let her in. + +"O, my dear, that'll no dae!" said Kirstie. "It's ill to blend the eyes +of love. O, Mr. Erchie, tak' a thocht ere it's ower late. Ye shouldna be +impatient o' the braws o' life, they'll a' come in their saison, like +the sun and the rain. Ye're young yet; ye've mony cantie years afore ye. +See and dinna wreck yersel' at the outset like sae mony ithers! Hae +patience--they telled me aye that was the owercome o' life--hae +patience, there's a braw day coming yet. Gude kens it never cam' to me; +and here I am, wi' nayther man nor bairn to ca' my ain, wearying a' +folks wi' my ill tongue, and you just the first, Mr. Erchie!" + +"I have a difficulty in knowing what you mean," said Archie. + +"Weel, and I'll tell ye," she said. "It's just this, that I'm feared. +I'm feared for ye, my dear. Remember, your faither is a hard man, +reaping where he hasna sowed and gaithering where he hasna strawed. It's +easy speakin', but mind! Ye'll have to look in the gurley face o'm, +where it's ill to look, and vain to look for mercy. Ye mind me o' a +bonny ship pitten oot into the black and gowsty seas--ye're a' safe +still, sittin' quait and crackin' wi' Kirstie in your lown chalmer; but +whaur will ye be the morn, and in whatten horror o' the fearsome +tempest, cryin' on the hills to cover ye?" + +"Why, Kirstie, you're very enigmatical to-night--and very eloquent," +Archie put in. + +"And, my dear Mr. Erchie," she continued, with a change of voice, "ye +maunna think that I canna sympathise wi' ye. Ye maunna think that I +havena been young mysel'. Lang syne, when I was a bit lassie, no twenty +yet----" She paused and sighed. "Clean and caller, wi' a fit like the +hinney bee," she continued. "I was aye big and buirdly, ye maun +understand; a bonny figure o' a woman, though I say it that +suldna--built to rear bairns--braw bairns they suld hae been, and grand +I would hae likit it! But I was young, dear, wi' the bonny glint o' +youth in my e'en, and little I dreamed I'd ever be tellin' ye this, an +auld, lanely, rudas wife! Weel, Mr. Erchie, there was a lad cam' +courtin' me, as was but naetural. Mony had come before, and I would nane +o' them. But this yin had a tongue to wile the birds frae the lift and +the bees frae the foxglove bells. Deary me, but it's lang syne. Folk +have dee'd sinsyne and been buried, and are forgotten, and bairns been +born and got merrit and got bairns o' their ain. Sinsyne woods have been +plantit, and have grawn up and are bonny trees, and the joes sit in +their shadow; and sinsyne auld estates have changed hands, and there +have been wars and rumours of wars on the face of the earth. And here +I'm still--like an auld droopit craw--lookin' on and craikin'! But, Mr. +Erchie, do ye no think that I have mind o' it a' still? I was dwalling +then in my faither's house; and it's a curious thing that we were whiles +trysted in the Deil's Hags. And do ye no think that I have mind of the +bonny simmer days, the lang miles o' the bluid-red heather, the cryin' +o' the whaups, and the lad and the lassie that was trysted? Do ye no +think that I mind how the hilly sweetness ran about my hairt? Ay, Mr. +Erchie, I ken the way o' it--fine do I ken the way--how the grace o' God +takes them, like Paul of Tarsus, when they think it least, and drives +the pair o' them into a land which is like a dream, and the world and +the folks in 't are nae mair than clouds to the puir lassie, and heeven +nae mair than windle-straes, if she can but pleesure him! Until Tam +dee'd--that was my story," she broke off to say, "he dee'd, and I wasna +at the buryin'. But while he was here, I could take care o' mysel'. And +can yon puir lassie?" + +Kirstie, her eyes shining with unshed tears, stretched out her hand +towards him appealingly; the bright and the dull gold of her hair +flashed and smouldered in the coils behind her comely head, like the +rays of an eternal youth; the pure colour had risen in her face; and +Archie was abashed alike by her beauty and her story. He came towards +her slowly from the window, took up her hand in his and kissed it. + +"Kirstie," he said hoarsely, "you have misjudged me sorely. I have +always thought of her, I wouldna harm her for the universe, my woman!" + +"Eh, lad, and that's easy sayin'," cried Kirstie, "but it's nane sae +easy doin'! Man, do ye no comprehend that it's God's wull we should be +blendit and glamoured, and have nae command over our ain members at a +time like that? My bairn," she cried, still holding his hand, "think o' +the puir lass! have pity upon her, Erchie! and O, be wise for twa! Think +o' the risk she rins! I have seen ye, and what's to prevent ithers? I +saw ye once in the Hags, in my ain howf, and I was wae to see ye +there--in pairt for the omen, for I think there's a weird on the +place--and in pairt for pure nakit envy and bitterness o' hairt. It's +strange ye should forgather there tae! God! but yon puir, thrawn, auld +Covenanter's seen a heap o' human natur' since he lookit his last on the +musket-barrels, if he never saw nane afore," she added, with a kind of +wonder in her eyes. + +"I swear by my honour I have done her no wrong," said Archie. "I swear +by my honour and the redemption of my soul that there shall none be done +her. I have heard of this before. I have been foolish, Kirstie, but not +unkind, and, above all, not base." + +"There's my bairn!" said Kirstie, rising. "I'll can trust ye noo, I'll +can gang to my bed wi' an easy hairt." And then she saw in a flash how +barren had been her triumph. Archie had promised to spare the girl, and +he would keep it; but who had promised to spare Archie? What was to be +the end of it? Over a maze of difficulties she glanced, and saw, at the +end of every passage, the flinty countenance of Hermiston. And a kind of +horror fell upon her at what she had done. She wore a tragic mask. +"Erchie, the Lord peety you dear, and peety me! I have buildit on this +foundation"--laying her hand heavily on his shoulder--"and buildit hie, +and pit my hairt in the buildin' of it. If the hale hypothec were to +fa', I think, laddie, I would dee! Excuse a daft wife that loves ye, and +that kenned your mither. And for His