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diff --git a/old/tethr10.txt b/old/tethr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7a07d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/tethr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6879 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Etext of End of the Tether, by Joseph Conrad +#9 in our series by Joseph Conrad + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois + Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Illinois Benedictine College". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +THE END OF THE TETHER + + + + +I + +For a long time after the course of the steamer Sofala +had been altered for the land, the low swampy coast had +retained its appearance of a mere smudge of darkness +beyond a belt of glitter. The sunrays seemed to fall +violently upon the calm sea--seemed to shatter them- +selves upon an adamantine surface into sparkling dust, +into a dazzling vapor of light that blinded the eye and +wearied the brain with its unsteady brightness. + +Captain Whalley did not look at it. When his +Serang, approaching the roomy cane arm-chair which +he filled capably, had informed him in a low voice that +the course was to be altered, he had risen at once and +had remained on his feet, face forward, while the head +of his ship swung through a quarter of a circle. He +had not uttered a single word, not even the word to +steady the helm. It was the Serang, an elderly, alert, +little Malay, with a very dark skin, who murmured the +order to the helmsman. And then slowly Captain +Whalley sat down again in the arm-chair on the bridge +and fixed his eyes on the deck between his feet. + +He could not hope to see anything new upon this lane +of the sea. He had been on these coasts for the last +three years. From Low Cape to Malantan the distance +was fifty miles, six hours' steaming for the old ship with +the tide, or seven against. Then you steered straight +for the land, and by-and-by three palms would appear +on the sky, tall and slim, and with their disheveled heads +in a bunch, as if in confidential criticism of the dark +mangroves. The Sofala would be headed towards the +somber strip of the coast, which at a given moment, as +the ship closed with it obliquely, would show several +clean shining fractures--the brimful estuary of a river. +Then on through a brown liquid, three parts water and +one part black earth, on and on between the low shores, +three parts black earth and one part brackish water, the +Sofala would plow her way up-stream, as she had +done once every month for these seven years or more, +long before he was aware of her existence, long before +he had ever thought of having anything to do with her +and her invariable voyages. The old ship ought to have +known the road better than her men, who had not been +kept so long at it without a change; better than the +faithful Serang, whom he had brought over from his +last ship to keep the captain's watch; better than he +himself, who had been her captain for the last three +years only. She could always be depended upon to +make her courses. Her compasses were never out. She +was no trouble at all to take about, as if her great age +had given her knowledge, wisdom, and steadiness. She +made her landfalls to a degree of the bearing, and al- +most to a minute of her allowed time. At any moment, +as he sat on the bridge without looking up, or lay sleep- +less in his bed, simply by reckoning the days and the +hours he could tell where he was--the precise spot of the +beat. He knew it well too, this monotonous huckster's +round, up and down the Straits; he knew its order and +its sights and its people. Malacca to begin with, in at +daylight and out at dusk, to cross over with a rigid +phosphorescent wake this highway of the Far East. +Darkness and gleams on the water, clear stars on a black +sky, perhaps the lights of a home steamer keeping her +unswerving course in the middle, or maybe the elusive +shadow of a native craft with her mat sails flitting by +silently--and the low land on the other side in sight +at daylight. At noon the three palms of the next place +of call, up a sluggish river. The only white man re- +siding there was a retired young sailor, with whom he +had become friendly in the course of many voyages. +Sixty miles farther on there was another place of call, +a deep bay with only a couple of houses on the beach. +And so on, in and out, picking up coastwise cargo here +and there, and finishing with a hundred miles' steady +steaming through the maze of an archipelago of small +islands up to a large native town at the end of the beat. +There was a three days' rest for the old ship before +he started her again in inverse order, seeing the same +shores from another bearing, hearing the same voices in +the same places, back again to the Sofala's port of regis- +try on the great highway to the East, where he would +take up a berth nearly opposite the big stone pile of +the harbor office till it was time to start again on the +old round of 1600 miles and thirty days. Not a very +enterprising life, this, for Captain Whalley, Henry +Whalley, otherwise Dare-devil Harry--Whalley of the +Condor, a famous clipper in her day. No. Not a very +enterprising life for a man who had served famous firms, +who had sailed famous ships (more than one or two of +them his own); who had made famous passages, had +been the pioneer of new routes and new trades; who had +steered across the unsurveyed tracts of the South Seas, +and had seen the sun rise on uncharted islands. Fifty +years at sea, and forty out in the East ("a pretty thor- +ough apprenticeship," he used to remark smilingly), had +made him honorably known to a generation of ship- +owners and merchants in all the ports from Bombay clear +over to where the East merges into the West upon the +coast of the two Americas. His fame remained writ, +not very large but plain enough, on the Admiralty +charts. Was there not somewhere between Australia +and China a Whalley Island and a Condor Reef? On +that dangerous coral formation the celebrated clipper +had hung stranded for three days, her captain and crew +throwing her cargo overboard with one hand and with +the other, as it were, keeping off her a flotilla of savage +war-canoes. At that time neither the island nor the reef +had any official existence. Later the officers of her +Majesty's steam vessel Fusilier, dispatched to make a +survey of the route, recognized in the adoption of these +two names the enterprise of the man and the solidity of +the ship. Besides, as anyone who cares may see, the +"General Directory," vol. ii. p. 410, begins the descrip- +tion of the "Malotu or Whalley Passage" with the +words: "This advantageous route, first discovered in +1850 by Captain Whalley in the ship Condor," &c., +and ends by recommending it warmly to sailing vessels +leaving the China ports for the south in the months +from December to April inclusive. + +This was the clearest gain he had out of life. Nothing +could rob him of this kind of fame. The piercing of the +Isthmus of Suez, like the breaking of a dam, had let +in upon the East a flood of new ships, new men, new +methods of trade. It had changed the face of the East- +ern seas and the very spirit of their life; so that his +early experiences meant nothing whatever to the new +generation of seamen. + +In those bygone days he had handled many thousands +of pounds of his employers' money and of his own; he +had attended faithfully, as by law a shipmaster is ex- +pected to do, to the conflicting interests of owners, +charterers, and underwriters. He had never lost a ship +or consented to a shady transaction; and he had lasted +well, outlasting in the end the conditions that had gone +to the making of his name. He had buried his wife (in +the Gulf of Petchili), had married off his daughter to +the man of her unlucky choice, and had lost more than +an ample competence in the crash of the notorious Tra- +vancore and Deccan Banking Corporation, whose down- +fall had shaken the East like an earthquake. And he +was sixty-five years old. + + +II + + +His age sat lightly enough on him; and of his ruin +he was not ashamed. He had not been alone to believe +in the stability of the Banking Corporation. Men whose +judgment in matters of finance was as expert as his sea- +manship had commended the prudence of his invest- +ments, and had themselves lost much money in the great +failure. The only difference between him and them was +that he had lost his all. And yet not his all. There +had remained to him from his lost fortune a very pretty +little bark, Fair Maid, which he had bought to occupy +his leisure of a retired sailor--"to play with," as he ex- +pressed it himself. + +He had formally declared himself tired of the sea the +year preceding his daughter's marriage. But after the +young couple had gone to settle in Melbourne he found +out that he could not make himself happy on shore. He +was too much of a merchant sea-captain for mere yacht- +ing to satisfy him. He wanted the illusion of affairs; +and his acquisition of the Fair Maid preserved the con- +tinuity of his life. He introduced her to his acquaint- +ances in various ports as "my last command." When +he grew too old to be trusted with a ship, he would +lay her up and go ashore to be buried, leaving directions +in his will to have the bark towed out and scuttled +decently in deep water on the day of the funeral. His +daughter would not grudge him the satisfaction of +knowing that no stranger would handle his last command +after him. With the fortune he was able to leave her, +the value of a 500-ton bark was neither here nor there. +All this would be said with a jocular twinkle in his eye: +the vigorous old man had too much vitality for the sen- +timentalism of regret; and a little wistfully withal, be- +cause he was at home in life, taking a genuine pleasure +in its feelings and its possessions; in the dignity of his +reputation and his wealth, in his love for his daughter, +and in his satisfaction with the ship--the plaything of +his lonely leisure. + +He had the cabin arranged in accordance with his +simple ideal of comfort at sea. A big bookcase (he was +a great reader) occupied one side of his stateroom; the +portrait of his late wife, a flat bituminous oil-painting +representing the profile and one long black ringlet of +a young woman, faced his bedplace. Three chronometers +ticked him to sleep and greeted him on waking with +the tiny competition of their beats. He rose at five every +day. The officer of the morning watch, drinking his +early cup of coffee aft by the wheel, would hear through +the wide orifice of the copper ventilators all the splash- +ings, blowings, and splutterings of his captain's toilet. +These noises would be followed by a sustained deep +murmur of the Lord's Prayer recited in a loud earnest +voice. Five minutes afterwards the head and shoulders +of Captain Whalley emerged out of the companion- +hatchway. Invariably he paused for a while on the +stairs, looking all round at the horizon; upwards at the +trim of the sails; inhaling deep draughts of the fresh +air. Only then he would step out on the poop, acknowl- +edging the hand raised to the peak of the cap with a +majestic and benign "Good morning to you." He +walked the deck till eight scrupulously. Sometimes, not +above twice a year, he had to use a thick cudgel-like +stick on account of a stiffness in the hip--a slight touch +of rheumatism, he supposed. Otherwise he knew nothing +of the ills of the flesh. At the ringing of the breakfast +bell he went below to feed his canaries, wind up the +chronometers, and take the head of the table. From +there he had before his eyes the big carbon photographs +of his daughter, her husband, and two fat-legged babies +--his grandchildren--set in black frames into the maple- +wood bulkheads of the cuddy. After breakfast he dusted +the glass over these portraits himself with a cloth, and +brushed the oil painting of his wife with a plumate kept +suspended from a small brass hook by the side of the +heavy gold frame. Then with the door of his state- +room shut, he would sit down on the couch under the +portrait to read a chapter out of a thick pocket Bible +--her Bible. But on some days he only sat there for +half an hour with his finger between the leaves and the +closed book resting on his knees. Perhaps he had re- +membered suddenly how fond of boat-sailing she used +to be. + +She had been a real shipmate and a true woman too. +It was like an article of faith with him that there never +had been, and never could be, a brighter, cheerier home +anywhere afloat or ashore than his home under the poop- +deck of the Condor, with the big main cabin all white +and gold, garlanded as if for a perpetual festival with +an unfading wreath. She had decorated the center of +every panel with a cluster of home flowers. It took her +a twelvemonth to go round the cuddy with this labor +of love. To him it had remained a marvel of painting, +the highest achievement of taste and skill; and as to +old Swinburne, his mate, every time he came down to +his meals he stood transfixed with admiration before the +progress of the work. You could almost smell these +roses, he declared, sniffing the faint flavor of turpentine +which at that time pervaded the saloon, and (as he con- +fessed afterwards) made him somewhat less hearty than +usual in tackling his food. But there was nothing of +the sort to interfere with his enjoyment of her singing. +"Mrs. Whalley is a regular out-and-out nightingale, +sir," he would pronounce with a judicial air after listen- +ing profoundly over the skylight to the very end of the +piece. In fine weather, in the second dog-watch, the two +men could hear her trills and roulades going on to the +accompaniment of the piano in the cabin. On the very +day they got engaged he had written to London for the +instrument; but they had been married for over a year +before it reached them, coming out round the Cape. +The big case made part of the first direct general cargo +landed in Hongkong harbor--an event that to the men +who walked the busy quays of to-day seemed as hazily +remote as the dark ages of history. But Captain Whal- +ley could in a half hour of solitude live again all his +life, with its romance, its idyl, and its sorrow. He had +to close her eyes himself. She went away from under +the ensign like a sailor's wife, a sailor herself at heart. +He had read the service over her, out of her own prayer- +book, without a break in his voice. When he raised his +eyes he could see old Swinburne facing him with his cap +pressed to his breast, and his rugged, weather-beaten, +impassive face streaming with drops of water like a +lump of chipped red granite in a shower. It was all +very well for that old sea-dog to cry. He had to read +on to the end; but after the splash he did not remember +much of what happened for the next few days. An +elderly sailor of the crew, deft at needlework, put to- +gether a mourning frock for the child out of one of +her black skirts. + +He was not likely to forget; but you cannot dam up +life like a sluggish stream. It will break out and flow +over a man's troubles, it will close upon a sorrow like +the sea upon a dead body, no matter how much love has +gone to the bottom. And the world is not bad. People +had been very kind to him; especially Mrs. Gardner, the +wife of the senior partner in Gardner, Patteson, & Co., +the owners of the Condor. It was she who volunteered +to look after the little one, and in due course took her +to England (something of a journey in those days, +even by the overland mail route) with her own girls to +finish her education. It was ten years before he saw her +again. + +As a little child she had never been frightened of bad +weather; she would beg to be taken up on deck in the +bosom of his oilskin coat to watch the big seas hurling +themselves upon the Condor. The swirl and crash of the +waves seemed to fill her small soul with a breathless de- +light. "A good boy spoiled," he used to say of her in +joke. He had named her Ivy because of the sound of +the word, and obscurely fascinated by a vague associa- +tion of ideas. She had twined herself tightly round his +heart, and he intended her to cling close to her father as +to a tower of strength; forgetting, while she was little, +that in the nature of things she would probably elect +to cling to someone else. But he loved life well enough +for even that event to give him a certain satisfaction, +apart from his more intimate feeling of loss. + +After he had purchased the Fair Maid to occupy his +loneliness, he hastened to accept a rather unprofitable +freight to Australia simply for the opportunity of seeing +his daughter in her own home. What made him dis- +satisfied there was not to see that she clung now to some- +body else, but that the prop she had selected seemed on +closer examination "a rather poor stick"--even in the +matter of health. He disliked his son-in-law's studied +civility perhaps more than his method of handling the +sum of money he had given Ivy at her marriage. But +of his apprehensions he said nothing. Only on the day +of his departure, with the hall-door open already, hold- +ing her hands and looking steadily into her eyes, he +had said, "You know, my dear, all I have is for you and +the chicks. Mind you write to me openly." She had +answered him by an almost imperceptible movement of +her head. She resembled her mother in the color of her +eyes, and in character--and also in this, that she under- +stood him without many words. + +Sure enough she had to write; and some of these letters +made Captain Whalley lift his white eye-brows. For +the rest he considered he was reaping the true reward of +his life by being thus able to produce on demand what- +ever was needed. He had not enjoyed himself so much +in a way since his wife had died. Characteristically +enough his son-in-law's punctuality in failure caused him +at a distance to feel a sort of kindness towards the man. +The fellow was so perpetually being jammed on a lee +shore that to charge it all to his reckless navigation +would be manifestly unfair. No, no! He knew well +what that meant. It was bad luck. His own had been +simply marvelous, but he had seen in his life too many +good men--seamen and others--go under with the sheer +weight of bad luck not to recognize the fatal signs. For +all that, he was cogitating on the best way of tying up +very strictly every penny he had to leave, when, with a +preliminary rumble of rumors (whose first sound reached +him in Shanghai as it happened), the shock of the big +failure came; and, after passing through the phases of +stupor, of incredulity, of indignation, he had to accept +the fact that he had nothing to speak of to leave. + +Upon that, as if he had only waited for this catas- +trophe, the unlucky man, away there in Melbourne, gave +up his unprofitable game, and sat down--in an invalid's +bath-chair at that too. "He will never walk again," +wrote the wife. For the first time in his life Captain +Whalley was a bit staggered. + +The Fair Maid had to go to work in bitter earnest now. +It was no longer a matter of preserving alive the memory +of Dare-devil Harry Whalley in the Eastern Seas, or +of keeping an old man in pocket-money and clothes, with, +perhaps, a bill for a few hundred first-class cigars +thrown in at the end of the year. He would have to +buckle-to, and keep her going hard on a scant allowance +of gilt for the ginger-bread scrolls at her stem and +stern. + +This necessity opened his eyes to the fundamental +changes of the world. Of his past only the familiar +names remained, here and there, but the things and the +men, as he had known them, were gone. The name of +Gardner, Patteson, & Co. was still displayed on the +walls of warehouses by the waterside, on the brass plates +and window-panes in the business quarters of more than +one Eastern port, but there was no longer a Gardner +or a Patteson in the firm. There was no longer for Cap- +tain Whalley an arm-chair and a welcome