name's sake keep yersel' frae +inordinate desires; hand your heart in baith your hands, carry it canny +and laigh; dinna send it up like a bairn's kite into the collieshangie +o' the wunds! Mind, Maister Erchie dear, that this life's a' +disappointment, and a mouthfu' o' mools is the appointed end." + +"Ay, but Kirstie, my woman, you're asking me ower much at last," said +Archie, profoundly moved, and lapsing into the broad Scots. "Ye're +asking what nae man can grant ye, what only the Lord of heaven can grant +ye if He see fit. Ay! And can even He? I can promise ye what I shall +do, and you can depend on that. But how I shall feel--my woman, that is +long past thinking of!" + +They were both standing by now opposite each other. The face of Archie +wore the wretched semblance of a smile; hers was convulsed for a moment. + +"Promise me ae thing," she cried, in a sharp voice. "Promise me ye'll +never do naething without telling me." + +"No, Kirstie, I canna promise ye that," he replied. "I have promised +enough, God kens!" + +"May the blessing of God lift and rest upon ye, dear!" she said. + +"God bless ye, my old friend," said he. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AT THE WEAVER'S STONE + + +It was late in the afternoon when Archie drew near by the hill path to +the Praying Weaver's Stone. The Hags were in shadow. But still, through +the gate of the Slap, the sun shot a last arrow, which sped far and +straight across the surface of the moss, here and there touching and +shining on a tussock, and lighted at length on the gravestone and the +small figure awaiting him there. The emptiness and solitude of the great +moors seemed to be concentred there, and Kirstie pointed out by that +finger of sunshine for the only inhabitant. His first sight of her was +thus excruciatingly sad, like a glimpse of a world from which all light, +comfort, and society were on the point of vanishing. And the next +moment, when she had turned her face to him and the quick smile had +enlightened it, the whole face of nature smiled upon him in her smile of +welcome. Archie's slow pace was quickened; his legs hasted to her though +his heart was hanging back. The girl, upon her side, drew herself +together slowly and stood up, expectant; she was all languor, her face +was gone white; her arms ached for him, her soul was on tip-toes. But he +deceived her, pausing a few steps away, not less white than herself, and +holding up his hand with a gesture of denial. + +"No, Christina, not to-day," he said. "To-day I have to talk to you +seriously. Sit ye down, please, there where you were. Please!" he +repeated. + +The revulsion of feeling in Christina's heart was violent. To have +longed and waited these weary hours for him, rehearsing her +endearments--to have seen him at last come--to have been ready there, +breathless, wholly passive, his to do what he would with--and suddenly +to have found herself confronted with a grey-faced, harsh +schoolmaster--it was too rude a shock. She could have wept, but pride +withheld her. She sat down on the stone, from which she had arisen, part +with the instinct of obedience, part as though she had been thrust +there. What was this? Why was she rejected? Had she ceased to please? +She stood here offering her wares, and he would none of them! And yet +they were all his! His to take and keep, not his to refuse though! In +her quick petulant nature, a moment ago on fire with hope, thwarted love +and wounded vanity wrought. The schoolmaster that there is in all men, +to the despair of all girls and most women, was now completely in +possession of Archie. He had passed a night of sermons, a day of +reflection; he had come wound up to do his duty; and the set mouth, +which in him only betrayed the effort of his will, to her seemed the +expression of an averted heart. It was the same with his constrained +voice and embarrassed utterance; and if so--if it was all over--the pang +of the thought took away from her the power of thinking. + +He stood before her some way off. "Kirstie, there's been too much of +this. We've seen too much of each other." She looked up quickly and her +eyes contracted. "There's no good ever comes of these secret meetings. +They're not frank, not honest truly, and I ought to have seen it. People +have begun to talk; and it's not right of me. Do you see?" + +"I see somebody will have been talking to ye," she said sullenly. + +"They have--more than one of them," replied Archie. + +"And whae were they?" she cried. "And what kind o' love do ye ca' that, +that's ready to gang round like a whirligig at folk talking? Do ye think +they havena talked to me?" + +"Have they indeed?" said Archie, with a quick breath. "That is what I +feared. Who were they? Who has dare----?" + +Archie was on the point of losing his temper. + +As a matter of fact, not any one had talked to Christina on the matter; +and she strenuously repeated her own first question in a panic of +self-defence. + +"Ah, well! what does it matter?" he said. "They were good folk that +wished well to us, and the great affair is that there are people +talking. My dear girl, we have to be wise. We must not wreck our lives +at the outset. They may be long and happy yet, and we must see to it, +Kirstie, like God's rational creatures and not like fool children. There +is one thing we must see to before all. You're worth waiting for, +Kirstie! worth waiting for a generation; it would be enough +reward."--And here he remembered the schoolmaster again, and very +unwisely took to following wisdom. "The first thing that we must see to +is that there shall be no scandal about for my father's sake. That would +ruin all; do ye no see that?" + +Kirstie was a little pleased, there had been some show of warmth of +sentiment in what Archie had said last. But the dull irritation still +persisted in her bosom; with the aboriginal instinct, having suffered +herself, she wished to make Archie suffer. + +And besides, there had come out the word she had always feared to hear +from his lips, the name of his father. It is not to be supposed that, +during so many days with a love avowed between them, some reference had +not been made to their conjoint future. It had in fact been often +touched upon, and from the first had been the sore point. Kirstie had +wilfully closed the eye of thought; she would not argue even with +herself; gallant, desperate little heart, she had accepted the command +of that supreme attraction like the call of fate, and marched blindfold +on her doom. But Archie, with his masculine sense of responsibility, +must reason; he must dwell on some future good, when the present good +was all in all to Kirstie; he must talk--and talk lamely, as necessity +drove him--of what was to be. Again and again he had touched on +marriage; again and again been driven back into indistinctness by a +memory of Lord Hermiston. And Kirstie had been swift to understand and +quick to choke down and smother the understanding; swift to leap up in +flame at a mention of that hope, which spoke volumes to her vanity and +her love, that she might one day be Mrs. Weir of Hermiston; swift, also, +to recognise in his stumbling or throttled utterance the death-knell of +these expectations, and constant, poor girl! in her large-minded +madness, to go on and to reck nothing of the future. But these +unfinished references, these blinks in which his heart spoke, and his +memory and reason rose up to silence it before the words were well +uttered, gave her unqualifiable agony. She was raised up and dashed down +again bleeding. The recurrence of the subject forced her, for however +short a time, to open her eyes on what she did not wish to see; and it +had invariably ended in another disappointment. So now again, at the +mere wind of its coming, at the mere mention of his father's name--who +might seem indeed to have accompanied them in their whole moorland +courtship, an awful figure in a wig with an ironical and bitter smile, +present to guilty consciousness--she fled from it head down. + +"Ye havena told me yet," she said, "who was it spoke?" + +"Your aunt for one," said Archie. + +"Auntie Kirstie?" she cried. "And what do I care for my Auntie Kirstie?" + +"She cares a great deal for her niece," replied Archie, in kind reproof. + +"Troth, and it's the first I've heard of it," retorted the girl. + +"The question here is not who it is, but what they say, what they have +noticed," pursued the lucid schoolmaster. "That is what we have to think +of in self-defence." + +"Auntie Kirstie, indeed! A bitter, thrawn auld maid that's fomented +trouble in the country before I was born, and will be doing it still, I +daur say, when I'm deid! It's in her nature; it's as natural for her as +it's for a sheep to eat." + +"Pardon me, Kirstie, she was not the only one," interposed Archie. "I +had two warnings, two sermons, last night, both most kind and +considerate. Had you been there, I promise you you would have grat, my +dear! And they opened my eyes. I saw we were going a wrong way." + +"Who was the other one?" Kirstie demanded. + +By this time Archie was in the condition of a hunted beast. He had come, +braced and resolute; he was to trace out a line of conduct for the pair +of them in a few cold, convincing sentences; he had now been there some +time, and he was still staggering round the outworks and undergoing what +he felt to be a savage cross-examination. + +"Mr. Frank!" she cried. "What nex', I would like to ken?" + +"He spoke most kindly and truly." + +"What like did he say?" + +"I am not going to tell you; you have nothing to do with that," cried +Archie, startled to find he had admitted so much. + +"O, I have naething to do with it!" she repeated, springing to her feet. +"A'body at Hermiston's free to pass their opinions upon me, but I have +naething to do wi' it! Was this at prayers like? Did ye ca' the grieve +into the consultation? Little wonder if a'body's talking, when ye make +a'body yer confidants! But as you say, Mr. Weir, most kindly, most +considerately, most truly, I'm sure--I have naething to do with it. And +I think I'll better be going. I'll be wishing you good evening, Mr. +Weir." And she made him a stately curtsey, shaking as she did so from +head to foot, with the barren ecstasy of temper. + +Poor Archie stood dumbfounded. She had moved some steps away from him +before he recovered the gift of articulate speech. + +"Kirstie!" he cried. "O, Kirstie woman!" + +There was in his voice a ring of appeal, a clang of mere astonishment +that showed the schoolmaster was vanquished. + +She turned round on him. "What do ye Kirstie me for?" she retorted. +"What have ye to do wi' me? Gang to your ain freends and deave them!" + +He could only repeat the appealing "Kirstie!" + +"Kirstie, indeed!" cried the girl, her eyes blazing in her white face. +"My name is Miss Christina Elliott, I would have ye to ken, and I daur +ye to ca' me out of it. If I canna get love, I'll have respect, Mr. +Weir. I'm come of decent people, and I'll have respect. What have I done +that ye should lightly me? What have I done? What have I done? O, what +have I done?" and her voice rose upon the third repetition. "I thocht--I +thocht--I thocht I was sae happy!" and the first sob broke from her like +the paroxysm of some mortal sickness. + +Archie ran to her. He took the poor child in his arms, and she nestled +to his breast as to a mother's, and clasped him in hands that were +strong like vices. He felt her whole body shaken by the throes of +distress, and had pity upon her beyond speech. Pity, and at the same +time a bewildered fear of this explosive engine in his arms, whose works +he did not understand, and yet had been tampering with. There arose from +before him the curtains of boyhood, and he saw for the first time the +ambiguous face of woman as she is. In vain he looked back over the +interview; he saw not where he had offended. It seemed unprovoked, a +wilful convulsion of brute nature.... + + + + +SIR SIDNEY COLVIN'S NOTE + + +With the words last printed, "a wilful convulsion of brute nature," the +romance of "Weir of Hermiston" breaks off. They were dictated, I +believe, on the very morning of the writer's sudden seizure and death. +"Weir of Hermiston" thus remains in the work of Stevenson what "Edwin +Drood" is in the work of Dickens or "Denis Duval" in that of Thackeray: +or rather it remains relatively more, for if each of those fragments +holds an honourable place among its author's writings, among Stevenson's +the fragment of "Weir" holds, at least to my mind, certainly the +highest. + +Readers may be divided in opinion on the question whether they would or +they would not wish to hear more of the intended course of the story and +destinies of the characters. To some, silence may seem best, and that +the mind should be left to its own conjectures as to the sequel, with +the help of such indications as the text affords. I confess that this is +the view which has my sympathy. But since others, and those almost +certainly a majority, are anxious to be told all they can, and since +editors and publishers join in the request, I can scarce do otherwise +than comply. The intended argument, then, so far as it was known at the +time of the writer's death to his step-daughter and devoted amanuensis, +Mrs. Strong, was nearly as follows:-- + + * * * * * + +Archie persists in his good resolution of avoiding further conduct +compromising to young Kirstie's good name. Taking advantage of the +situation thus created, and of the girl's unhappiness and wounded +vanity, Frank Innes pursues his purpose of seduction; and Kirstie, +though still caring for Archie in her heart, allows herself to become +Frank's victim. Old Kirstie is the first to perceive something amiss +with her, and believing Archie to be the culprit, accuses him, thus +making him aware for the first time that mischief has happened. He does +not at once deny the charge, but seeks out and questions young Kirstie, +who confesses the truth to him; and he, still loving her, promises to +protect and defend her in her trouble. He then has an interview with +Frank Innes on the moor, which ends in a quarrel, and in Archie killing +Frank beside the Weaver's Stone. Meanwhile the Four Black Brothers, +having become aware of their sister's betrayal, are bent on vengeance +against Archie as her supposed seducer. But their vengeance is +forestalled by his arrest for the murder of Frank. He is tried before +his own father, the Lord Justice-Clerk, found guilty, and condemned to +death. Meanwhile the elder Kirstie, having discovered from the girl how +matters really stand, informs her nephews of the truth; and they, in a +great revulsion of feeling in Archie's favour, determine on an action +after the ancient manner of their house. They gather a following, and +after a great fight break the prison where Archie lies confined, and +rescue him. He and young Kirstie thereafter escape to America. But the +ordeal of taking part in the trial of his own son has been too much for +the Lord Justice-Clerk, who dies of the shock. "I do not know," adds the +amanuensis, "what becomes of old Kirstie, but that character grew and +strengthened so in the writing that I am sure he had some dramatic +destiny for her." + + * * * * * + +The plan of every imaginative work is subject, of course, to change +under the artist's hand as he carries it out; and not merely the +character of the elder Kirstie, but other elements of the design no +less, might well have deviated from the lines originally traced. It +seems certain, however, that the next stage in the relations of Archie +and the younger Kirstie would have been as above foreshadowed; and this +conception of the lover's unconventional chivalry and unshaken devotion +to his mistress after her fault is very characteristic of the writer's +mind. The vengeance to be taken on the seducer beside the Weaver's Stone +is prepared for in the first words of the Introduction; and in the +spring of 1894 the author rehearsed in conversation with a visitor (Mr. +Sidney Lysaght) a scene where the girl was to confess to her lover in +prison that she was with child by the man he had killed. The situation +and fate of the judge, confronting like a Brutus, but unable to survive, +the duty of sending his own son to the gallows, seem clearly to have +been destined to furnish the climax and essential tragedy of the tale. + +How this last circumstance was to have been brought about, within the +limits of legal usage and possibility, seems hard to conjecture; but it +was a point to which the author had evidently given careful +consideration. Mrs. Strong says simply that the Lord Justice-Clerk, like +an old Roman, condemns his son to death; but I am assured on the best +legal authority of Scotland that no judge, however powerful either by +character or office, could have insisted on presiding at the trial of a +near kinsman of his own. The Lord Justice-Clerk was head of the criminal +justiciary of the country; he might have insisted on his right of being +present on the bench when his son was tried; but he would never have +been allowed to preside or to pass sentence. Now in a letter of +Stevenson's to Mr. Baxter, of October 1892, I find him asking for +materials in terms which seem to indicate that he knew this quite +well:--"I wish Pitcairn's 'Criminal Trials,' _quam primum_. Also an +absolutely correct text of the Scots judiciary oath. Also, in case +Pitcairn does not come down late enough, I wish as full a report as +possible of a Scots murder trial between 1790-1820. Understand, _the +fullest possible_. Is there any book which would guide me to the +following facts? The Justice-Clerk tries some people capitally on +circuit. Certain evidence cropping up, the charge is transferred to the +Justice-Clerk's own son. Of course in the next trial the Justice-Clerk +is excluded, and the case is called before the Lord Justice-General. +Where would this trial have to be? I fear in Edinburgh, which would not +suit my view. Could it be again at the circuit town?" The point was +referred to a quondam fellow-member with Stevenson of the Edinburgh +Speculative Society, Mr. Graham Murray, the present Lord Advocate for +Scotland, whose reply was to the effect that there would be no +difficulty in making the new trial take place at the circuit town; that +it would have to be held there in spring or autumn, before two Lords of +Justiciary; and that the Lord Justice-General would have nothing to do +with it, this title being at the date in