in the private +office, with a bit of business ready to be put in the way +of an old friend, for the sake of bygone services. The +husbands of the Gardner girls sat behind the desks in +that room where, long after he had left the employ, he +had kept his right of entrance in the old man's time. +Their ships now had yellow funnels with black tops, +and a time-table of appointed routes like a confounded +service of tramways. The winds of December and June +were all one to them; their captains (excellent young +men he doubted not) were, to be sure, familiar with +Whalley Island, because of late years the Government +had established a white fixed light on the north end (with +a red danger sector over the Condor Reef), but most of +them would have been extremely surprised to hear that +a flesh-and-blood Whalley still existed--an old man +going about the world trying to pick up a cargo here +and there for his little bark. + +And everywhere it was the same. Departed the men +who would have nodded appreciatively at the mention +of his name, and would have thought themselves bound +in honor to do something for Dare-devil Harry Whalley. +Departed the opportunities which he would have known +how to seize; and gone with them the white-winged flock +of clippers that lived in the boisterous uncertain life of +the winds, skimming big fortunes out of the foam of +the sea. In a world that pared down the profits to an +irreducible minimum, in a world that was able to count +its disengaged tonnage twice over every day, and in +which lean charters were snapped up by cable three +months in advance, there were no chances of fortune for +an individual wandering haphazard with a little bark +--hardly indeed any room to exist. + +He found it more difficult from year to year. He suf- +fered greatly from the smallness of remittances he was +able to send his daughter. Meantime he had given up +good cigars, and even in the matter of inferior cheroots +limited himself to six a day. He never told her of his +difficulties, and she never enlarged upon her struggle +to live. Their confidence in each other needed no ex- +planations, and their perfect understanding endured +without protestations of gratitude or regret. He would +have been shocked if she had taken it into her head to +thank him in so many words, but he found it perfectly +natural that she should tell him she needed two hundred +pounds. + +He had come in with the Fair Maid in ballast to look +for a freight in the Sofala's port of registry, and her +letter met him there. Its tenor was that it was no use +mincing matters. Her only resource was in opening a +boarding-house, for which the prospects, she judged, +were good. Good enough, at any rate, to make her tell +him frankly that with two hundred pounds she could +make a start. He had torn the envelope open, hastily, +on deck, where it was handed to him by the ship- +chandler's runner, who had brought his mail at the mo- +ment of anchoring. For the second time in his life he +was appalled, and remained stock-still at the cabin door +with the paper trembling between his fingers. Open a +boarding-house! Two hundred pounds for a start! The +only resource! And he did not know where to lay his +hands on two hundred pence. + +All that night Captain Whalley walked the poop of +his anchored ship, as though he had been about to close +with the land in thick weather, and uncertain of his +position after a run of many gray days without a sight +of sun, moon, or stars. The black night twinkled with +the guiding lights of seamen and the steady straight +lines of lights on shore; and all around the Fair Maid +the riding lights of ships cast trembling trails upon the +water of the roadstead. Captain Whalley saw not a +gleam anywhere till the dawn broke and he found out +that his clothing was soaked through with the heavy +dew. + +His ship was awake. He stopped short, stroked his +wet beard, and descended the poop ladder backwards, +with tired feet. At the sight of him the chief officer, +lounging about sleepily on the quarterdeck, remained +open-mouthed in the middle of a great early-morning +yawn. + +"Good morning to you," pronounced Captain Whal- +ley solemnly, passing into the cabin. But he checked +himself in the doorway, and without looking back, "By +the bye," he said, "there should be an empty wooden +case put away in the lazarette. It has not been broken +up--has it?" + +The mate shut his mouth, and then asked as if dazed, +"What empty case, sir?" + +"A big flat packing-case belonging to that painting in +my room. Let it be taken up on deck and tell the +carpenter to look it over. I may want to use it before +long." + +The chief officer did not stir a limb till he had heard +the door of the captain's state-room slam within the +cuddy. Then he beckoned aft the second mate with his +forefinger to tell him that there was something "in the +wind." + +When the bell rang Captain Whalley's authoritative +voice boomed out through a closed door, "Sit down and +don't wait for me." And his impressed officers took their +places, exchanging looks and whispers across the table. +What! No breakfast? And after apparently knock- +ing about all night on deck, too! Clearly, there was +something in the wind. In the skylight above their +heads, bowed earnestly over the plates, three wire cages +rocked and rattled to the restless jumping of the hungry +canaries; and they could detect the sounds of their "old +man's" deliberate movements within his state-room. Cap- +tain Whalley was methodically winding up the chro- +nometers, dusting the portrait of his late wife, getting +a clean white shirt out of the drawers, making himself +ready in his punctilious unhurried manner to go ashore. +He could not have swallowed a single mouthful of food +that morning. He had made up his mind to sell the +Fair Maid. + + +III + + +Just at that time the Japanese were casting far and +wide for ships of European build, and he had no diffi- +culty in finding a purchaser, a speculator who drove a +hard bargain, but paid cash down for the Fair Maid, +with a view to a profitable resale. Thus it came about +that Captain Whalley found himself on a certain after- +noon descending the steps of one of the most important +post-offices of the East with a slip of bluish paper in his +hand. This was the receipt of a registered letter en- +closing a draft for two hundred pounds, and addressed +to Melbourne. Captain Whalley pushed the paper into +his waistcoat-pocket, took his stick from under his arm, +and walked down the street. + +It was a recently opened and untidy thoroughfare with +rudimentary side-walks and a soft layer of dust cushion- +ing the whole width of the road. One end touched the +slummy street of Chinese shops near the harbor, the other +drove straight on, without houses, for a couple of miles, +through patches of jungle-like vegetation, to the yard +gates of the new Consolidated Docks Company. The +crude frontages of the new Government buildings alter- +nated with the blank fencing of vacant plots, and the +view of the sky seemed to give an added spaciousness to +the broad vista. It was empty and shunned by natives +after business hours, as though they had expected to +see one of the tigers from the neighborhood of the New +Waterworks on the hill coming at a loping canter down +the middle to get a Chinese shopkeeper for supper. Cap- +tain Whalley was not dwarfed by the solitude of the +grandly planned street. He had too fine a presence for +that. He was only a lonely figure walking purposefully, +with a great white beard like a pilgrim, and with a thick +stick that resembled a weapon. On one side the new +Courts of Justice had a low and unadorned portico of +squat columns half concealed by a few old trees left in +the approach. On the other the pavilion wings of the +new Colonial Treasury came out to the line of the street. +But Captain Whalley, who had now no ship and no +home, remembered in passing that on that very site +when he first came out from England there had stood a +fishing village, a few mat huts erected on piles between +a muddy tidal creek and a miry pathway that went +writhing into a tangled wilderness without any docks or +waterworks. + +No ship--no home. And his poor Ivy away there had +no home either. A boarding-house is no sort of home +though it may get you a living. His feelings were +horribly rasped by the idea of the boarding-house. In +his rank of life he had that truly aristocratic tempera- +ment characterized by a scorn of vulgar gentility and +by prejudiced views as to the derogatory nature of cer- +tain occupations. For his own part he had always pre- +ferred sailing merchant ships (which is a straight- +forward occupation) to buying and selling merchandise, +of which the essence is to get the better of somebody in a +bargain--an undignified trial of wits at best. His father +had been Colonel Whalley (retired) of the H. E. I. Com- +pany's service, with very slender means besides his pen- +sion, but with distinguished connections. He could re- +member as a boy how frequently waiters at the inns, coun- +try tradesmen and small people of that sort, used to "My +lord" the old warrior on the strength of his appear- +ance. + +Captain Whalley himself (he would have entered the +Navy if his father had not died before he was fourteen) +had something of a grand air which would have suited +an old and glorious admiral; but he became lost like a +straw in the eddy of a brook amongst the swarm of +brown and yellow humanity filling a thoroughfare, that +by contrast with the vast and empty avenue he had left +seemed as narrow as a lane and absolutely riotous with +life. The walls of the houses were blue; the shops of +the Chinamen yawned like cavernous lairs; heaps of +nondescript merchandise overflowed the gloom of the +long range of arcades, and the fiery serenity of sunset +took the middle of the street from end to end with a +glow like the reflection of a fire. It fell on the bright +colors and the dark faces of the bare-footed crowd, on +the pallid yellow backs of the half-naked jostling coolies, +on the accouterments of a tall Sikh trooper with a +parted beard and fierce mustaches on sentry before the +gate of the police compound. Looming very big above +the heads in a red haze of dust, the tightly packed car +of the cable tramway navigated cautiously up the hu- +man stream, with the incessant blare of its horn, in the +manner of a steamer groping in a fog. + +Captain Whalley emerged like a diver on the other +side, and in the desert shade between the walls of closed +warehouses removed his hat to cool his brow. A certain +disrepute attached to the calling of a landlady of a +boarding-house. These women were said to be rapacious, +unscrupulous, untruthful; and though he contemned no +class of his fellow-creatures--God forbid!--these were +suspicions to which it was unseemly that a Whalley +should lay herself open. He had not expostulated with +her, however. He was confident she shared his feelings; +he was sorry for her; he trusted her judgment; he con- +sidered it a merciful dispensation that he could help her +once more,--but in his aristocratic heart of hearts he +would have found it more easy to reconcile himself to the +idea of her turning seamstress. Vaguely he remembered +reading years ago a touching piece called the "Song of +the Shirt." It was all very well making songs about +poor women. The granddaughter of Colonel Whalley, +the landlady of a boarding-house! Pooh! He replaced +his hat, dived into two pockets, and stopping a moment +to apply a flaring match to the end of a cheap cheroot, +blew an embittered cloud of smoke at a world that could +hold such surprises. + +Of one thing he was certain--that she was the own +child of a clever mother. Now he had got over the +wrench of parting with his ship, he perceived clearly +that such a step had been unavoidable. Perhaps he had +been growing aware of it all along with an unconfessed +knowledge. But she, far away there, must have had +an intuitive perception of it, with the pluck to face that +truth and the courage to speak out--all the qualities +which had made her mother a woman of such excellent +counsel. + +It would have had to come to that in the end! It was +fortunate she had forced his hand. In another year or +two it would have been an utterly barren sale. To keep +the ship going he had been involving himself deeper +every year. He was defenseless before the insidious work +of adversity, to whose more open assaults he could pre- +sent a firm front; like a cliff that stands unmoved the +open battering of the sea, with a lofty ignorance of the +treacherous backwash undermining its base. As it was, +every liability satisfied, her request answered, and owing +no man a penny, there remained to him from the pro- +ceeds a sum of five hundred pounds put away safely. In +addition he had upon his person some forty odd dollars +--enough to pay his hotel bill, providing he did not +linger too long in the modest bedroom where he had +taken refuge. + +Scantily furnished, and with a waxed floor, it opened +into one of the side-verandas. The straggling building +of bricks, as airy as a bird-cage, resounded with the +incessant flapping of rattan screens worried by the wind +between the white-washed square pillars of the sea-front. +The rooms were lofty, a ripple of sunshine flowed over +the ceilings; and the periodical invasions of tourists from +some passenger steamer in the harbor flitted through the +wind-swept dusk of the apartments with the tumult of +their unfamiliar voices and impermanent presences, like +relays of migratory shades condemned to speed headlong +round the earth without leaving a trace. The babble +of their irruptions ebbed out as suddenly as it had arisen; +the draughty corridors and the long chairs of the ve- +randas knew their sight-seeing hurry or their prostrate +repose no more; and Captain Whalley, substantial and +dignified, left wellnigh alone in the vast hotel by each +light-hearted skurry, felt more and more like a stranded +tourist with no aim in view, like a forlorn traveler with- +out a home. In the solitude of his room he smoked +thoughtfully, gazing at the two sea-chests which held all +that he could call his own in this world. A thick roll of +charts in a sheath of sailcloth leaned in a corner; the +flat packing-case containing the portrait in oils and +the three carbon photographs had been pushed under +the bed. He was tired of discussing terms, of assisting +at surveys, of all the routine of the business. What to +the other parties was merely the sale of a ship was to +him a momentous event involving a radically new view of +existence. He knew that after this ship there would +be no other; and the hopes of his youth, the exercise of +his abilities, every feeling and achievement of his man- +hood, had been indissolubly connected with ships. He +had served ships; he had owned ships; and even the +years of his actual retirement from the sea had been made +bearable by the idea that he had only to stretch out his +hand full of money to get a ship. He had been at +liberty to feel as though he were the owner of all the +ships in the world. The selling of this one was weary +work; but when she passed from him at last, when he +signed the last receipt, it was as though all the ships +had gone out of the world together, leaving him on the +shore of inaccessible oceans with seven hundred pounds +in his hands. + +Striding firmly, without haste, along the quay, Captain +Whalley averted his glances from the familiar roadstead. +Two generations of seamen born since his first day at +sea stood between him and all these ships at the anchor- +age. His own was sold, and he had been asking him- +self, What next? + +From the feeling of loneliness, of inward emptiness, +--and of loss too, as if his very soul had been taken +out of him forcibly,--there had sprung at first a desire +to start right off and join his daughter. "Here are the +last pence," he would say to her; "take them, my dear. +And here's your old father: you must take him too." + +His soul recoiled, as if afraid of what lay hidden at +the bottom of this impulse. Give up! Never! When +one is thoroughly weary all sorts of nonsense come into +one's head. A pretty gift it would have been for a poor +woman--this seven hundred pounds with the incumbrance +of a hale old fellow more than likely to last for years +and years to come. Was he not as fit to die in harness +as any of the youngsters in charge of these anchored +ships out yonder? He was as solid now as ever he had +been. But as to who would give him work to do, that +was another matter. Were he, with his appearance and +antecedents, to go about looking for a junior's berth, +people, he was afraid, would not take him seriously; or +else if he succeeded in impressing them, he would maybe +obtain their pity, which would be like stripping your- +self naked to be kicked. He was not anxious to give +himself away for less than nothing. He had no use +for anybody's pity. On the other hand, a command-- +the only thing he could try for with due regard for +common decency--was not likely to be lying in wait for +him at the corner of the next street. Commands don't +go a-begging nowadays. Ever since he had come ashore +to carry out the business of the sale he had kept his +ears open, but had heard no hint of one being vacant +in the port. And even if there had been one, his suc- +cessful past itself stood in his way. He had been his +own employer too long. The only credential he could +produce was the testimony of his whole life. What +better recommendation could anyone require? But +vaguely he felt that the unique document would be +looked upon as an archaic curiosity of the Eastern +waters, a screed traced in obsolete words--in a half-for- +gotten language. + + +IV + + +Revolving these thoughts, he strolled on near the rail- +ings of the quay, broad-chested, without a stoop, as +though his big shoulders had never felt the burden of +the loads that must be carried between the cradle and +the grave. No single betraying fold or line of care +disfigured the reposeful modeling of his face. It was +full and untanned; and the upper part emerged, mas- +sively quiet, out of the downward flow of silvery hair, +with the striking delicacy of its clear complexion and +the powerful width of the forehead. The first cast of +his glance fell on you candid and swift, like a boy's; +but because of the ragged snowy thatch of the eyebrows +the affability of his attention acquired the character of +a dark and searching scrutiny. With age he had put +on flesh a little, had increased his girth like an old tree +presenting no symptoms of decay; and even the opulent, +lustrous ripple of white hairs upon his chest seemed an +attribute of unquenchable vitality and vigor. + +Once rather proud of his great bodily strength, and +even of his personal appearance, conscious of his worth, +and firm in his rectitude, there had remained to him, +like the heritage of departed prosperity, the tranquil +bearing of a man who had proved himself fit in every +sort of way for the life of his choice. He strode on +squarely under the projecting brim of an ancient Panama +hat. It had a low crown, a crease through its whole +diameter, a narrow black ribbon. Imperishable and a +little discolored, this headgear made it easy to pick him +out from afar on thronged wharves and in the busy +streets. He had never adopted the comparatively modern +fashion of pipeclayed cork helmets. He disliked the +form; and he hoped he could manage to keep a cool +head to the end of his life without all these contrivances +for hygienic ventilation. His hair was cropped close, +his linen always of immaculate whiteness; a suit of thin +gray flannel, worn threadbare but scrupulously brushed, +floated about his burly limbs, adding to his bulk by the +looseness of its cut. The years had mellowed the good- +humored, imperturbable audacity of his prime into a +temper carelessly serene; and the leisurely tapping of +his iron-shod stick accompanied his footfalls with a self- +confident sound on the flagstones. It was impossible to +connect such a fine presence and this unruffled aspect +with the belittling troubles of poverty; the man's whole +existence appeared to pass before you, facile and large, +in the freedom of means as ample as the clothing of his +body. + +The irrational dread of having to break into his five +hundred pounds for personal expenses in the hotel dis- +turbed the steady poise of his mind. There was no +time to lose. The bill was running up. He nourished +the hope that this five hundred would perhaps be the +means, if everything else failed, of obtaining some work +which, keeping his body and soul together (not a matter +of great outlay), would enable him to be of use to his +daughter. To his mind it was her own money which he +employed, as it were, in backing her father and solely +for her benefit. Once at work, he would help her with +the greater part of his earnings; he was good for many +years yet, and this boarding-house business, he argued +to himself, whatever the prospects, could not be much of +a gold-mine from the first start. But what work? He +was ready to lay hold of anything in an honest way so +that it came quickly to his hand; because the five hun- +dred pounds must be preserved intact for eventual use. +That was the great point. With the entire five hundred +one felt a substance at one's back; but it seemed to him +that should he let it dwindle to four-fifty or even four- +eighty, all the efficiency would be gone out of the money, +as though there were some magic power in the round +figure. But what sort of work? + +Confronted by that haunting question as by an uneasy +ghost, for whom he had no exorcising formula, Captain +Whalley stopped short on the apex of a small bridge +spanning steeply the bed of a canalized creek with +granite shores. Moored between the square blocks a sea- +going Malay prau floated half hidden under the arch +of masonry, with her spars lowered down, without a sound +of life on board, and covered from stem to stern with a +ridge of palm-leaf mats. He had left behind him the +overheated pavements bordered by the stone frontages +that, like the sheer face of cliffs, followed the sweep +of the quays; and an unconfined spaciousness of orderly +and sylvan aspect opened before him its wide plots of +rolled grass, like pieces of green carpet smoothly pegged +out, its long ranges of trees lined up in colossal porticos +of dark shafts roofed with a vault of branches. + +Some of these avenues ended at the sea. It was a ter- +raced shore; and beyond, upon the level expanse, pro- +found and glistening like the gaze of a dark-blue eye, +an oblique band of stippled purple lengthened itself in- +definitely through the gap between a couple of verdant +twin islets. The masts and spars of a few ships far +away, hull down in the outer roads, sprang straight from +the water in a fine maze of rosy lines penciled on the +clear shadow of the eastern board. Captain Whalley +gave them a long glance. The ship, once his own, was +anchored out there. It was staggering to think that it +was open to him no longer to take a boat at the jetty +and get himself pulled off to her when the evening came. +To no ship. Perhaps never more. Before the sale was +concluded, and till the purchase-money had been paid, +he had spent daily some time on board the Fair Maid. +The money had been paid this very morning, and now, +all at once, there was positively no ship that he could +go on board of when he liked; no ship that would need +his presence in order to do her work--to live. It seemed +an incredible state of affairs, something too bizarre to +last. And the sea was full of craft of all sorts. There +was that prau lying so still swathed in her shroud of +sewn palm-leaves--she too had her indispensable man. +They lived through each other, this Malay he had never +seen, and this high-sterned thing of no size that seemed +to be resting after a long journey. And of all the ships +in sight, near and far, each was provided with a man, +the man without whom the finest ship is a dead thing, +a floating and purposeless log. + +After his one glance at the roadstead he went on, since +there was nothing to turn back for, and the time must +be got through somehow. The avenues of big trees ran +straight over the Esplanade, cutting each other at di- +verse angles, columnar below and luxuriant above. The +interlaced boughs high up there seemed to slumber; not +a leaf stirred overhead: and the reedy cast-iron lamp- +posts in the middle of the road, gilt like scepters, +diminished in a long perspective, with their globes of +white porcelain atop, resembling a barbarous decoration +of ostriches' eggs displayed in a row. The flaming sky +kindled a tiny crimson spark upon the glistening sur- +face of each glassy shell. + +With his chin sunk a little, his hands behind his back, +and the end of his stick marking the gravel with a faint +wavering line at his heels, Captain Whalley reflected +that if a ship without a man was like a body without +a soul, a sailor without a ship was of not much more +account in this world than an aimless log adrift upon the +sea. The log might be sound enough by itself, tough +of fiber, and hard to destroy--but what of that! And +a sudden sense of irremediable idleness weighted his feet +like a great fatigue. + +A succession of open carriages came bowling along the +newly opened sea-road. You could see across the wide +grass-plots the discs of vibration made by the spokes. +The bright domes of the parasols swayed lightly out- +wards like full-blown blossoms on the rim of a vase; and +the quiet sheet of dark-blue water, crossed by a bar of +purple, made a background for the spinning wheels and +the high action of the horses, whilst the turbaned heads +of the Indian servants elevated above the line of the sea +horizon glided rapidly on the paler blue of the sky. In +an open space near the little bridge each turn-out trotted +smartly in a wide curve away from the sunset; then pull- +ing up sharp, entered the main alley in a long slow- +moving file with the great red stillness of the sky at +the back. The trunks of mighty trees stood all touched +with red on the same side, the air seemed aflame under +the high foliage, the very ground under the hoofs of the +horses was red. The wheels turned solemnly; one after +another the sunshades drooped, folding their colors like +gorgeous flowers shutting their petals at the end of the +day. In the whole half-mile of human beings no voice +uttered a distinct word, only a faint thudding noise went +on mingled with slight jingling sounds, and the motion- +less heads and shoulders of men and women sitting in +couples emerged stolidly above the lowered hoods--as if +wooden. But one carriage and pair coming late did not +join the line. + +It fled along in a noiseless roll; but on entering the +avenue one of the dark bays snorted, arching his neck +and shying against the steel-tipped pole; a flake of +foam fell from the bit upon the point of a satiny shoul- +der, and the dusky face of the coachman leaned for- +ward at once over the hands taking a fresh grip of the +reins. It was a long dark-green landau, having a digni- +fied and buoyant motion between the sharply curved +C-springs, and a sort of strictly official majesty in its +supreme elegance. It seemed more roomy than is usual, +its horses seemed slightly bigger, the appointments a +shade more perfect, the servants perched somewhat +higher on the box. The dresses of three women--two +young and pretty, and one, handsome, large, of mature +age--seemed to fill completely the shallow body of the +carriage. The fourth face was that of a man, heavy +lidded, distinguished and sallow, with a somber, thick, +iron-gray imperial and mustaches, which somehow had +the air of solid appendages. His Excellency-- + +The rapid motion of that one equipage made all the +others appear utterly inferior, blighted, and reduced to +crawl painfully at a snail's pace. The landau distanced +the whole file in a sort of sustained rush; the features +of the occupant whirling out of sight left behind an +impression of fixed stares and impassive vacancy; and +after it had vanished in full flight as it were, notwith- +standing the long line of vehicles hugging the curb at +a walk, the whole lofty vista of the avenue seemed to lie +open and emptied of life in the enlarged impression of +an august solitude. + +Captain Whalley had lifted his head to look, and his +mind, disturbed in its meditation, turned with wonder +(as men's minds will do) to matters of no importance. +It struck him that it was to this port, where he had +just sold his last ship, that he had come with the very +first he had ever owned, and with his head full of a plan +for opening a new trade with a distant part of the +Archipelago. The then governor had given him no end +of encouragement. No Excellency he--this Mr. Den- +ham--this governor with his jacket off; a man who +tended night and day, so to speak, the growing pros- +perity of the settlement with the self-forgetful devotion +of a nurse for a child she loves; a lone bachelor who +lived as in a camp with the few servants and his three +dogs in what was called then the Government Bungalow: +a low-roofed structure on the half-cleared slope of a +hill, with a new flagstaff in front and a police orderly +on the veranda. He remembered toiling up that hill +under a heavy sun for his audience; the unfurnished +aspect of the cool shaded room; the long table covered +at one end with piles of papers, and with two guns, a +brass telescope, a small bottle of oil with a feather stuck +in the neck at the other--and the flattering attention +given to him by the man in power. It was an under- +taking full of risk he had come to expound, but a twenty +minutes' talk in the Government Bungalow on the hill +had made it go smoothly from the start. And as he +was retiring Mr. Denham, already seated before the +papers, called out after him, "Next month the Dido +starts for a cruise that way, and I shall request her +captain officially to give you a look in and see how +you get on." The Dido was one of the smart frigates on +the China station--and five-and-thirty years make a big +slice of time. Five-and-thirty years ago an enterprise +like his had for the colony enough importance to be +looked after by a Queen's ship. A big slice of time. +Individuals were of some account then. Men like him- +self; men, too, like poor Evans, for instance, with his +red face, his coal-black whiskers, and his restless eyes, +who had set up the first patent slip for repairing small +ships, on the edge of the forest, in a lonely bay three +miles up the coast. Mr. Denham had encouraged that +enterprise too, and yet somehow poor Evans had ended +by dying at home deucedly hard up. His son, they said, +was squeezing oil out of cocoa-nuts for a living on some +God-forsaken islet of the Indian Ocean; but it was from +that patent slip in a lonely wooded bay that had sprung +the workshops of the Consolidated Docks Company, with +its three graving basins carved out of solid rock, its +wharves, its jetties, its electric-light plant, its steam- +power houses--with its gigantic sheer-legs, fit to lift the +heaviest weight ever carried afloat, and whose head could +be seen like the top of a queer white monument peeping +over bushy points of land and sandy promontories, as +you approached the New Harbor from the west. + +There had been a time when men counted: there were +not so many carriages in the colony then, though Mr. +Denham, he fancied, had a buggy. And Captain Whal- +ley seemed to be swept out of the great avenue by the +swirl of a mental backwash. He remembered muddy +shores, a harbor without quays, the one solitary wooden +pier (but that was a public work) jutting out crookedly, +the first coal-sheds erected on Monkey Point, that caught +fire mysteriously and smoldered for days, so that +amazed ships came into a roadstead full of sulphurous +smoke, and the sun hung blood-red at midday. He re- +membered the things, the faces, and something more +besides--like the faint flavor of a cup quaffed to the +bottom, like a subtle sparkle of the air that was not +to be found in the atmosphere of to-day. + +In this evocation, swift and full of detail like a flash +of magnesium light into the niches of a dark memorial +hall, Captain Whalley contemplated things once impor- +tant, the efforts of small men, the growth of a great +place, but now robbed of all consequence by the great- +ness of accomplished facts, by hopes greater still; and +they gave him for a moment such an almost physical +grip upon time, such a comprehension of our unchange- +able feelings, that he stopped short, struck the ground +with his stick, and ejaculated mentally, "What the devil +am I doing here!" He seemed lost in a sort of surprise; +but he heard his name called out in wheezy tones once, +twice--and turned on his heels slowly. + +He beheld then, waddling towards him autocratically, +a man of an old-fashioned and gouty aspect, with hair +as white as his own, but with shaved, florid cheeks, wear- +ing a necktie--almost a neckcloth--whose stiff ends pro- +jected far beyond his chin; with round legs, round arms, +a round body, a round face--generally producing the +effect of his short figure having been distended by means +of an air-pump as much as the seams of his clothing +would stand. This was the Master-Attendant of the +port. A master-attendant is a superior sort of harbor- +master; a person, out in the East, of some consequence +in his sphere; a Government official, a magistrate for +the waters of the port, and possessed of vast but ill- +defined disciplinary authority over seamen of all classes. +This particular Master-Attendant was reported to con- +sider it miserably inadequate, on the ground that it +did not include the power of life and death. This was +a jocular exaggeration. Captain Eliott was fairly satis- +fied with his position, and nursed no inconsiderable sense +of such power as he had. His conceited and tyrannical +disposition did not allow him to let it dwindle in his +hands for want of use. The uproarious, choleric frank- +ness of his comments on people's character and conduct +caused him to be feared at bottom; though in conversa- +tion many pretended not to mind him in the least, others +would only smile sourly at the mention of his name, and +there were even some who dared to pronounce him "a +meddlesome old ruffian." But for almost all of them +one of Captain Eliott's outbreaks was nearly as distaste- +ful to face as a chance of annihilation. + + +V + + +As soon as he had come up quite close he said, mouth- +ing in a growl-- + +"What's this I hear, Whalley? Is it true you're sell- +ing the Fair Maid?" + +Captain Whalley, looking away, said the thing was +done--money had been paid that morning; and the other +expressed at once his approbation of such an extremely +sensible proceeding. He had got out of his trap to +stretch his legs, he explained, on his way home to dinner. +Sir Frederick looked well at the end of his time. Didn't +he? + +Captain Whalley could not say; had only noticed the +carriage going past. + +The Master-Attendant, plunging his hands into the +pockets of an alpaca jacket inappropriately short and +tight for a man of his age and appearance, strutted +with a slight limp, and with his head reaching only to +the shoulder of Captain Whalley, who walked easily, +staring straight before him. They had been good com- +rades years ago, almost intimates. At the time when +Whalley commanded the renowned Condor, Eliott had +charge of the nearly as famous Ringdove for the same +owners; and when the appointment of Master-Attendant +was created, Whalley would have been the only other +serious candidate. But Captain Whalley, then in the +prime of life, was resolved to serve no one but his own +auspicious Fortune. Far away, tending his hot irons, +he was glad to hear the other had been successful. There +was a worldly suppleness in bluff Ned Eliott that would +serve him well in that sort of official appointment. And +they were so dissimilar at bottom that as they came +slowly to the end of the avenue before the Cathedral, it +had never come into Whalley's head that he might have +been in that man's place--provided for to the end of +his days. + +The sacred edifice, standing in solemn isolation amongst +the converging avenues of enormous trees, as if to put +grave thoughts of heaven into the hours of ease, pre- +sented a closed Gothic portal to the light and glory of +the west. The glass of the rosace above the ogive glowed +like fiery coal in the deep carvings of a wheel of stone. +The two men faced about. + +"I'll tell you what they ought to do next, Whalley," +growled Captain Eliott suddenly. + +"Well?" + +"They ought to send a real live lord out here when +Sir Frederick's time is up. Eh?" + +Captain Whalley perfunctorily did not see why a lord +of the right sort should not do as well as anyone else. +But this was not the other's point of view. + +"No, no. Place runs itself. Nothing can stop it now. +Good enough for a lord," he growled in short sentences. +"Look at the changes in our time. We need a lord +here now. They have got a lord in Bombay." + +He dined once or twice every year at the Government +House--a many-windowed, arcaded palace upon a hill +laid out in roads and gardens. And lately he had been +taking about a duke in his Master-Attendant's steam- +launch to visit the harbor improvements. Before that +he had "most obligingly" gone out in person to pick +out a good berth for the ducal yacht. Afterwards he +had an invitation to lunch on board. The duchess her- +self lunched with them. A big woman with a red face. +Complexion quite sunburnt. He should think ruined. +Very gracious manners. They were going on to +Japan. . . . + +He ejaculated these details for Captain Whalley's edi- +fication, pausing to blow out his cheeks as if with a +pent-up sense of importance, and repeatedly protruding +his thick lips till the blunt crimson end of his nose seemed +to dip into the milk of his mustache. The place ran +itself; it was fit for any lord; it gave no trouble except +in its Marine department--in its Marine department he +repeated twice, and after a heavy snort began to relate +how the other day her Majesty's Consul-General in +French Cochin-China had cabled to him--in his official +capacity--asking for a qualified man to be sent over +to take charge of a Glasgow ship whose master had died +in Saigon. + +"I sent word of it to the officers' quarters in the Sailors' +Home," he continued, while the limp in his gait seemed +to grow more accentuated with the increasing irritation +of his voice. "Place's full of them. Twice as many +men as there are berths going in the local trade. All +hungry for an easy job. Twice as many--and--What +d'you think, Whalley? . . ." + +He stopped short; his hands clenched and thrust deeply +downwards, seemed ready to burst the pockets of his +jacket. A slight sigh escaped Captain Whalley. + +"Hey? You would think they would be falling over +each other. Not a bit of it. Frightened to go home. +Nice and warm out here to lie about a veranda waiting +for a job. I sit and wait in my office. Nobody. What +did they suppose? That I was going to sit there like +a dummy with the Consul-General's cable before me? +Not likely. So I looked up a list of them I keep by +me and sent word for Hamilton--the worst loafer of +them all--and just made him go. Threatened to in- +struct the steward of the Sailors' Home to have him +turned out neck and crop. He did not think the berth +was good enough--if--you--please. 'I've your little +records by me,' said I. 