question only a nominal one +held by a layman (which is no longer the case). On this Stevenson +writes, "Graham Murray's note _re_ the venue was highly satisfactory, +and did me all the good in the world." The terms of his inquiry imply +clearly that he intended other persons before Archie to have fallen +under suspicion of the murder (what other persons?); and also--doubtless +in order to make the rescue by the Black Brothers possible--that he +wanted Archie to be imprisoned not in Edinburgh but in the circuit town. +Can it have been that Lord Hermiston's part was to have been limited to +presiding at the _first_ trial, where the persons wrongly suspected were +to have been judged, and to directing that the law should take its +course when evidence incriminating his own son was unexpectedly brought +forward? + +Whether the final escape and union of Archie and Christina would have +proved equally essential to the plot may perhaps to most readers seem +questionable. They may rather feel that a tragic destiny is foreshadowed +from the beginning for all concerned, and is inherent in the very +conditions of the tale. But on this point, and other matters of general +criticism connected with it, I find an interesting discussion by the +author himself in his correspondence. Writing to Mr. J. M. Barrie, +under date November 1, 1892, and criticising that author's famous story +of "The Little Minister," Stevenson says:-- + +"Your descriptions of your dealings with Lord Rintoul are frightfully +unconscientious.... 'The Little Minister' ought to have ended badly; we +all know it _did_, and we are infinitely grateful to you for the grace +and good feeling with which you have lied about it. If you had told the +truth, I for one could never have forgiven you. As you had conceived and +written the earlier parts, the truth about the end, though indisputably +true to fact, would have been a lie, or what is worse, a discord, in +art. If you are going to make a book end badly, it must end badly from +the beginning. Now, your book began to end well. You let yourself fall +in love with, and fondle, and smile at your puppets. Once you had done +that, your honour was committed: at the cost of truth to life you were +bound to save them. It is the blot on 'Richard Feverel,' for instance, +that it begins to end well; and then tricks you and ends ill. But in +this case, there is worse behind, for the ill ending does not inherently +issue from the plot--the story had, in fact, ended well after the great +last interview between Richard and Lucy--and the blind, illogical bullet +which smashes all has no more to do between the boards than a fly has to +do with a room into whose open window it comes buzzing. It might have so +happened; it needed not; and unless needs must, we have no right to pain +our readers. I have had a heavy case of conscience of the same kind +about my Braxfield story. Braxfield--only his name is Hermiston--has a +son who is condemned to death; plainly there is a fine tempting fitness +about this; and I meant he was to hang. But on considering my minor +characters, I saw there were five people who would--in a sense, who +must--break prison and attempt his rescue. They are capable hardy folks +too, who might very well succeed. Why should they not then? Why should +not young Hermiston escape clear out of the country? and be happy, if he +could, with his--but soft! I will not betray my secret nor my +heroine...." + +To pass, now, from the question how the story would have ended to the +question how it originated and grew in the writer's mind. The character +of the hero, Weir of Hermiston, is avowedly suggested by the historical +personality of Robert Macqueen, Lord Braxfield. This famous judge has +been for generations the subject of a hundred Edinburgh tales and +anecdotes. Readers of Stevenson's essay on the Raeburn exhibition, in +"Virginibus Puerisque," will remember how he is fascinated by Raeburn's +portrait of Braxfield, even as Lockhart had been fascinated by a +different portrait of the same worthy sixty years before (see "Peter's +Letters to His Kinsfolk"); nor did his interest in the character +diminish in later life. + +Again, the case of a judge involved by the exigencies of his office in a +strong conflict between public duty and private interest or affection, +was one which had always attracted and exercised Stevenson's +imagination. In the days when he and Mr. Henley were collaborating with +a view to the stage, Mr. Henley once proposed a plot founded on the +story of Mr. Justice Harbottle in Sheridan Le Fanu's "In a Glass +Darkly," in which the wicked judge goes headlong _per fas et nefas_ to +his object of getting the husband of his mistress hanged. Some time +later Stevenson and his wife together drafted a play called _The Hanging +Judge_. In this, the title character is tempted for the first time in +his life to tamper with the course of justice, in order to shield his +wife from persecution by a former husband who reappears after being +supposed dead. Bulwer's novel of "Paul Clifford," with its final +situation of the worldly-minded judge, Sir William Brandon, learning +that the highwayman whom he is in the act of sentencing is his own son, +and dying of the knowledge, was also well known to Stevenson, and +probably counted for something in the suggestion of the present story. + +Once more, the difficulties often attending the relation of father and +son in actual life had pressed heavily on Stevenson's mind and +conscience from the days of his youth, when in obeying the law of his +own nature he had been constrained to disappoint, distress, and for a +time to be much misunderstood by, a father whom he justly loved and +admired with all his heart. Difficulties of this kind he had already +handled in a lighter vein once or twice in fiction--as for instance in +"The Story of a Lie," "The Misadventures of John Nicholson," and "The +Wrecker"--before he grappled with them in the acute and tragic phase in +which they occur in the present story. + +These three elements, then, the interest of the historical personality +of Lord Braxfield, the problems and emotions arising from a violent +conflict between