'You came ashore here eighteen +months ago, and you haven't done six months' work +since. You are in debt for your board now at the Home, +and I suppose you reckon the Marine Office will pay in +the end. Eh? So it shall; but if you don't take this +chance, away you go to England, assisted passage, by +the first homeward steamer that comes along. You are +no better than a pauper. We don't want any white +paupers here.' I scared him. But look at the trouble +all this gave me." + +"You would not have had any trouble," Captain Whal- +ley said almost involuntarily, "if you had sent for +me." + +Captain Eliott was immensely amused; he shook with +laughter as he walked. But suddenly he stopped laugh- +ing. A vague recollection had crossed his mind. Hadn't +he heard it said at the time of the Travancore and Deccan +smash that poor Whalley had been cleaned out com- +pletely. "Fellow's hard up, by heavens!" he thought; +and at once he cast a sidelong upward glance at his +companion. But Captain Whalley was smiling austerely +straight before him, with a carriage of the head incon- +ceivable in a penniless man--and he became reassured. +Impossible. Could not have lost everything. That ship +had been only a hobby of his. And the reflection that +a man who had confessed to receiving that very morning +a presumably large sum of money was not likely to +spring upon him a demand for a small loan put him +entirely at his ease again. There had come a long pause +in their talk, however, and not knowing how to begin +again, he growled out soberly, "We old fellows ought +to take a rest now." + +"The best thing for some of us would be to die at the +oar," Captain Whalley said negligently. + +"Come, now. Aren't you a bit tired by this time of +the whole show?" muttered the other sullenly. + +"Are you?" + +Captain Eliott was. Infernally tired. He only hung +on to his berth so long in order to get his pension on the +highest scale before he went home. It would be no better +than poverty, anyhow; still, it was the only thing be- +tween him and the workhouse. And he had a family. +Three girls, as Whalley knew. He gave "Harry, old +boy," to understand that these three girls were a source +of the greatest anxiety and worry to him. Enough to +drive a man distracted. + +"Why? What have they been doing now?" asked +Captain Whalley with a sort of amused absent-minded- +ness. + +"Doing! Doing nothing. That's just it. Lawn- +tennis and silly novels from morning to night. . . ." + +If one of them at least had been a boy. But all three! +And, as ill-luck would have it, there did not seem to be +any decent young fellows left in the world. When he +looked around in the club he saw only a lot of conceited +popinjays too selfish to think of making a good woman +happy. Extreme indigence stared him in the face with +all that crowd to keep at home. He had cherished the +idea of building himself a little house in the country-- +in Surrey--to end his days in, but he was afraid it was +out of the question, . . . and his staring eyes rolled +upwards with such a pathetic anxiety that Captain Whal- +ley charitably nodded down at him, restraining a sort of +sickening desire to laugh. + +"You must know what it is yourself, Harry. Girls +are the very devil for worry and anxiety." + +"Ay! But mine is doing well," Captain Whalley pro- +nounced slowly, staring to the end of the avenue. + +The Master-Attendant was glad to hear this. Uncom- +monly glad. He remembered her well. A pretty girl +she was. + +Captain Whalley, stepping out carelessly, assented as +if in a dream. + +"She was pretty." + +The procession of carriages was breaking up. + +One after another they left the file to go off at a trot, +animating the vast avenue with their scattered life and +movement; but soon the aspect of dignified solitude re- +turned and took possession of the straight wide road. +A syce in white stood at the head of a Burmah pony har- +nessed to a varnished two-wheel cart; and the whole thing +waiting by the curb seemed no bigger than a child's toy +forgotten under the soaring trees. Captain Eliott +waddled up to it and made as if to clamber in, but re- +frained; and keeping one hand resting easily on the +shaft, he changed the conversation from his pension, his +daughters, and his poverty back again to the only other +topic in the world--the Marine Office, the men and the +ships of the port. + +He proceeded to give instances of what was expected +of him; and his thick voice drowsed in the still air like +the obstinate droning of an enormous bumble-bee. Cap- +tain Whalley did not know what was the force or the +weakness that prevented him from saying good-night +and walking away. It was as though he had been too +tired to make the effort. How queer. More queer than +any of Ned's instances. Or was it that overpowering +sense of idleness alone that made him stand there and +listen to these stories. Nothing very real had ever +troubled Ned Eliott; and gradually he seemed to detect +deep in, as if wrapped up in the gross wheezy rumble, +something of the clear hearty voice of the young captain +of the Ringdove. He wondered if he too had changed to +the same extent; and it seemed to him that the voice of +his old chum had not changed so very much--that the +man was the same. Not a bad fellow the pleasant, jolly +Ned Eliott, friendly, well up to his business--and always +a bit of a humbug. He remembered how he used to +amuse his poor wife. She could read him like an open +book. When the Condor and the Ringdove happened to +be in port together, she would frequently ask him to +bring Captain Eliott to dinner. They had not met often +since those old days. Not once in five years, perhaps. +He regarded from under his white eyebrows this man +he could not bring himself to take into his confidence +at this juncture; and the other went on with his intimate +outpourings, and as remote from his hearer as though +he had been talking on a hill-top a mile away. + +He was in a bit of a quandary now as to the steamer +Sofala. Ultimately every hitch in the port came into +his hands to undo. They would miss him when he was +gone in another eighteen months, and most likely some +retired naval officer had been pitchforked into the ap- +pointment--a man that would understand nothing and +care less. That steamer was a coasting craft having a +steady trade connection as far north as Tenasserim; but +the trouble was she could get no captain to take her +on her regular trip. Nobody would go in her. He +really had no power, of course, to order a man to take +a job. It was all very well to stretch a point on the +demand of a consul-general, but . . . + +"What's the matter with the ship?" Captain Whalley +interrupted in measured tones. + +"Nothing's the matter. Sound old steamer. Her +owner has been in my office this afternoon tearing his +hair." + +"Is he a white man?" asked Whalley in an interested +voice. + +"He calls himself a white man," answered the Master- +Attendant scornfully; "but if so, it's just skin-deep +and no more. I told him that to his face too." + +"But who is he, then?" + +"He's the chief engineer of her. See THAT, Harry?" + +"I see," Captain Whalley said thoughtfully. "The +engineer. I see." + +How the fellow came to be a shipowner at the same +time was quite a tale. He came out third in a home +ship nearly fifteen years ago, Captain Eliott remem- +bered, and got paid off after a bad sort of row both +with his skipper and his chief. Anyway, they seemed +jolly glad to get rid of him at all costs. Clearly a mu- +tinous sort of chap. Well, he remained out here, a per- +fect nuisance, everlastingly shipped and unshipped, un- +able to keep a berth very long; pretty nigh went +through every engine-room afloat belonging to the +colony. Then suddenly, "What do you think hap- +pened, Harry?" + +Captain Whalley, who seemed lost in a mental effort +as of doing a sum in his head, gave a slight start. He +really couldn't imagine. The Master-Attendant's voice +vibrated dully with hoarse emphasis. The man actually +had the luck to win the second prize in the Manilla lot- +tery. All these engineers and officers of ships took +tickets in that gamble. It seemed to be a perfect mania +with them all. + +Everybody expected now that he would take himself +off home with his money, and go to the devil in his own +way. Not at all. The Sofala, judged too small and +not quite modern enough for the sort of trade she was +in, could be got for a moderate price from her owners, +who had ordered a new steamer from Europe. He +rushed in and bought her. This man had never given +any signs of that sort of mental intoxication the mere +fact of getting hold of a large sum of money may pro- +duce--not till he got a ship of his own; but then he +went off his balance all at once: came bouncing into the +Marine Office on some transfer business, with his hat +hanging over his left eye and switching a little cane in +his hand, and told each one of the clerks separately that +"Nobody could put him out now. It was his turn. +There was no one over him on earth, and there never +would be either." He swaggered and strutted between +the desks, talking at the top of his voice, and trembling +like a leaf all the while, so that the current business +of the office was suspended for the time he was in there, +and everybody in the big room stood open-mouthed +looking at his antics. Afterwards he could be seen +during the hottest hours of the day with his face as +red as fire rushing along up and down the quays to look +at his ship from different points of view: he seemed +inclined to stop every stranger he came across just to +let them know "that there would be no longer anyone +over him; he had bought a ship; nobody on earth could +put him out of his engine-room now." + +Good bargain as she was, the price of the Sofala took +up pretty near all the lottery-money. He had left him- +self no capital to work with. That did not matter so +much, for these were the halcyon days of steam coasting +trade, before some of the home shipping firms had +thought of establishing local fleets to feed their main +lines. These, when once organized, took the biggest +slices out of that cake, of course; and by-and-by a squad +of confounded German tramps turned up east of Suez +Canal and swept up all the crumbs. They prowled on +the cheap to and fro along the coast and between the +islands, like a lot of sharks in the water ready to snap +up anything you let drop. And then the high old times +were over for good; for years the Sofala had made no +more, he judged, than a fair living. Captain Eliott +looked upon it as his duty in every way to assist an +English ship to hold her own; and it stood to reason +that if for want of a captain the Sofala began to miss +her trips she would very soon lose her trade. There was +the quandary. The man was too impracticable. "Too +much of a beggar on horseback from the first," he ex- +plained. "Seemed to grow worse as the time went on. +In the last three years he's run through eleven skippers; +he had tried every single man here, outside of the regu- +lar lines. I had warned him before that this would not +do. And now, of course, no one will look at the Sofala. +I had one or two men up at my office and talked to +them; but, as they said to me, what was the good of +taking the berth to lead a regular dog's life for a +month and then get the sack at the end of the first trip? +The fellow, of course, told me it was all nonsense; there +has been a plot hatching for years against him. And +now it had come. All the horrid sailors in the port had +conspired to bring him to his knees, because he was an +engineer." + +Captain Eliott emitted a throaty chuckle. + +"And the fact is, that if he misses a couple more trips +he need never trouble himself to start again. He won't +find any cargo in his old trade. There's too much com- +petition nowadays for people to keep their stuff lying +about for a ship that does not turn up when she's ex- +pected. It's a bad lookout for him. He swears he will +shut himself on board and starve to death in his cabin +rather than sell her--even if he could find a buyer. And +that's not likely in the least. Not even the Japs would +give her insured value for her. It isn't like selling +sailing-ships. Steamers DO get out of date, besides get- +ting old." + +"He must have laid by a good bit of money though," +observed Captain Whalley quietly. + +The Harbor-master puffed out his purple cheeks to +an amazing size. + +"Not a stiver, Harry. Not--a--single--sti-ver." + +He waited; but as Captain Whalley, stroking his +beard slowly, looked down on the ground without a +word, he tapped him on the forearm, tiptoed, and said +in a hoarse whisper-- + +"The Manilla lottery has been eating him up." + +He frowned a little, nodding in tiny affirmative jerks. +They all were going in for it; a third of the wages +paid to ships' officers ("in my port," he snorted) went +to Manilla. It was a mania. That fellow Massy had +been bitten by it like the rest of them from the first; +but after winning once he seemed to have persuaded +himself he had only to try again to get another big +prize. He had taken dozens and scores of tickets for +every drawing since. What with this vice and his ig- +norance of affairs, ever since he had improvidently +bought that steamer he had been more or less short of +money. + +This, in Captain Eliott's opinion, gave an opening +for a sensible sailor-man with a few pounds to step in +and save that fool from the consequences of his folly. +It was his craze to quarrel with his captains. He had +had some really good men too, who would have been +too glad to stay if he would only let them. But no. He +seemed to think he was no owner unless he was kicking +somebody out in the morning and having a row with +the new man in the evening. What was wanted for him +was a master with a couple of hundred or so to take +an interest in the ship on proper conditions. You don't +discharge a man for no fault, only because of the fun +of telling him to pack up his traps and go ashore, when +you know that in that case you are bound to buy back +his share. On the other hand, a fellow with an interest +in the ship is not likely to throw up his job in a huff +about a trifle. He had told Massy that. He had said: +"'This won't do, Mr. Massy. We are getting very +sick of you here in the Marine Office. What you must +do now is to try whether you could get a sailor to join +you as partner. That seems to be the only way.' And +that was sound advice, Harry." + +Captain Whalley, leaning on his stick, was perfectly +still all over, and his hand, arrested in the act of strok- +ing, grasped his whole beard. And what did the fellow +say to that? + +The fellow had the audacity to fly out at the Master- +Attendant. He had received the advice in a most im- +pudent manner. "I didn't come here to be laughed at," +he had shrieked. "I appeal to you as an Englishman +and a shipowner brought to the verge of ruin by an +illegal conspiracy of your beggarly sailors, and all you +condescend to do for me is to tell me to go and get a +partner!" . . . The fellow had presumed to stamp +with rage on the floor of the private office. Where was +he going to get a partner? Was he being taken for +a fool? Not a single one of that contemptible lot ashore +at the "Home" had twopence in his pocket to bless +himself with. The very native curs in the bazaar knew +that much. . . . "And it's true enough, Harry," rum- +bled Captain Eliott judicially. "They are much more +likely one and all to owe money to the Chinamen in +Denham Road for the clothes on their backs. 'Well,' +said I, 'you make too much noise over it for my taste, +Mr. Massy. Good morning.' He banged the door after +him; he dared to bang my door, confound his cheek!" + +The head of the Marine department was out of breath +with indignation; then recollecting himself as it were, + +"I'll end by being late to dinner--yarning with you +here . . . wife doesn't like it." + +He clambered ponderously into the trap; leaned out +sideways, and only then wondered wheezily what on +earth Captain Whalley could have been doing with +himself of late. They had had no sight of each other +for years and years till the other day when he had seen +him unexpectedly in the office. + +What on earth . . . + +Captain Whalley seemed to be smiling to himself in his +white beard. + +"The earth is big," he said vaguely. + +The other, as if to test the statement, stared all round +from his driving-seat. The Esplanade was very quiet; +only from afar, from very far, a long way from the sea- +shore, across the stretches of grass, through the long +ranges of trees, came faintly the toot--toot--toot of +the cable car beginning to roll before the empty peristyle +of the Public Library on its three-mile journey to the +New Harbor Docks. + +"Doesn't seem to be so much room on it," growled the +Master-Attendant, "since these Germans came along +shouldering us at every turn. It was not so in our +time." + +He fell into deep thought, breathing stertorously, as +though he had been taking a nap open-eyed. Perhaps +he too, on his side, had detected in the silent pilgrim- +like figure, standing there by the wheel, like an arrested +wayfarer, the buried lineaments of the features belong- +ing to the young captain of the Condor. Good fellow-- +Harry Whalley--never very talkative. You never +knew what he was up to--a bit too off-hand with people +of consequence, and apt to take a wrong view of a fel- +low's actions. Fact was he had a too good opinion of +himself. He would have liked to tell him to get in and +drive him home to dinner. But one never knew. Wife +would not like it. + +"And it's funny to think, Harry," he went on in a +big, subdued drone, "that of all the people on it there +seems only you and I left to remember this part of the +world as it used to be . . ." + +He was ready to indulge in the sweetness of a senti- +mental mood had it not struck him suddenly that Cap- +tain Whalley, unstirring and without a word, seemed +to be awaiting something--perhaps expecting . . . He +gathered the reins at once and burst out in bluff, hearty +growls-- + +"Ha! My dear boy. The men we have known--the +ships we've sailed--ay! and the things we've done . . ." + +The pony plunged--the syce skipped out of the way. +Captain Whalley raised his arm. + +"Good-by." + + +VI + +The sun had set. And when, after drilling a deep hole +with his stick, he moved from that spot the night had +massed its army of shadows under the trees. They +filled the eastern ends of the avenues as if only waiting +the signal for a general advance upon the open spaces +of the world; they were gathering low between the deep +stone-faced banks of the canal. The Malay prau, half- +concealed under the arch of the bridge, had not altered +its position a quarter of an inch. For a long time Cap- +tain Whalley stared down over the parapet, till at last +the floating immobility of that beshrouded thing seemed +to grow upon him into something inexplicable and +alarming. The twilight abandoned the zenith; its re- +flected gleams left the world below, and the water of the +canal seemed to turn into pitch. Captain Whalley +crossed it. + +The turning to the right, which was his way to his +hotel, was only a very few steps farther. He stopped +again (all the houses of the sea-front were shut up, the +quayside was deserted, but for one or two figures of +natives walking in the distance) and began to reckon the +amount of his bill. So many days in the hotel at so +many dollars a day. To count the days he used his +fingers: plunging one hand into his pocket, he jingled a +few silver coins. All right for three days more; and +then, unless something turned up, he must break into +the five hundred--Ivy's money--invested in her father. +It seemed to him that the first meal coming out of that +reserve would choke him--for certain. Reason was of +no use. It was a matter of feeling. His feelings had +never played him false. + +He did not turn to the right. He walked on, as if +there still had been a ship in the roadstead to which +he could get himself pulled off in the evening. Far +away, beyond the houses, on the slope of an indigo +promontory closing the view of the quays, the slim +column of a factory-chimney smoked quietly straight +up into the clear air. A Chinaman, curled down in the +stern of one of the half-dozen sampans floating off the +end of the jetty, caught sight of a beckoning hand. +He jumped up, rolled his pigtail round his head swiftly, +tucked in two rapid movements his wide dark trousers +high up his yellow thighs, and by a single, noiseless, fin- +like stir of the oars, sheered the sampan alongside the +steps with the ease and precision of a swimming +fish. + +"Sofala," articulated Captain Whalley from above; +and the Chinaman, a new emigrant probably, stared +upwards with a tense attention as if waiting to see the +queer word fall visibly from the white man's lips. +"Sofala," Captain Whalley repeated; and suddenly his +heart failed him. He paused. The shores, the islets, the +high ground, the low points, were dark: the horizon had +grown somber; and across the eastern sweep of the shore +the white obelisk, marking the landing-place of the +telegraph-cable, stood like a pale ghost on the beach +before the dark spread of uneven roofs, intermingled +with palms, of the native town. Captain Whalley be- +gan again. + +"Sofala. Savee So-fa-la, John?" + +This time the Chinaman made out that bizarre sound, +and grunted his assent uncouthly, low down in his bare +throat. With the first yellow twinkle of a star that ap- +peared like the head of a pin stabbed deep into the +smooth, pale, shimmering fabric of the sky, the edge +of a keen chill seemed to cleave through the warm air +of the earth. At the moment of stepping into the sam- +pan to go and try for the command of the Sofala Cap- +tain Whalley shivered a little. + + +When on his return he landed on the quay again Venus, +like a choice jewel set low on the hem of the sky, cast +a faint gold trail behind him upon the roadstead, as +level as a floor made of one dark and polished stone. +The lofty vaults of the avenues were black--all black +overhead--and the porcelain globes on the lamp-posts +resembled egg-shaped pearls, gigantic and luminous, +displayed in a row whose farther end seemed to sink +in the distance, down to the level of his knees. He put +his hands behind his back. He would now consider +calmly the discretion of it before saying the final word +to-morrow. His feet scrunched the gravel loudly--the +discretion of it. It would have been easier to appraise +had there been a workable alternative. The honesty of +it was indubitable: he meant well by the fellow; and +periodically his shadow leaped up intense by his side on +the trunks of the trees, to lengthen itself, oblique and +dim, far over the grass--repeating his stride. + +The discretion of it. Was there a choice? He seemed +already to have lost something of himself; to have given +up to a hungry specter something of his truth and dig- +nity in order to live. But his life was necessary. Let +poverty do its worst in exacting its toll of humiliation. +It was certain that Ned Eliott had rendered him, with- +out knowing it, a service for which it would have been +impossible to ask. He hoped Ned would not think there +had been something underhand in his action. He sup- +posed that now when he heard of it he would understand +--or perhaps he would only think Whalley an eccentric +old fool. What would have been the good of telling +him--any more than of blurting the whole tale to that +man Massy? Five hundred pounds ready to invest. Let +him make the best of that. Let him wonder. You want +a captain--I want a ship. That's enough. B-r-r-r-r. +What a disagreeable impression that empty, dark, +echoing steamer had made upon him. . . . + +A laid-up steamer was a dead thing and no mistake; +a sailing-ship somehow seems always ready to spring +into life with the breath of the incorruptible heaven; +but a teamer, thought Captain Whalley, with her fires +out, without the warm whiffs from below meeting you on +her decks, without the hiss of steam, the clangs of iron +in her breast--lies there as cold and still and pulseless as +a corpse. + +In the solitude of the avenue, all black above and +lighted below, Captain Whalley, considering the dis- +cretion of his course, met, as it were incidentally, the +thought of death. He pushed it aside with dislike and +contempt. He almost laughed at it; and in the un- +quenchable vitality of his age only thought with a kind +of exultation how little he needed to keep body and soul +together. Not a bad investment for the poor woman +this solid carcass of her father. And for the rest--in +case of anything--the agreement should be clear: the +whole five hundred to be paid back to her integrally +within three months. Integrally. Every penny. He +was not to lose any of her money whatever else had +to go--a little dignity--some of his self-respect. He +had never before allowed anybody to remain under any +sort of false impression as to himself. Well, let that +go--for her sake. After all, he had never SAID any- +thing misleading--and Captain Whalley felt himself +corrupt to the marrow of his bones. He laughed a little +with the intimate scorn of his worldly prudence. +Clearly, with a fellow of that sort, and in the peculiar +relation they were to stand to each other, it would not +have done to blurt out everything. He did not like the +fellow. He did not like his spells of fawning loquacity +and bursts of resentfulness. In the end--a poor devil. +He would not have liked to stand in his shoes. Men +were not evil, after all. He did not like his sleek hair, +his queer way of standing at right angles, with his nose +in the air, and glancing along his shoulder at you. No. +On the whole, men were not bad--they were only silly +or unhappy. + +Captain Whalley had finished considering the discre- +tion of that step--and there was the whole long night +before him. In the full light his long beard would +glisten like a silver breastplate covering his heart; in +the spaces between the lamps his burly figure passed less +distinct, loomed very big, wandering, and mysterious. +No; there was not much real harm in men: and all the +time a shadow marched with him, slanting on his left +hand--which in the East is a presage of evil. + + . . . . . . . + +"Can you make out the clump of palms yet, Serang?" +asked Captain Whalley from his chair on the bridge of +the Sofala approaching the bar of Batu Beru. + +"No, Tuan. By-and-by see." The old Malay, in a +blue dungaree suit, planted on his bony dark feet under +the bridge awning, put his hands behind his back and +stared ahead out of the innumerable wrinkles at the +corners of his eyes. + +Captain Whalley sat still, without lifting his head to +look for himself. Three years--thirty-six times. He +had made these palms thirty-six times from the south- +ward. They would come into view at the proper time. +Thank God, the old ship made her courses and distances +trip after trip, as correct as clockwork. At last he mur- +mured again-- + +"In sight yet?" + +"The sun makes a very great glare, Tuan." + +"Watch well, Serang." + +"Ya, Tuan." + +A white man had ascended the ladder from the deck +noiselessly, and had listened quietly to this short col- +loquy. Then he stepped out on the bridge and began +to walk from end to end, holding up the long cherry- +wood stem of a pipe. His black hair lay plastered in +long lanky wisps across the bald summit of his head; +he had a furrowed brow, a yellow complexion, and a +thick shapeless nose. A scanty growth of whisker did +not conceal the contour of his jaw. His aspect was of +brooding care; and sucking at a curved black mouth- +piece, he presented such a heavy overhanging profile +that even the Serang could not help reflecting sometimes +upon the extreme unloveliness of some white men. + +Captain Whalley seemed to brace himself up in his +chair, but gave no recognition whatever to his presence. +The other puffed jets of smoke; then suddenly-- + +"I could never understand that new mania of yours +of having this Malay here for your shadow, partner." + +Captain Whalley got up from the chair in all his im- +posing stature and walked across to the binnacle, hold- +ing such an unswerving course that the other had to +back away hurriedly, and remained as if intimidated, +with the pipe trembling in his hand. "Walk over me +now," he muttered in a sort of astounded and dis- +comfited whisper. Then slowly and distinctly he +said-- + +"I--am--not--dirt." And then added defiantly, "As +you seem to think." + +The Serang jerked out-- + +"See the palms now, Tuan." + +Captain Whalley strode forward to the rail; but his +eyes, instead of going straight to the point, with the +assured keen glance of a sailor, wandered irresolutely +in space, as though he, the discoverer of new routes, had +lost his way upon this narrow sea. + +Another white man, the mate, came up on the bridge. +He was tall, young, lean, with a mustache like a +trooper, and something malicious in the eye. He took +up a position beside the engineer. Captain Whalley, +with his back to them, inquired-- + +"What's on the log?" + +"Eighty-five," answered the mate quickly, and nudged +the engineer with his elbow. + +Captain Whalley's muscular hands squeezed the iron +rail with an extraordinary force; his eyes glared with +an enormous effort; he knitted his eyebrows, the per- +spiration fell from under his hat,--and in a faint voice +he murmured, "Steady her, Serang--when she is on +the proper bearing." + +The silent Malay stepped back, waited a little, and +lifted his arm warningly to the helmsman. The wheel +revolved rapidly to meet the swing of the ship. Again +the made nudged the engineer. But Massy turned upon +him. + +"Mr. Sterne," he said violently, "let me tell you-- +as a shipowner--that you are no better than a con- +founded fool." + + +VII + +Sterne went down smirking and apparently not at +all disconcerted, but the engineer Massy remained on +the bridge, moving about with uneasy self-assertion. +Everybody on board was his inferior--everyone with- +out exception. He paid their wages and found them in +their food. They ate more of his bread and pocketed +more of his money than they were worth; and they had +no care in the world, while he alone had to meet all the +difficulties of shipowning. When he contemplated his +position in all its menacing entirety, it seemed to him +that he had been for years the prey of a band of para- +sites: and for years he had scowled at everybody con- +nected with the Sofala except, perhaps, at the Chinese +firemen who served to get her along. Their use was +manifest: they were an indispensable part of the ma- +chinery of which he was the master. + +When he passed along his decks he shouldered those +he came across brutally; but the Malay deck hands had +learned to dodge out of his way. He had to bring him- +self to tolerate them because of the necessary manual +labor of the ship which must be done. He had to +struggle and plan and scheme to keep the Sofala afloat +--and what did he get for it? Not even enough respect. +They could not have given him enough of that if all +their thoughts and all their actions had been directed +to that end. The vanity of possession, the vainglory +of power, had passed away by this time, and there re- +mained only the material embarrassments, the fear of +losing that position which had turned out not worth +having, and an anxiety of thought which no abject sub- +servience of men could repay. + +He walked up and down. The bridge was his own +after all. He had paid for it; and with the stem of +the pipe in his hand he would stop short at times as +if to listen with a profound and concentrated attention +to the deadened beat of the engines (his own engines) +and the slight grinding of the steering chains upon the +continuous low wash of water alongside. But for these +sounds, the ship might have been lying as still as if +moored to a bank, and as silent as if abandoned by every +living soul; only the coast, the low coast of mud and +mangroves with the three palms in a bunch at the back, +grew slowly more distinct in its long straight line, with- +out a single feature to arrest attention. The native +passengers of the Sofala lay about on mats under the +awnings; the smoke of her funnel seemed the only sign +of her life and connected with her gliding motion in a +mysterious manner. + +Captain Whalley on his feet, with a pair of binoculars +in his hand and the little Malay Serang at his elbow, +like an old giant attended by a wizened pigmy, was tak- +ing her over the shallow water of the bar. + +This submarine ridge of mud, scoured by the stream +out of the soft bottom of the river and heaped up far +out on the hard bottom of the sea, was difficult to get +over. The alluvial coast having no distinguishing +marks, the bearings of the crossing-place had to be +taken from the shape of the mountains inland. The +guidance of a form flattened and uneven at the top like +a grinder tooth, and of another smooth, saddle-backed +summit, had to be searched for within the great un- +clouded glare that seemed to shift and float like a dry +fiery mist, filling the air, ascending from the water, +shrouding the distances, scorching to the eye. In this +veil of light the near edge of the shore alone stood +out almost coal-black with an opaque and motionless +solidity. Thirty miles away the serrated range of the +interior stretched across the horizon, its outlines and +shades of blue, faint and tremulous like a background +painted on airy gossamer on the quivering fabric of an +impalpable curtain let down to the plain of alluvial soil; +and the openings of the estuary appeared, shining +white, like bits of silver let into the square pieces snipped +clean and sharp out of the body of the land bordered +with mangroves. + +On the forepart of the bridge the giant and the pigmy +muttered to each other frequently in quiet tones. Be- +hind them Massy stood sideways with an expression of +disdain and suspense on his face. His globular eyes +were perfectly motionless, and he seemed to have for- +gotten the long pipe he held in his hand. + +On the fore-deck below the bridge, steeply roofed with +the white slopes of the awnings, a young lascar seaman +had clambered outside the rail. He adjusted quickly +a broad band of sail canvas under his armpits, and +throwing his chest against it, leaned out far over the +water. The sleeves of his thin cotton shirt, cut off close +to the shoulder, bared his brown arm of full rounded +form and with a satiny skin like a woman's. He swung +it rigidly with the rotary and menacing action of a +slinger: the 14-lb. weight hurtled circling in the air, +then suddenly flew ahead as far as the curve of the bow. +The wet thin line swished like scratched silk running +through the dark fingers of the man, and the plunge of +the lead close to the ship's side made a vanishing silvery +scar upon the golden glitter; then after an interval the +voice of the young Malay uplifted and long-drawn de- +clared the depth of the water in his own language. + +"Tiga stengah," he cried after each splash and pause, +gathering the line busily for another cast. "Tiga +stengah," which means three fathom and a half. For +a mile or so from seaward there was a uniform depth +of water right up to the bar. "Half-three. Half- +three. Half-three,"--and his modulated cry, returned +leisurely and monotonous, like the repeated call of a +bird, seemed to float away in sunshine and disappear in +the spacious silence of the empty sea and of a lifeless +shore lying open, north and south, east and west, with- +out the stir of a single cloud-shadow or the whisper of +any other voice. + +The owner-engineer of the Sofala remained very still +behind the two seamen of different race, creed, and +color; the European with the time-defying vigor of +his old frame, the little Malay, old, too, but slight and +shrunken like a withered brown leaf blown by a chance +wind under the mighty shadow of the other. Very +busy looking forward at the land, they had not a glance +to spare; and Massy, glaring at them from behind, +seemed to resent their attention to their duty like a per- +sonal slight upon himself. + +This was unreasonable; but he had lived in his own +world of unreasonable resentments for many years. At +last, passing his moist palm over the rare lanky wisps +of coarse hair on the top of his yellow head, he began +to talk slowly. + +"A leadsman, you want! I suppose that's your cor- +rect mail-boat style. Haven't you enough judgment +to tell where you are by looking at the land? Why, +before I had been a twelvemonth in the trade I was up +to that trick--and I am only an engineer. I can point +to you from here where the bar is, and I could tell you +besides that you are as likely as not to stick her in the +mud in about five minutes from now; only you would +call it interfering, I suppose. And there's that written +agreement of ours, that says I mustn't interfere." + +His voice stopped. Captain Whalley, without relax- +ing the set severity of his features, moved his lips to ask +in a quick mumble-- + +"How near, Serang?" + +"Very near now, Tuan," the Malay muttered rapidly. + +"Dead slow," said the Captain aloud in a firm tone. + +The Serang snatched at the handle of the telegraph. +A gong clanged down below. Massy with a scornful +snigger walked off and put his head down the engine- +room skylight. + +"You may expect some rare fooling with the engines, +Jack," he bellowed. The space into which he stared was +deep and full of gloom; and the gray gleams of steel +down there seemed cool after the intense glare of the +sea around the ship. The air, however, came up clammy +and hot on his face. A short hoot on which it would +have been impossible to put any sort of interpretation +came from the bottom cavernously. This was the way +in which the second engineer answered his chief. + +He was a middle-aged man with an inattentive man- +ner, and apparently wrapped up in such a taciturn con- +cern for his engines that he seemed to have lost the use +of speech. When addressed directly his only answer +would be a grunt or a hoot, according to the distance. +For all the years he had been in the Sofala he had never +been known to exchange as much as a frank Good-morn- +ing with any of his shipmates. He did not seem aware +that men came and went in the world; he did not seem +to see them at all. Indeed he never recognized his ship +mates on shore. At table (the four white men of the +Sofala messed together) he sat looking into his plate +dispassionately, but at the end of the meal would jump +up and bolt down below as if a sudden thought had im- +pelled him to rush and see whether somebody had not +stolen the engines while he dined. In port at the end of +the trip he went ashore regularly, but no one knew +where he spent his evenings or in what manner. The +local coasting fleet had preserved a wild and incoherent +tale of his infatuation for the wife of a sergeant in an +Irish infantry regiment. The regiment, however, had +done its turn of garrison duty there ages before, and +was gone somewhere to the other side of the earth, out +of men's knowledge. Twice or perhaps three times in +the course of the year he would take too much to drink. +On these occasions he returned on board at an earlier +hour than usual; ran across the deck balancing himself +with his spread arms like a tight-rope walker; and +locking the door of his cabin, he would converse and +argue with himself the livelong night in an amazing +variety of tones; storm, sneer, and whine with an inex- +haustible persistence. Massy in his berth next door, +raising himself on his elbow, would discover that his +second had remembered the name of every white man +that had passed through the Sofala for years and years +back. He remembered the names of men that had died, +that had gone home, that had gone to America: he +remembered in his cups the names of men whose con- +nection with the ship had been so short that Massy had +almost forgotten its circumstances and could barely re- +call their faces. The inebriated voice on the other side +of the bulkhead commented upon them all with an ex- +traordinary and ingenious venom of scandalous inven- +tions. It seems they had all offended him in some way, +and in return he had found them all out. He muttered +darkly; he laughed sardonically; he crushed them one +after another; but of his chief, Massy, he babbled with +an envious and naive admiration. Clever scoundrel! +Don't meet the likes of him every day. Just look at +him. Ha! Great! Ship of his own. Wouldn't catch +HIM going wrong. No