duty and nature in a judge, and the difficulties due to +incompatibility and misunderstanding between father and son, lie at the +foundations of the present story. To touch on minor matters, it is +perhaps worth notice, as Mr. Henley reminds me, that the name of Weir +had from of old a special significance for Stevenson's imagination, from +the horrible and true tale of the burning in Edinburgh of Major Weir, +the warlock, and his sister. Another name, that of the episodical +personage of Mr. Torrance the minister, is borrowed direct from life, as +indeed are the whole figure and its surroundings--kirkyard, kirk, and +manse--down even to the black thread mittens: witness the following +passage from a letter of the early seventies:--"I've been to church and +am not depressed--a great step. It was at that beautiful church" [of +Glencorse in the Pentlands, three miles from his father's country house +at Swanston]. "It is a little cruciform place, with a steep slate roof. +The small kirkyard is full of old gravestones; one of a Frenchman from +Dunkerque, I suppose he died prisoner in the military prison hard by. +And one, the most pathetic memorial I ever saw: a poor school-slate, in +a wooden frame, with the inscription cut into it evidently by the +father's own hand. In church, old Mr. Torrance preached, over eighty and +a relic of times forgotten, with his black thread gloves and mild old +face." A side hint for a particular trait in the character of Mrs. Weir +we can trace in some family traditions concerning the writer's own +grandmother, who is reported to have valued piety much more than +efficiency in her domestic servants. I know of no original for that new +and admirable incarnation of the eternal feminine in the elder Kirstie. +The little that Stevenson says about her himself is in a letter written +a few days before his death to Mr. Gosse. The allusions are to the +various views and attitudes of people in regard to middle age, and are +suggested by Mr. Gosse's volume of poems, "In Russet and Silver." "It +seems rather funny," he writes, "that this matter should come up just +now, as I am at present engaged in treating a severe case of middle age +in one of my stories, 'The Justice-Clerk.' The case is that of a woman, +and I think I am doing her justice. You will be interested, I believe, +to see the difference in our treatments. 'Secreta Vitae' [the title of +one of Mr. Gosse's poems] comes nearer to the case of my poor Kirstie." +From the quality of the midnight scene between her and Archie, we may +judge what we have lost in those later scenes where she was to have +taxed him with the fault that was not his--to have presently learned his +innocence from the lips of his supposed victim--to have then vindicated +him to her kinsmen and fired them to the action of his rescue. The scene +of the prison-breaking here planned by Stevenson would have gained +interest (as will already have occurred to readers) from comparison with +the two famous precedents in Scott, the Porteous mob and the breaking of +Portanferry gaol. + +The best account of Stevenson's methods of imaginative work is in the +following sentences from a letter of his own to Mr. W. Craibe Angus of +Glasgow:--"I am still 'a slow study,' and sit for a long while silent on +my eggs. Unconscious thought, there is the only method: macerate your +subject, let it boil slow, then take the lid off and look in--and there +your stuff is--good or bad." The several elements above noted having +been left to work for many years in his mind, it was in the autumn of +1892 that he was moved to "take the lid off and look in,"--under the +influence, it would seem, of a special and overmastering wave of that +feeling for the romance of Scottish scenery and character which was at +all times so strong in him, and which his exile did so much to +intensify. I quote again from his letter to Mr. Barrie on November 1st +in that year:--"It is a singular thing that I should live here in the +South Seas under conditions so new and so striking, and yet my +imagination so continually inhabit the cold old huddle of grey hills +from which we come. I have finished 'David Balfour,' I have another book +on the stocks, 'The Young Chevalier,' which is to be part in France and +part in Scotland, and to deal with Prince Charlie about the year 1749; +and now what have I done but begun a third, which is to be all moorland +together, and is to have for a centre-piece a figure that I think you +will appreciate--that of the immortal Braxfield. Braxfield himself is my +grand premier--or since you are so much involved in the British drama, +let me say my heavy lead." + +Writing to me at the same date he makes the same announcement more +briefly, with a list of the characters and an indication of the scene +and date of the story. To Mr. Baxter he writes a month later, "I have a +novel on the stocks to be called 'The Justice-Clerk.' It is pretty +Scotch; the grand premier is taken from Braxfield (O, by the by, send me +Cockburn's 'Memorials'), and some of the story is, well, queer. The +heroine is seduced by one man, and finally disappears with the other man +who shot him.... Mind you, I expect 'The Justice-Clerk' to be my +masterpiece. My Braxfield is already a thing of beauty and a joy for +ever, and so far as he has gone far my best character." From the last +extract it appears that he had already at this date drafted some of the +earlier chapters of the book. He also about the same time composed the +dedication to his wife, who found it pinned to her bed-curtains one +morning on awaking. It was always his habit to keep several books in +progress at the same time, turning from one to another as the fancy took +him, and finding relief in the change of labour; and for many months +after the date of this letter, first illness,--then a voyage to +Auckland,--then work on "The Ebb-Tide," on a new tale called "St. Ives," +which was begun during an attack of influenza, and on his projected book +of family history,--prevented his making any continuous progress with +"Weir." In August 1893 he says he has been recasting the beginning. A +year later, still only the first four or five chapters had been drafted. +Then, in the last weeks of his life, he attacked the task again, in a +sudden heat of inspiration, and worked at it ardently and without +interruption until the end came. No wonder if during these weeks he was +sometimes aware of a tension of the spirit difficult to sustain. "How +can I keep this pitch?" he is reported to have said after finishing one +of the chapters; and all the world knows how that frail organism, +overtaxed so long, in fact betrayed him in mid effort. + +With reference to the speech and manners of the Hanging Judge himself: +that they are not a whit exaggerated, in comparison with what is +recorded of his historic prototype, Lord Braxfield, is certain. The +_locus classicus_ in regard to this personage is in Lord Cockburn's +"Memorials of his Time." "Strong built and dark, with rough eyebrows, +powerful eyes, threatening lips, and a low growling voice, he was like a +formidable blacksmith. His accent and dialect were exaggerated Scotch; +his language, like his thoughts, short, strong, and conclusive. +Illiterate and without any taste for any refined enjoyment, strength of +understanding, which gave him power without cultivation, only encouraged +him to a more contemptuous disdain of all natures less coarse than his +own. It may be doubted if he was ever so much in his element as when +tauntingly repelling the last despairing claim of a wretched culprit, +and sending him to Botany Bay or the gallows with an insulting jest. Yet +this was not from cruelty, for which he was too strong and too jovial, +but from cherished coarseness." Readers, nevertheless, who are at all +acquainted with the social history of Scotland will hardly have failed +to make the observation that Braxfield's is an extreme case of +eighteenth-century manners, as he himself was an eighteenth-century +personage (he died in 1799, in his seventy-eighth year); and that for +the date in which the story is cast (1814) such manners are somewhat of +an anachronism. During the generation contemporary with the French +Revolution and the Napoleonic wars--or, to put it another way, the +generation that elapsed between the days when Scott roamed the country +as a High School and University student and those when he settled in the +fulness of fame and prosperity at Abbotsford,--or again (the allusions +will appeal to readers of the admirable Galt) during the interval +between the first and the last provostry of Bailie Pawkie in the borough +of Gudetown, or between the earlier and final ministrations of Mr. +Balwhidder in the parish of Dalmailing,--during this period a great +softening had taken place in Scottish manners generally, and in those of +the Bar and Bench not least. "Since the death of Lord Justice-Clerk +Macqueen of Braxfield," says Lockhart, writing about 1817, "the whole +exterior of judicial deportment has been quite altered." A similar +criticism may probably hold good on the picture of border life contained +in the chapter concerning the Four Black Brothers of Cauldstaneslap, +namely, that it rather suggests the ways of an earlier generation; nor +have I any clue to the reasons which led Stevenson to choose this +particular date, in the year preceding Waterloo, for a story which, in +regard to some of its features at least, might seem more naturally +placed some quarter or even half a century earlier. + +If the reader seeks, further, to know whether the scenery of Hermiston +can be identified with any one special place familiar to the writer's +early experience, the answer, I think, must be in the negative. Rather +it is distilled from a number of different haunts and associations among +the moorlands of southern Scotland. In the dedication and in a letter +to me he indicates the Lammermuirs as the scene of his tragedy. And Mrs. +Stevenson (his mother) told me that she thought he was inspired by +recollections of a visit paid in boyhood to an uncle living at a remote +farmhouse in that district called Overshiels, in the parish of Stow. But +though he may have thought of the Lammermuirs in the first instance, we +have already found him drawing his description of the kirk and manse +from another haunt of his youth, namely, Glencorse in the Pentlands; +while passages in chapters v. and viii. point explicitly to a third +district, that is, Upper Tweeddale, with the country stretching thence +towards the wells of Clyde. With this country also holiday rides and +excursions from Peebles had made him familiar as a boy: and on the whole +it is this which best answers the geographical indications of the story. +Some of the place-names are clearly not meant to furnish literal +indications. The Spango, for instance, is a water running, I believe, +not into the Tweed but into the Nith. Crossmichael as the name of a town +is borrowed from Galloway; but it may be taken to all intents and +purposes as standing for Peebles, where I am told by Sir George Douglas +there existed in the early years of the century a well-known club of the +same character as that described in the story. Lastly, the name +Hermiston itself is taken from a farm on the Water of Ale, between +Ettrick and Teviotdale, and close to the proper country of the Elliotts. + +But it is with the general and essential that the artist deals, and +questions of strict historical perspective or local definition are +beside the mark in considering his work. Nor will any reader expect, or +be grateful for, comment in this place on matters which are more +properly to the point--on the seizing and penetrating power of the +author's ripened art as exhibited in the foregoing pages, his vital +poetry of vision and magic of presentment. Surely no son of Scotland has +died leaving with his last breath a worthier tribute to the land he +loved. + + S. C. + + + + +GLOSSARY + + + ae, _one_. + + antinomian, _one of a sect which holds that under the gospel + dispensation the moral law is not obligatory_. + + Auld Hornie, _the Devil_. + + ballant, _ballad_. + + bauchles, _brogues, old shoes_. + + bauld, _bold_. + + bees in their bonnet, _eccentricities_. + + birling, _whirling_. + + black-a-vised, _dark-complexioned_. + + bonnet-laird, cock-laird, _small landed