fear--the beast! And Massy, +after listening with a gratified smile to these artless +tributes to his greatness, would begin to shout, thump- +ing at the bulkhead with both fists-- + +"Shut up, you lunatic! Won't you let me go to +sleep, you fool!" + +But a half smile of pride lingered on his lips; outside +the solitary lascar told off for night duty in harbor, +perhaps a youth fresh from a forest village, would stand +motionless in the shadows of the deck listening to the +endless drunken gabble. His heart would be thumping +with breathless awe of white men: the arbitrary and +obstinate men who pursue inflexibly their incompre- +hensible purposes,--beings with weird intonations in the +voice, moved by unaccountable feelings, actuated by in- +scrutable motives. + + + +VIII + +For a while after his second's answering hoot Massy +hung over the engine-room gloomily. Captain Whal- +ley, who, by the power of five hundred pounds, had kept +his command for three years, might have been suspected +of never having seen that coast before. He seemed un- +able to put down his glasses, as though they had been +glued under his contracted eyebrows. This settled +frown gave to his face an air of invincible and just +severity; but his raised elbow trembled slightly, and +the perspiration poured from under his hat as if a +second sun had suddenly blazed up at the zenith by the +side of the ardent still globe already there, in whose +blinding white heat the earth whirled and shone like a +mote of dust. + +From time to time, still holding up his glasses, he +raised his other hand to wipe his streaming face. The +drops rolled down his cheeks, fell like rain upon the +white hairs of his beard, and brusquely, as if guided +by an uncontrollable and anxious impulse, his arm +reached out to the stand of the engine-room telegraph. + +The gong clanged down below. The balanced vibra- +tion of the dead-slow speed ceased together with every +sound and tremor in the ship, as if the great stillness +that reigned upon the coast had stolen in through her +sides of iron and taken possession of her innermost re- +cesses. The illusion of perfect immobility seemed to +fall upon her from the luminous blue dome without a +stain arching over a flat sea without a stir. The faint +breeze she had made for herself expired, as if all at +once the air had become too thick to budge; even the +slight hiss of the water on her stem died out. The nar- +row, long hull, carrying its way without a ripple, +seemed to approach the shoal water of the bar by +stealth. The plunge of the lead with the mournful, +mechanical cry of the lascar came at longer and longer +intervals; and the men on her bridge seemed to hold +their breath. The Malay at the helm looked fixedly +at the compass card, the Captain and the Serang stared +at the coast. + +Massy had left the skylight, and, walking flat-footed, +had returned softly to the very spot on the bridge he +had occupied before. A slow, lingering grin exposed +his set of big white teeth: they gleamed evenly in the +shade of the awning like the keyboard of a piano in a +dusky room. + +At last, pretending to talk to himself in excessive as- +tonishment, he said not very loud-- + +"Stop the engines now. What next, I wonder?" + +He waited, stooping from the shoulders, his head +bowed, his glance oblique. Then raising his voice a +shade-- + +"If I dared make an absurd remark I would say that +you haven't the stomach to . . ." + +But a yelling spirit of excitement, like some frantic +soul wandering unsuspected in the vast stillness of the +coast, had seized upon the body of the lascar at the lead. +The languid monotony of his sing-song changed to a +swift, sharp clamor. The weight flew after a single +whir, the line whistled, splash followed splash in haste. +The water had shoaled, and the man, instead of the +drowsy tale of fathoms, was calling out the soundings +in feet. + +"Fifteen feet. Fifteen, fifteen! Fourteen, four- +teen . . ." + +Captain Whalley lowered the arm holding the glasses. +It descended slowly as if by its own weight; no other +part of his towering body stirred; and the swift cries +with their eager warning note passed him by as though +he had been deaf. + +Massy, very still, and turning an attentive ear, had +fastened his eyes upon the silvery, close-cropped back +of the steady old head. The ship herself seemed to be +arrested but for the gradual decrease of depth under +her keel. + +"Thirteen feet . . . Thirteen! Twelve!" cried the +leadsman anxiously below the bridge. And suddenly +the barefooted Serang stepped away noiselessly to steal +a glance over the side. + +Narrow of shoulder, in a suit of faded blue cotton, an +old gray felt hat rammed down on his head, with a hollow +in the nape of his dark neck, and with his slender limbs, +he appeared from the back no bigger than a boy of +fourteen. There was a childlike impulsiveness in the +curiosity with which he watched the spread of the +voluminous, yellowish convolutions rolling up from be- +low to the surface of the blue water like massive clouds +driving slowly upwards on the unfathomable sky. He +was not startled at the sight in the least. It was not +doubt, but the certitude that the keel of the Sofala must +be stirring the mud now, which made him peep over the +side. + +His peering eyes, set aslant in a face of the Chinese +type, a little old face, immovable, as if carved in old +brown oak, had informed him long before that the ship +was not headed at the bar properly. Paid off from +the Fair Maid, together with the rest of the crew, after +the completion of the sale, he had hung, in his faded +blue suit and floppy gray hat, about the doors of the +Harbor Office, till one day, seeing Captain Whalley +coming along to get a crew for the Sofala, he had put +himself quietly in the way, with his bare feet in the dust +and an upward mute glance. The eyes of his old com- +mander had fallen on him favorably--it must have +been an auspicious day--and in less than half an hour +the white men in the "Ofiss" had written his name on +a document as Serang of the fire-ship Sofala. Since +that time he had repeatedly looked at that estuary, upon +that coast, from this bridge and from this side of the +bar. The record of the visual world fell through his +eyes upon his unspeculating mind as on a sensitized +plate through the lens of a camera. His knowledge was +absolute and precise; nevertheless, had he been asked +his opinion, and especially if questioned in the down- +right, alarming manner of white men, he would have +displayed the hesitation of ignorance. He was certain +of his facts--but such a certitude counted for little +against the doubt what answer would be pleasing. +Fifty years ago, in a jungle village, and before he was +a day old, his father (who died without ever seeing +a white face) had had his nativity cast by a man of +skill and wisdom in astrology, because in the arrange- +ment of the stars may be read the last word of human +destiny. His destiny had been to thrive by the favor +of various white men on the sea. He had swept the +decks of ships, had tended their helms, had minded their +stores, had risen at last to be a Serang; and his placid +mind had remained as incapable of penetrating the sim- +plest motives of those he served as they themselves were +incapable of detecting through the crust of the earth +the secret nature of its heart, which may be fire or may +be stone. But he had no doubt whatever that the Sofala +was out of the proper track for crossing the bar at +Batu Beru. + +It was a slight error. The ship could not have been +more than twice her own length too far to the north- +ward; and a white man at a loss for a cause (since it +was impossible to suspect Captain Whalley of blunder- +ing ignorance, of want of skill, or of neglect) would +have been inclined to doubt the testimony of his senses. +It was some such feeling that kept Massy motionless, +with his teeth laid bare by an anxious grin. Not so the +Serang. He was not troubled by any intellectual mis- +trust of his senses. If his captain chose to stir the mud +it was well. He had known in his life white men indulge +in outbreaks equally strange. He was only genuinely +interested to see what would come of it. At last, appar- +ently satisfied, he stepped back from the rail. + +He had made no sound: Captain Whalley, however, +seemed to have observed the movements of his Serang. +Holding his head rigidly, he asked with a mere stir of +his lips-- + +"Going ahead still, Serang?" + +"Still going a little, Tuan," answered the Malay. +Then added casually, "She is over." + +The lead confirmed his words; the depth of water in- +creased at every cast, and the soul of excitement de- +parted suddenly from the lascar swung in the canvas +belt over the Sofala's side. Captain Whalley or- +dered the lead in, set the engines ahead without haste, +and averting his eyes from the coast directed the +Serang to keep a course for the middle of the en- +trance. + +Massy brought the palm of his hand with a loud smack +against his thigh. + +"You grazed on the bar. Just look astern and see +if you didn't. Look at the track she left. You can see +it plainly. Upon my soul, I thought you would! What +made you do that? What on earth made you do that? +I believe you are trying to scare me." + +He talked slowly, as it were circumspectly, keeping his +prominent black eyes on his captain. There was also a +slight plaintive note in his rising choler, for, primarily, +it was the clear sense of a wrong suffered undeservedly +that made him hate the man who, for a beggarly five +hundred pounds, claimed a sixth part of the profits +under the three years' agreement. Whenever his resent- +ment got the better of the awe the person of Captain +Whalley inspired he would positively whimper with +fury. + +"You don't know what to invent to plague my life +out of me. I would not have thought that a man of +your sort would condescend . . ." + +He paused, half hopefully, half timidly, whenever +Captain Whalley made the slightest movement in the +deck-chair, as though expecting to be conciliated by a +soft speech or else rushed upon and hunted off the +bridge. + +"I am puzzled," he went on again, with the watchful +unsmiling baring of his big teeth. "I don't know what +to think. I do believe you are trying to frighten me. +You very nearly planted her on the bar for at least +twelve hours, besides getting the engines choked with +mud. Ships can't afford to lose twelve hours on a trip +nowadays--as you ought to know very well, and do +know very well to be sure, only . . ." + +His slow volubility, the sideways cranings of his neck, +the black glances out of the very corners of his eyes, +left Captain Whalley unmoved. He looked at the deck +with a severe frown. Massy waited for some little time, +then began to threaten plaintively. + +"You think you've got me bound hand and foot in +that agreement. You think you can torment me in any +way you please. Ah! But remember it has another +six weeks to run yet. There's time for me to dismiss +you before the three years are out. You will do yet +something that will give me the chance to dismiss you, +and make you wait a twelvemonth for your money before +you can take yourself off and pull out your five hundred, +and leave me without a penny to get the new boilers for +her. You gloat over that idea--don't you? I do be- +lieve you sit here gloating. It's as if I had sold my +soul for five hundred pounds to be everlastingly damned +in the end. . . ." + +He paused, without apparent exasperation, then con- +tinued evenly-- + +". . . With the boilers worn out and the survey hang- +ing over my head, Captain Whalley-- Captain +Whalley, I say, what do you do with your money? You +must have stacks of money somewhere--a man like you +must. It stands to reason. I am not a fool, you know, +Captain Whalley--partner." + +Again he paused, as though he had done for good. +He passed his tongue over his lips, gave a backward +glance at the Serang conning the ship with quiet whis- +pers and slight signs of the hand. The wash of the +propeller sent a swift ripple, crested with dark froth, +upon a long flat spit of black slime. The Sofala had +entered the river; the trail she had stirred up over the +bar was a mile astern of her now, out of sight, had dis- +appeared utterly; and the smooth, empty sea along the +coast was left behind in the glittering desolation of sun- +shine. On each side of her, low down, the growth of +somber twisted mangroves covered the semi-liquid banks; +and Massy continued in his old tone, with an abrupt +start, as if his speech had been ground out of him, like +the tune of a music-box, by turning a handle. + +"Though if anybody ever got the best of me, it is you. +I don't mind saying this. I've said it--there! What +more can you want? Isn't that enough for your pride, +Captain Whalley. You got over me from the first. It's +all of a piece, when I look back at it. You allowed me +to insert that clause about intemperance without saying +anything, only looking very sick when I made a point +of it going in black on white. How could I tell what +was wrong about you. There's generally something +wrong somewhere. And, lo and behold! when you +come on board it turns out that you've been in the +habit of drinking nothing but water for years and +years." + +His dogmatic reproachful whine stopped. He brooded +profoundly, after the manner of crafty and unintelli- +gent men. It seemed inconceivable that Captain +Whalley should not laugh at the expression of disgust +that overspread the heavy, yellow countenance. But +Captain Whalley never raised his eyes--sitting in his +arm-chair, outraged, dignified, and motionless. + +"Much good it was to me," Massy remonstrated +monotonously, "to insert a clause for dismissal for in- +temperance against a man who drinks nothing but water. +And you looked so upset, too, when I read my draft in +the lawyer's office that morning, Captain Whalley,-- +you looked so crestfallen, that I made sure I had gone +home on your weak spot. A shipowner can't be too +careful as to the sort of skipper he gets. You must +have been laughing at me in your sleeve all the blessed +time. . . . Eh? What are you going to say?" + +Captain Whalley had only shuffled his feet slightly. +A dull animosity became apparent in Massy's sideways +stare. + +"But recollect that there are other grounds of dis- +missal. There's habitual carelessness, amounting to in- +competence--there's gross and persistent neglect of +duty. I am not quite as big a fool as you try to make +me out to be. You have been careless of late--leaving +everything to that Serang. Why! I've seen you let- +ting that old fool of a Malay take bearings for you, +as if you were too big to attend to your work yourself. +And what do you call that silly touch-and-go manner +in which you took the ship over the bar just now? You +expect me to put up with that?" + +Leaning on his elbow against the ladder abaft the +bridge, Sterne, the mate, tried to hear, blinking the +while from the distance at the second engineer, who had +come up for a moment, and stood in the engine-room +companion. Wiping his hands on a bunch of cotton +waste, he looked about with indifference to the right +and left at the river banks slipping astern of the +Sofala steadily. + +Massy turned full at the chair. The character of his +whine became again threatening. + +"Take care. I may yet dismiss you and freeze to your +money for a year. I may . . ." + +But before the silent, rigid immobility of the man +whose money had come in the nick of time to save him +from utter ruin, his voice died out in his throat. + +"Not that I want you to go," he resumed after a si- +lence, and in an absurdly insinuating tone. "I want +nothing better than to be friends and renew the agree- +ment, if you will consent to find another couple of hun- +dred to help with the new boilers, Captain Whalley. +I've told you before. She must have new boilers; you +know it as well as I do. Have you thought this over?" + +He waited. The slender stem of the pipe with its +bulky lump of a bowl at the end hung down from his +thick lips. It had gone out. Suddenly he took it from +between his teeth and wrung his hands slightly. + +"Don't you believe me?" He thrust the pipe bowl +into the pocket of his shiny black jacket. + +"It's like dealing with the devil," he said. "Why +don't you speak? At first you were so high and mighty +with me I hardly dared to creep about my own deck. +Now I can't get a word from you. You don't seem to +see me at all. What does it mean? Upon my soul, you +terrify me with this deaf and dumb trick. What's go- +ing on in that head of yours? What are you plotting +against me there so hard that you can't say a word? +You will never make me believe that you--you--don't +know where to lay your hands on a couple of hundred. +You have made me curse the day I was born. . . ." + +"Mr. Massy," said Captain Whalley suddenly, with- +out stirring. + +The engineer started violently. + +"If that is so I can only beg you to forgive me." + +"Starboard," muttered the Serang to the helmsman; +and the Sofala began to swing round the bend into the +second reach. + +"Ough!" Massy shuddered. "You make my blood +run cold. What made you come here? What made you +come aboard that evening all of a sudden, with your +high talk and your money--tempting me? I always +wondered what was your motive? You fastened yourself +on me to have easy times and grow fat on my life blood, +I tell you. Was that it? I believe you are the greatest +miser in the world, or else why . . ." + +"No. I am only poor," interrupted Captain Whalley, +stonily. + +"Steady," murmured the Serang. Massy turned away +with his chin on his shoulder. + +"I don't believe it," he said in his dogmatic tone. +Captain Whalley made no movement. "There you sit +like a gorged vulture--exactly like a vulture." + +He embraced the middle of the reach and both the +banks in one blank unseeing circular glance, and left the +bridge slowly. + + +IX + +On turning to descend Massy perceived the head of +Sterne the mate loitering, with his sly confident smile, +his red mustaches and blinking eyes, at the foot of the +ladder. + +Sterne had been a junior in one of the larger shipping +concerns before joining the Sofala. He had thrown up +his berth, he said, "on general principles." The pro- +motion in the employ was very slow, he complained, and +he thought it was time for him to try and get on a bit +in the world. It seemed as though nobody would ever +die or leave the firm; they all stuck fast in their berths +till they got mildewed; he was tired of waiting; and he +feared that when a vacancy did occur the best servants +were by no means sure of being treated fairly. Besides, +the captain he had to serve under--Captain Provost-- +was an unaccountable sort of man, and, he fancied, had +taken a dislike to him for some reason or other. For +doing rather more than his bare duty as likely as not. +When he had done anything wrong he could take a +talking to, like a man; but he expected to be treated +like a man too, and not to be addressed invariably as +though he were a dog. He had asked Captain Provost +plump and plain to tell him where he was at fault, and +Captain Provost, in a most scornful way, had told him +that he was a perfect officer, and that if he disliked the +way he was being spoken to there was the gangway-- +he could take himself off ashore at once. But everybody +knew what sort of man Captain Provost was. It was no +use appealing to the office. Captain Provost had too +much influence in the employ. All the same, they had +to give him a good character. He made bold to say +there was nothing in the world against him, and, as he +had happened to hear that the mate of the Sofala had +been taken to the hospital that morning with a sun- +stroke, he thought there would be no harm in seeing +whether he would not do. . . . + +He had come to Captain Whalley freshly shaved, red- +faced, thin-flanked, throwing out his lean chest; and +had recited his little tale with an open and manly as- +surance. Now and then his eyelids quivered slightly, +his