proprietor, yeoman_. + + bool, _ball, technically marble, here = sugar-plum_. + + brae, _rising ground_. + + brig, _bridge_. + + buff, play buff on, _to make a fool of, to deceive_. + + burn, _stream_. + + butt end, _end of a cottage_. + + byre, _cow-house_. + + ca', _drive_. + + caller, _fresh_. + + canna, _cannot_. + + canny, _careful, shrewd_. + + cantie, _cheerful_. + + carline, _old woman_. + + cauld, _cold_. + + chalmer, _chamber_. + + claes, _clothes_. + + clamjamfry, _crowd_. + + clavers, _idle talk_. + + cock-laird. _See_ bonnet-laird. + + collieshangie, _turmoil_. + + crack, _to converse_. + + cuddy, _donkey_. + + cuist, _cast_. + + cutty, _jade, also used playfully = brat_. + + daft, _mad, frolicsome_. + + dander, _to saunter_. + + danders, _cinders_. + + daurna, _dare not_. + + deave, _to deafen_. + + denty, _dainty_. + + dirdum, _vigour_. + + disjaskit, _worn out, disreputable-looking_. + + doer, _law agent_. + + dour, _hard_. + + drumlie, _dark_. + + dule-tree, _the tree of lamentation, the hanging tree_. + + dunting, _knocking_. + + dwaibly, _infirm, rickety_. + + earrand, _errand_. + + ettercap, _vixen_. + + fechting, _fighting_. + + feck, _quantity, portion_. + + feckless, _feeble, powerless_. + + fell, _strong and fiery_. + + fey, _unlike yourself, strange, as if urged on by fate, or as persons + are observed to be in the hour of approaching death or disaster_. + + fit, _foot_. + + flit, _to depart_. + + flyped, _turned, up, turned inside out_. + + forbye, in _addition to_. + + forgather, _to fall in with_. + + fower, _four_. + + füshionless, _pithless, weak_. + + fyle, _to soil, to defile_. + + fylement, _obloquy, defilement_. + + gaed, _went_. + + gang, _to go_. + + gey an, _very_. + + gigot, _leg of mutton_. + + girzie, _lit. diminutive of Grizel, here a playful nickname_. + + glaur, _mud_. + + glint, _glance, sparkle_. + + gloaming, _twilight_. + + glower, _to scowl_. + + gobbets, _small lumps_. + + gowden, _golden_. + + gowsty, _gusty_. + + grat, _wept_. + + grieve, _land-steward_. + + guddle, _to catch fish with the hands by groping under the stones or + banks_. + + guid, _good_. + + gumption, _common-sense, judgment_. + + gurley, _stormy, surly_. + + gyte, _beside itself_. + + hae, _have, take_. + + haddit, _held_. + + hale, _whole_. + + heels-ower-hurdie, _heels over head_. + + hinney, _honey_. + + hirstle, _to bustle_. + + hizzie, _wench_. + + howe, _hollow_. + + howf, _haunt_. + + hunkered, _crouched_. + + hypothec, _lii. in Scots law the furnishings of a house, and formerly + the produce and stock of a farm hypothecated by law to the landlord + as security for rent; colloquially "the whole structure," "the whole + concern."_ + + idleset, _idleness_. + + infeftment, a _term in Scots law originally synonymous with + investiture_. + + jaud, _jade_. + + jeely-piece, _a slice of bread and jelly_. + + jennipers, _juniper_. + + jo, _sweetheart_. + + justifeed, _executed, made the victim of justice_. + + jyle, _jail_. + + kebbuck, _cheese_. + + ken, _to know_. + + kenspeckle, _conspicuous_. + + kilted, _tucked up_. + + kyte, _belly_. + + laigh, _low_. + + laird, _landed proprietor_. + + lane, _alone_. + + lave, _rest, remainder_. + + linking, _tripping_. + + lown, _lonely, still_. + + lynn, _cataract_. + + Lyon King of Arms, _the chief of the Court of Heraldry in Scotland_. + + macers, _officers of the supreme court_. [_Cf._ "Guy Mannering," last + chapter.] + + maun, _must_. + + menseful, _of good manners_. + + mirk, _dark_. + + misbegowk, _deception, disappointment_. + + mools, _mould, earth_. + + muckle, _much, great, big_. + + my lane, _by myself_. + + nowt, _black cattle_. + + palmering, _walking infirmly_. + + panel, in _Scots law, the accused person in a criminal action, the + prisoner_. + + peel, _fortified watch-tower_. + + plew-stilts, _plough-handles_. + + policy, _ornamental grounds of a country mansion_. + + puddock, _frog_. + + quean, _wench_. + + rair, _to roar_. + + riffraff, _rabble_. + + risping, _grating_. + + rout, rowt, _to roar, to rant_. + + rowth, _abundance_. + + rudas, _haggard old woman_. + + runt, _an old cow past breeding; opprobriously, an old woman_. + + sab, _sob_. + + sanguishes, _sandwiches_. + + sasine, _in Scots law, the act of giving legal possession of feudal + property, or, colloquially, the deed by which that possession is + proved_. + + sclamber, _to scramble_. + + sculduddery, _impropriety, grossness_. + + session, _the Court of Session, the supreme court of Scotland_. + + shauchling, _shuffling, slipshod_. + + shoo, _to chase gently_. + + siller, _money_. + + sinsyne, _since then_. + + skailing, _dispersing_. + + skelp, _slap_. + + skirling, _screaming_. + + skreigh-o'-day, _daybreak_. + + snash, _abuse_. + + sneisty, _supercilious_. + + sooth, _to hum_. + + sough, _sound, murmur_. + + Spec., _The Speculative Society, a debating Society connected with + Edinburgh University_. + + speir, to _ask_. + + speldering, _sprawling_. + + splairge, _to splash_. + + spunk, _spirit, fire_. + + steik, _to shut_. + + stirk, _a young bullock_. + + stockfish, _hard, savourless_. + + sugar-bool, _sugar-plum_. + + syne, _since, then_. + + tawpie, _a slow foolish slut, also used playfully = monkey_. + + telling you, _a good thing for you_. + + thir, _these_. + + thrawn, _cross-grained_. + + toon, _farm, town_. + + two-names, _local sobriquets in addition to patronymic_. + + tyke, _dog_. + + unchancy, _unlucky_. + + unco, _strange, extraordinary, very_. + + upsitten, _impertinent_. + + vennel, _alley, lane_. The Vennel, _a narrow lane in Edinburgh running + out of the Grassmarket_. + + vivers, _victuals_. + + wac, _sad, unhappy_. + + waling, _choosing_. + + warrandise, _warranty_. + + waur, _worse_. + + weird, _destiny_. + + whammle, _to upset_. + + whaup, _curlew_. + + whiles, _sometimes_. + + windlestrae, _crested dog's-tail grass_. + + wund, _wind_. + + yin, _one_. + + + + +END OF VOL. XIX + + + PRINTED BY + CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED + LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON, E.C. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON +- SWANSTON EDITION VOL. 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