hand would steal up to the end of the flaming mus- +tache; his eyebrows were straight, furry, of a chestnut +color, and the directness of his frank gaze seemed to +tremble on the verge of impudence. Captain Whalley +had engaged him temporarily; then, the other man hav- +ing been ordered home by the doctors, he had remained +for the next trip, and then the next. He had now at- +tained permanency, and the performance of his duties +was marked by an air of serious, single-minded appli- +cation. Directly he was spoken to, he began to smile +attentively, with a great deference expressed in his +whole attitude; but there was in the rapid winking +which went on all the time something quizzical, as +though he had possessed the secret of some universal +joke cheating all creation and impenetrable to other +mortals. + +Grave and smiling he watched Massy come down step +by step; when the chief engineer had reached the deck +he swung about, and they found themselves face to face. +Matched as to height and utterly dissimilar, they con- +fronted each other as if there had been something be- +tween them--something else than the bright strip of +sunlight that, falling through the wide lacing of two +awnings, cut crosswise the narrow planking of the deck +and separated their feet as it were a stream; something +profound and subtle and incalculable, like an unex- +pressed understanding, a secret mistrust, or some sort +of fear. + +At last Sterne, blinking his deep-set eyes and sticking +forward his scraped, clean-cut chin, as crimson as the +rest of his face, murmured-- + +"You've seen? He grazed! You've seen?" + +Massy, contemptuous, and without raising his yellow, +fleshy countenance, replied in the same pitch-- + +"Maybe. But if it had been you we would have been +stuck fast in the mud." + +"Pardon me, Mr. Massy. I beg to deny it. Of course +a shipowner may say what he jolly well pleases on his +own deck. That's all right; but I beg to . . ." + +"Get out of my way!" + +The other had a slight start, the impulse of suppressed +indignation perhaps, but held his ground. Massy's +downward glance wandered right and left, as though the +deck all round Sterne had been bestrewn with eggs that +must not be broken, and he had looked irritably for +places where he could set his feet in flight. In the end +he too did not move, though there was plenty of room +to pass on. + +"I heard you say up there," went on the mate--"and +a very just remark it was too--that there's always +something wrong. . . ." + +"Eavesdropping is what's wrong with YOU, Mr. +Sterne." + +"Now, if you would only listen to me for a moment, +Mr. Massy, sir, I could . . ." + +"You are a sneak," interrupted Massy in a great +hurry, and even managed to get so far as to repeat, "a +common sneak," before the mate had broken in argu- +mentatively-- + +"Now, sir, what is it you want? You want . . ." + +"I want--I want," stammered Massy, infuriated and +astonished--"I want. How do you know that I want +anything? How dare you? . . . What do you +mean? . . . What are you after--you . . ." + +"Promotion." Sterne silenced him with a sort of +candid bravado. The engineer's round soft cheeks quiv- +ered still, but he said quietly enough-- + +"You are only worrying my head off," and Sterne +met him with a confident little smile. + +"A chap in business I know (well up in the world +he is now) used to tell me that this was the proper way. +'Always push on to the front,' he would say. 'Keep +yourself well before your boss. Interfere whenever you +get a chance. Show him what you know. Worry him +into seeing you.' That was his advice. Now I know +no other boss than you here. You are the owner, and +no one else counts for THAT much in my eyes. See, Mr. +Massy? I want to get on. I make no secret of it that +I am one of the sort that means to get on. These are +the men to make use of, sir. You haven't arrived at +the top of the tree, sir, without finding that out--I +dare say." + +"Worry your boss in order to get on," mumbled +Massy, as if awestruck by the irreverent originality of +the idea. "I shouldn't wonder if this was just what the +Blue Anchor people kicked you out of the employ for. +Is that what you call getting on? You shall get on in +the same way here if you aren't careful--I can promise +you." + +At this Sterne hung his head, thoughtful, perplexed, +winking hard at the deck. All his attempts to enter into +confidential relations with his owner had led of late +to nothing better than these dark threats of dismissal; +and a threat of dismissal would check him at once into +a hesitating silence as though he were not sure that +the proper time for defying it had come. On this occa- +sion he seemed to have lost his tongue for a moment, and +Massy, getting in motion, heavily passed him by with +an abortive attempt at shouldering. Sterne defeated it +by stepping aside. He turned then swiftly, opening +his mouth very wide as if to shout something after the +engineer, but seemed to think better of it. + +Always--as he was ready to confess--on the lookout +for an opening to get on, it had become an instinct with +him to watch the conduct of his immediate superiors for +something "that one could lay hold of." It was his +belief that no skipper in the world would keep his com- +mand for a day if only the owners could be "made to +know." This romantic and naive theory had led him +into trouble more than once, but he remained incorrigi- +ble; and his character was so instinctively disloyal that +whenever he joined a ship the intention of ousting his +commander out of the berth and taking his place was +always present at the back of his head, as a matter of +course. It filled the leisure of his waking hours with +the reveries of careful plans and compromising discov- +eries--the dreams of his sleep with images of lucky +turns and favorable accidents. Skippers had been +known to sicken and die at sea, than which nothing +could be better to give a smart mate a chance of showing +what he's made of. They also would tumble overboard +sometimes: he had heard of one or two such cases. +Others again . . . But, as it were constitutionally, he +was faithful to the belief that the conduct of no single +one of them would stand the test of careful watching +by a man who "knew what's what" and who kept his +eyes "skinned pretty well" all the time. + +After he had gained a permanent footing on board +the Sofala he allowed his perennial hope to rise high. +To begin with, it was a great advantage to have an old +man for captain: the sort of man besides who in the +nature of things was likely to give up the job before +long from one cause or another. Sterne was greatly +chagrined, however, to notice that he did not seem any- +way near being past his work yet. Still, these old men +go to pieces all at once sometimes. Then there was the +owner-engineer close at hand to be impressed by his zeal +and steadiness. Sterne never for a moment doubted the +obvious nature of his own merits (he was really an ex- +cellent officer); only, nowadays, professional merit alone +does not take a man along fast enough. A chap must +have some push in him, and must keep his wits at work +too to help him forward. He made up his mind to +inherit the charge of this steamer if it was to be done +at all; not indeed estimating the command of the +Sofala as a very great catch, but for the reason that, +out East especially, to make a start is everything, and +one command leads to another. + +He began by promising himself to behave with great +circumspection; Massy's somber and fantastic humors +intimidated him as being outside one's usual sea experi- +ence; but he was quite intelligent enough to realize al- +most from the first that he was there in the presence of +an exceptional situation. His peculiar prying imagina- +tion penetrated it quickly; the feeling that there was +in it an element which eluded his grasp exasperated his +impatience to get on. And so one trip came to an end, +then another, and he had begun his third before he saw +an opening by which he could step in with any sort of +effect. It had all been very queer and very obscure; +something had been going on near him, as if separated +by a chasm from the common life and the working +routine of the ship, which was exactly like the life and +the routine of any other coasting steamer of that class. + +Then one day he made his discovery. + +It came to him after all these weeks of watchful ob- +servation and puzzled surmises, suddenly, like the long- +sought solution of a riddle that suggests itself to the +mind in a flash. Not with the same authority, however. +Great heavens! Could it be that? And after remain- +ing thunderstruck for a few seconds he tried to shake +it off with self-contumely, as though it had been the +product of an unhealthy bias towards the Incredible, +the Inexplicable, the Unheard-of--the Mad! + +This--the illuminating moment--had occurred the trip +before, on the return passage. They had just left a +place of call on the mainland called Pangu; they were +steaming straight out of a bay. To the east a massive +headland closed the view, with the tilted edges of the +rocky strata showing through its ragged clothing of +rank bushes and thorny creepers. The wind had begun +to sing in the rigging; the sea along the coast, green +and as if swollen a little above the line of the horizon, +seemed to pour itself over, time after time, with a slow +and thundering fall, into the shadow of the leeward +cape; and across the wide opening the nearest of a +group of small islands stood enveloped in the hazy +yellow light of a breezy sunrise; still farther out the +hummocky tops of other islets peeped out motionless +above the water of the channels between, scoured +tumultuously by the breeze. + +The usual track of the Sofala both going and return- +ing on every trip led her for a few miles along this reef- +infested region. She followed a broad lane of water, +dropping astern, one after another, these crumbs of the +earth's crust resembling a squadron of dismasted hulks +run in disorder upon a foul ground of rocks and shoals. +Some of these fragments of land appeared, indeed, no +bigger than a stranded ship; others, quite flat, lay +awash like anchored rafts, like ponderous, black rafts +of stone; several, heavily timbered and round at the +base, emerged in squat domes of deep green foliage that +shuddered darkly all over to the flying touch of cloud +shadows driven by the sudden gusts of the squally sea- +son. The thunderstorms of the coast broke frequently +over that cluster; it turned then shadowy in its whole +extent; it turned more dark, and as if more still in the +play of fire; as if more impenetrably silent in the peals +of thunder; its blurred shapes vanished--dissolving ut- +terly at times in the thick rain--to reappear clear-cut +and black in the stormy light against the gray sheet of +the cloud--scattered on the slaty round table of +the sea. Unscathed by storms, resisting the work of +years, unfretted by the strife of the world, there it lay +unchanged as on that day, four hundred years ago, +when first beheld by Western eyes from the deck of +a high-pooped caravel. + +It was one of these secluded spots that may be found +on the busy sea, as on land you come sometimes upon the +clustered houses of a hamlet untouched by men's rest- +lessness, untouched by their need, by their thought, and +as if forgotten by time itself. The lives of uncounted +generations had passed it by, and the multitudes of sea- +fowl, urging their way from all the points of the horizon +to sleep on the outer rocks of the group, unrolled the +converging evolutions of their flight in long somber +streamers upon the glow of the sky. The palpitating +cloud of their wings soared and stooped over the pinna- +cles of the rocks, over the rocks slender like spires, squat +like martello towers; over the pyramidal heaps like fallen +ruins, over the lines of bald bowlders showing like a wall +of stones battered to pieces and scorched by lightning-- +with the sleepy, clear glimmer of water in every breach. +The noise of their continuous and violent screaming +filled the air. + +This great noise would meet the Sofala coming up from +Batu Beru; it would meet her on quiet evenings, a piti- +less and savage clamor enfeebled by distance, the +clamor of seabirds settling to rest, and struggling for +a footing at the end of the day. No one noticed it +especially on board; it was the voice of their ship's un- +erring landfall, ending the steady stretch of a hundred +miles. She had made good her course, she had run her +distance till the punctual islets began to emerge one by +one, the points of rocks, the hummocks of earth . . . +and the cloud of birds hovered--the restless cloud emit- +ting a strident and cruel uproar, the sound of the fa- +miliar scene, the living part of the broken land beneath, +of the outspread sea, and of the high sky without a +flaw. + +But when the Sofala happened to close with the land +after sunset she would find everything very still there +under the mantle of the night. All would be still, dumb, +almost invisible--but for the blotting out of the low +constellations occulted in turns behind the vague masses +of the islets whose true outlines eluded the eye amongst +the dark spaces of the heaven: and the ship's three lights, +resembling three stars--the red and the green with the +white above--her three lights, like three companion +stars wandering on the earth, held their unswerving +course for the passage at the southern end of the group. +Sometimes there were human eyes open to watch them +come nearer, traveling smoothly in the somber void; the +eyes of a naked fisherman in his canoe floating over a +reef. He thought drowsily: "Ha! The fire-ship that +once in every moon goes in and comes out of Pangu +bay." More he did not know of her. And just as he +had detected the faint rhythm of the propeller beating +the calm water a mile and a half away, the time would +come for the Sofala to alter her course, the lights would +swing off him their triple beam--and disappear. + +A few miserable, half-naked families, a sort of outcast +tribe of long-haired, lean, and wild-eyed people, strove +for their living in this lonely wilderness of islets, lying +like an abandoned outwork of the land at the gates of +the bay. Within the knots and loops of the rocks the +water rested more transparent than crystal under their +crooked and leaky canoes, scooped out of the trunk of +a tree: the forms of the bottom undulated slightly to +the dip of a paddle; and the men seemed to hang in the +air, they seemed to hang inclosed within the fibers of a +dark, sodden log, fishing patiently in a strange, un- +steady, pellucid, green air above the shoals. + +Their bodies stalked brown and emaciated as if dried +up in the sunshine; their lives ran out silently; the +homes where they were born, went to rest, and died-- +flimsy sheds of rushes and coarse grass eked out with +a few ragged mats--were hidden out of sight from the +open sea. No glow of their household fires ever kindled +for a seaman a red spark upon the blind night of the +group: and the calms of the coast, the flaming long +calms of the equator, the unbreathing, concentrated +calms like the deep introspection of a passionate nature, +brooded awfully for days and weeks together over the +unchangeable inheritance of their children; till at last +the stones, hot like live embers, scorched the naked sole, +till the water clung warm, and sickly, and as if thick- +ened, about the legs of lean men with girded loins, wad- +ing thigh-deep in the pale blaze of the shallows. And +it would happen now and then that the Sofala, through +some delay in one of the ports of call, would heave in +sight making for Pangu bay as late as noonday. + +Only a blurring cloud at first, the thin mist of her +smoke would arise mysteriously from an empty point on +the clear line of sea and sky. The taciturn fishermen +within the reefs would extend their lean arms towards +the offing; and the brown figures stooping on the tiny +beaches, the brown figures of men, women, and children +grubbing in the sand in search of turtles' eggs, would +rise up, crooked elbow aloft and hand over the eyes, to +watch this monthly apparition glide straight on, swerve +off--and go by. Their ears caught the panting of that +ship; their eyes followed her till she passed between the +two capes of the mainland going at full speed as though +she hoped to make her way unchecked into the very +bosom of the earth. + +On such days the luminous sea would give no sign of +the dangers lurking on both sides of her path. Every- +thing remained still, crushed by the overwhelming power +of the light; and the whole group, opaque in the sun- +shine,--the rocks resembling pinnacles, the rocks resem- +bling spires, the rocks resembling ruins; the forms of +islets resembling beehives, resembling mole-hills, the +islets recalling the shapes of haystacks, the contours of +ivy-clad towers,--would stand reflected together upside +down in the unwrinkled water, like carved toys of ebony +disposed on the silvered plate-glass of a mirror. + +The first touch of blowing weather would envelop the +whole at once in the spume of the windward breakers, +as if in a sudden cloudlike burst of steam; and the clear +water seemed fairly to boil in all the passages. The +provoked sea outlined exactly in a design of angry foam +the wide base of the group; the submerged level of +broken waste and refuse left over from the building of +the coast near by, projecting its dangerous spurs, all +awash, far into the channel, and bristling with wicked +long spits often a mile long: with deadly spits made of +froth and stones. + +And even nothing more than a brisk breeze--as on +that morning, the voyage before, when the Sofala left +Pangu bay early, and Mr. Sterne's discovery was to +blossom out like a flower of incredible and evil aspect +from the tiny seed of instinctive suspicion,--even such +a breeze had enough strength to tear the placid mask +from the face of the sea. To Sterne, gazing with indif- +ference, it had been like a revelation to behold for the +first time the dangers marked by the hissing livid +patches on the water as distinctly as on the engraved +paper of a chart. It came into his mind that this was +the sort of day most favorable for a stranger attempt- +ing the passage: a clear day, just windy enough for +the sea to break on every ledge, buoying, as it were, +the channel plainly to the sight; whereas during a calm +you had nothing to depend on but the compass and the +practiced judgment of your eye. And yet the suc- +cessive captains of the Sofala had had to take her +through at night more than once. Nowadays you could +not afford to throw away six or seven hours of a +steamer's time. That you couldn't. But then use is +everything, and with proper care . . . The channel +was broad and safe enough; the main point was to hit +upon the entrance correctly in the dark--for if a man +got himself involved in that stretch of broken water +over yonder he would never get out with a whole ship-- +if he ever got out at all. + +This was Sterne's last train of thought independent +of the great discovery. He had just seen to the secur- +ing of the anchor, and had remained forward idling +away a moment or two. The captain was in charge on +the bridge. With a slight yawn he had turned away +from his survey of the sea and had leaned his shoulders +against the fish davit. + +These, properly speaking, were the very last moments +of ease he was to know on board the Sofala. All the +instants that came after were to be pregnant with pur- +pose and intolerable with perplexity. No more idle, +random thoughts; the discovery would put them on the +rack, till sometimes he wished to goodness he had been +fool enough not to make it at all. And yet, if his +chance to get on rested on the discovery of "something +wrong," he could not have hoped for a greater stroke +of luck. + + +X + +The knowledge was too disturbing, really. There was +"something wrong" with a vengeance, and the moral +certitude of it was at first simply frightful to contem- +plate. Sterne had been looking aft in a mood so idle, +that for once he was thinking no harm of anyone. His +captain on the bridge presented himself naturally to +his sight. How insignificant, how casual was the +thought that had started the train of discovery--like an +accidental spark that suffices to ignite the charge of a +tremendous mine! + +Caught under by the breeze, the awnings of the fore- +deck bellied upwards and collapsed slowly, and above +their heavy flapping the gray stuff of Captain Whalley's +roomy coat fluttered incessantly around his arms and +trunk. He faced the wind in full light, with his great +silvery beard blown forcibly against his chest; the eye- +brows overhung heavily the shadows whence his glance +appeared to be staring ahead piercingly. Sterne could +just detect the twin gleam of the whites shifting under +the shaggy arches of the brow. At short range these +eyes, for all the man's affable manner, seemed to look +you through and through. Sterne never could defend +himself from that feeling when he had occasion to speak +with his captain. He did not like it. What a big +heavy man he appeared up there, with that little +shrimp of a Serang in close attendance--as was usual +in this extraordinary steamer! Confounded absurd cus- +tom that. He resented it. Surely the old fellow could +have looked after his ship without that loafing native +at his elbow. Sterne wriggled his shoulders with dis- +gust. What was it? Indolence or what? + +That old skipper must have been growing lazy for +years. They all grew lazy out East here (Sterne was +very conscious of his own unimpaired activity); they +got slack all over. But he towered very erect on the +bridge; and quite low by his side, as you see a small +child looking over the edge of a table, the battered soft +hat and the brown face of the Serang peeped over the +white canvas screen of the rail. + +No doubt the Malay was standing back, nearer to the +wheel; but the great disparity of size in close associa- +tion amused Sterne like the observation of a bizarre fact +in nature. They were as queer fish out of the sea as +any in it. + +He saw Captain Whalley turn his head quickly to +speak to his Serang; the wind whipped the whole white +mass of the beard sideways. He would be directing the +chap to look at the compass for him, or what not. Of +course. Too much trouble to step over and see for him- +self. Sterne's scorn for that bodily indolence which +overtakes white men in the East increased on reflection. +Some of them would be utterly lost if they hadn't all +these natives at their beck and call; they grew perfectly +shameless about it too. He was not of that sort, thank +God! It wasn't in him to make himself dependent for +his work on any shriveled-up little Malay like that. As +if one could ever trust a silly native for anything in +the world! But that fine old man thought differently, +it seems. There they were together, never far apart; +a pair of them, recalling to the mind an old whale at- +tended by a little pilot-fish. + +The fancifulness of the comparison made him smile. +A whale with an inseparable pilot-fish! That's what +the old man looked like; for it could not be said he +looked like a shark, though Mr. Massy had called him +that very name. But Mr. Massy did not mind what he +said in his savage fits. Sterne smiled to himself--and +gradually the ideas evoked by the sound, by the im- +agined shape of the word pilot-fish; the ideas of aid, of +guidance needed and received, came uppermost in his +mind: the word pilot awakened the idea of trust, of +dependence, the idea of welcome, clear-eyed help brought +to the seaman groping for the land in the dark: groping +blindly in fogs: feeling their way in the thick weather +of the gales that, filling the air with a salt mist blown +up from the sea, contract the range of sight on all +sides to a shrunken horizon that seems within reach of +the hand. + +A pilot sees better than a stranger, because his local +knowledge, like a sharper vision, completes the shapes +of things hurriedly glimpsed; penetrates the veils of +mist spread over the land by the storms of the sea; de- +fines with certitude the outlines of a coast lying under +the pall of fog, the forms of landmarks half buried in a +starless night as in a shallow grave. He recognizes be- +cause he already knows. It is not to his far-reaching +eye but to his more extensive knowledge that the pilot +looks for certitude; for this certitude of the ship's posi- +tion on which may depend a man's good fame and the +peace of his conscience, the justification of the trust +deposited in his hands, with his own life too, which is +seldom wholly his to throw away, and the humble lives +of others rooted in distant affections, perhaps, and made +as weighty as the lives of kings by the burden of the +awaiting mystery. The pilot's knowledge brings relief +and certitude to the commander of a ship; the Serang, +however, in his fanciful suggestion of a pilot-fish at- +tending a whale, could not in any way be credited with +a superior knowledge. Why should he have it? These +two men had come on that run together--the white and +the brown--on the same day: and of course a white man +would learn more in a week than the best native would +in a month. He was made to stick to the skipper as +though he were of some use--as the pilot-fish, they say, +is to the whale. But how--it was very marked--how? +A pilot-fish--a pilot--a . . . But if not superior +knowledge then . . . + +Sterne's discovery was made. It was repugnant to his +imagination, shocking to his ideas of honesty, shocking +to his conception of mankind. This enormity affected +one's outlook on what was possible in this world: it was +as if for instance the sun had turned blue, throwing a +new and sinister light on men and nature. Really in +the first moment he had felt sickish, as though he had +got a blow below the belt: for a second the very color +of the sea seemed changed--appeared queer to his wan- +dering eye; and he had a passing, unsteady sensation in +all his limbs as though the earth had started turning +the other way. + +A very natural incredulity succeeding this sense of +upheaval brought a measure of relief. He had gasped; +it was over. But afterwards during all that day sudden +paroxysms of wonder would come over him in the midst +of his occupations. He would stop and shake his head. +The revolt of his incredulity had passed away almost as +quick as the first emotion of discovery, and for the next +twenty-four hours he had no sleep. That would never +do. At meal-times (he took the foot of the table set +up for the white men on the bridge) he could not help +losing himself in a fascinated contemplation of Captain +Whalley opposite. He watched the deliberate upward +movements of the arm; the old man put his food to his +lips as though he never expected to find any taste in +his daily bread, as though he did not know anything +about it. He fed himself like a somnambulist. "It's an +awful sight," thought Sterne; and he watched the long +period of mournful, silent immobility, with a big brown +hand lying loosely closed by the side of the plate, till +he noticed the two engineers to the right and left look- +ing at him in astonishment. He would close his mouth +in a hurry then, and lowering his eyes, wink rapidly at +his plate. It was awful to see the old chap sitting +there; it was even awful to think that with three words +he could blow him up sky-high. All he had to do was +to raise his voice and pronounce a single short sentence, +and yet that simple act seemed as impossible to attempt +as moving the sun out of its place in the sky. The old +chap could eat in his terrific mechanical way; but Sterne, +from mental excitement, could not--not that evening, +at any rate. + +He had had ample time since to get accustomed to the +strain of the meal-hours. He would never have believed +it. But then use is everything; only the very potency +of his success prevented anything resembling elation. +He felt like a man who, in his legitimate search for a +loaded gun to help him on his way through the world, +chances to come upon a torpedo--upon a live torpedo +with a shattering charge in its head and a pressure of +many atmospheres in its tail. It is the sort of weapon +to make its possessor careworn and nervous. He had +no mind to be blown up himself; and he could not get +rid of the notion that the explosion was bound to damage +him too in some way. + +This vague apprehension had restrained him at first. +He was able now to eat and sleep with that fearful +weapon by his side, with the conviction of its power +always in mind. It had not been arrived at by any +reflective process; but once the idea had entered his +head, the conviction had followed overwhelmingly in a +multitude of observed little facts to which before he had +given only a languid attention. The abrupt and falter- +ing intonations of the deep voice; the taciturnity put +on like an armor; the deliberate, as if guarded, move- +ments; the long immobilities, as if the man he watched +had been afraid to disturb the very air: every familiar +gesture, every word uttered in his hearing, every sigh +overheard, had acquired a special significance, a con- +firmatory import. + +Every day that passed over the Sofala appeared to +Sterne simply crammed full with proofs--with incon- +trovertible proofs. At night, when off duty, he would +steal out of his cabin in pyjamas (for more proofs) and +stand a full hour, perhaps, on his bare feet below the +bridge, as absolutely motionless as the awning stanchion +in its deck socket near by. On the stretches of easy +navigation it is not usual for a coasting captain to re- +main on deck all the time of his watch. The Serang +keeps it for him as a matter of custom; in open water, +on a straight course, he is usually trusted to look after +the ship by himself. But this old man seemed incapable +of remaining quietly down below. No doubt he could +not sleep. And no wonder. This was also a proof. +Suddenly in the silence of the ship panting upon the +still, dark sea, Sterne would hear a low voice above him +exclaiming nervously-- + +"Serang!" + +"Tuan!" + +"You are watching the compass well?" + +"Yes, I am watching, Tuan." + +"The ship is making her course?" + +"She is, Tuan. Very straight." + +"It is well; and remember, Serang, that the order +is that you are to mind the helmsmen and keep a look- +out with care, the same as if I were not on deck." + +Then, when the Serang had made his answer, the low +tones on the bridge would cease, and everything round +Sterne seemed to become more still and more profoundly +silent. Slightly chilled and with his back aching a little +from long immobility, he would steal away to his room +on the port side of the deck. He had long since parted +with the last vestige of incredulity; of the original +emotions, set into a tumult by the discovery, some trace +of the first awe alone remained. Not the awe of the +man himself--he could blow him up sky-high with six +words--rather it was an awestruck indignation at the +reckless perversity of avarice (what else could it be?), +at the mad and somber resolution that for the sake of a +few dollars more seemed to set at naught the common +rule of conscience and pretended to struggle against +the very decree of Providence. + +You could not find another man like this one in the +whole round world--thank God. There was something +devilishly dauntless in the character of such a deception +which made you pause. + +Other considerations occurring to his prudence had +kept him tongue-tied from day to day. It seemed to +him now that it would yet have been easier to speak out +in the first hour of discovery. He almost regretted not +having made a row at once. But then the very mon- +strosity of the disclosure . . . Why! He could hardly +face it himself, let alone pointing it out to somebody +else. Moreover, with a desperado of that sort one never +knew. The object was not to get him out (that was +as well as done already), but to step into his place. +Bizarre as the thought seemed he might have shown +fight. A fellow up to working such a fraud would have +enough cheek for anything; a fellow that, as it were, +stood up against God Almighty Himself. He was a +horrid marvel--that's what he was: he was perfectly +capable of brazening out the affair scandalously till he +got him (Sterne) kicked out of the ship and everlast- +ingly damaged his prospects in this part of the East. +Yet if you want to get on something must be risked. At +times Sterne thought he had been unduly timid of taking +action in the past; and what was worse, it had come to +this, that in the present he did not seem to know what +action to take. + +Massy's savage moroseness was too disconcerting. It +was an incalculable factor of the situation. You could +not tell what there was behind that insulting ferocity. +How could one trust such a temper; it did not put +Sterne in bodily fear for himself, but it frightened him +exceedingly as to his prospects. + +Though of course inclined to credit himself with ex- +ceptional powers of observation, he had by now lived +too long with his discovery. He had gone on looking +at nothing else, till at last one day it occurred to him +that the thing was so obvious that no one could miss +seeing it. There were four white men in all on board +the Sofala. Jack, the second engineer, was too dull to +notice anything that took place out of his engine-room. +Remained Massy--the owner--the interested person-- +nearly going mad with worry. Sterne had heard and +seen more than enough on board to know what ailed him; +but his exasperation seemed to make him deaf to cau- +tious overtures. If he had only known it, there was the +very thing he wanted. But how could you bargain with +a man of that sort? It was like going into a tiger's den +with a piece of raw meat in your hand. He was as +likely as not to rend you for your pains. In fact, he +was always threatening to do that very thing; and the +urgency of the case, combined with the impossibility of +handling it with safety, made Sterne in his watches below +toss and mutter open-eyed in his bunk, for hours, as +though he had been burning with fever. + +Occurrences like the crossing of the bar just now were +extremely alarming to his prospects. He did not want +to be left behind by some swift catastrophe. Massy be- +ing on the bridge, the old man had to brace himself up +and make a show, he supposed. But it was getting very +bad with him, very bad indeed, now. Even Massy had +been emboldened to find fault this time; Sterne, listen- +ing at the foot of the ladder, had heard the other's +whimpering and artless denunciations. Luckily the +beast was very stupid and could not see the why of all +this. However, small blame to him; it took a clever man +to hit upon the cause. Nevertheless, it was high time to +do something. The old man's game could not be kept +up for many days more. + +"I may yet lose my life at this fooling--let alone my +chance," Sterne mumbled angrily to himself, after the +stooping back of the chief engineer had disappeared +round the corner of the skylight. Yes, no doubt--he +thought; but to blurt out his knowledge would not ad- +vance his prospects. On the contrary, it would blast +them utterly as likely as not. He dreaded another +failure. He had a vague consciousness of not being +much liked by his fellows in this part of the world; inex- +plicably enough, for he had done nothing to them. +Envy, he supposed. People were always down on a +clever chap who made no bones about his determination +to get on. To do your duty and count on the gratitude +of that brute Massy would be sheer folly. He was a bad +lot. Unmanly! A vicious man! Bad! Bad! A brute! +A brute without a spark of anything human about him; +without so much as simple curiosity even, or else surely +he would have responded in some way to all these hints +he had been given. . . . Such insensibility was almost +mysterious. Massy's state of exasperation seemed to +Sterne to have made him stupid beyond the ordinary +silliness of shipowners. + +Sterne, meditating on the embarrassments of that stu- +pidity, forgot himself completely. His stony, unwink- +ing stare was fixed on the planks of the deck. + +The slight quiver agitating the whole fabric of the +ship was more perceptible in the silent river, shaded and +still like a forest path. The Sofala, gliding with an +even motion, had passed beyond the coast-belt of mud +and mangroves. The shores rose higher, in firm slop- +ing banks, and the forest of big trees came down to the +brink. Where the earth had been crumbled by the +floods it showed a steep brown cut, denuding a mass of +roots intertwined as if wrestling underground; and in +the air, the interlaced boughs, bound and loaded with +creepers, carried on the struggle for life, mingled their +foliage in one solid wall of leaves, with here and there +the shape of an enormous dark pillar soaring, or a +ragged opening, as if torn by the flight of a cannon- +ball, disclosing the impenetrable gloom within, the +secular inviolable shade of the virgin forest. The +thump of the engines reverberated regularly like the +strokes of a metronome beating the measure of the vast +silence, the shadow of the western wall had fallen across +the river, and the smoke pouring backwards from the +funnel eddied down behind the ship, spread a thin +dusky veil over the somber water, which, checked by +the flood-tide, seemed to lie stagnant in the whole +straight length of the reaches. + +Sterne's body, as if rooted on the spot, trembled slightly +from top to toe with the internal vibration of the ship; +from under his feet came sometimes a sudden clang of +iron, the noisy burst of a shout below; to the right the +leaves of the tree-tops caught the rays of the low sun, +and seemed to shine with a golden green light of their +own shimmering around the highest boughs which stood +out black against a smooth blue sky that seemed to +droop over the bed of the river like the roof of a tent. +The passengers for Batu Beru, kneeling on the planks, +were engaged in rolling their bedding of mats busily; +they tied up bundles, they snapped the locks of wooden +chests. A pockmarked peddler of small wares threw his +head back to drain into his throat the last drops out of +an earthenware bottle before putting it away in a roll +of blankets. Knots of traveling traders standing about +the deck conversed in low tones; the followers of a small +Rajah from down the coast, broad-faced, simple young +fellows in white drawers and round white cotton caps +with their colored sarongs twisted across their bronze +shoulders, squatted on their hams on the hatch, chewing +betel with bright red mouths as if they had been tasting +blood. Their spears, lying piled up together within the +circle of their bare toes, resembled a casual bundle of +dry bamboos; a thin, livid Chinaman, with a bulky +package wrapped up in leaves already thrust under his +arm, gazed ahead eagerly; a wandering Kling rubbed +his teeth with a bit of wood, pouring over the side a +bright stream of water out of his lips; the fat Rajah +dozed in a shabby deck-chair,--and at the turn of every +bend the two walls of leaves reappeared running +parallel along the banks, with their impenetrable solidity +fading at the top to a vaporous mistiness of countless +slender twigs growing free, of young delicate branches +shooting from the topmost limbs of hoary trunks, of +feathery heads of climbers like delicate silver sprays +standing up without a quiver. There was not a sign +of a clearing anywhere; not a trace of human habita- +tion, except when in one place, on the bare end of a low +point under an isolated group of slender tree-ferns, the +jagged, tangled remnants of an old hut on piles ap- +peared with that peculiar aspect of ruined bamboo walls +that look as if smashed with a club. Farther on, half +hidden under the drooping bushes, a canoe containing +a man and a woman, together with a dozen green cocoa- +nuts in a heap, rocked helplessly after the Sofala had +passed, like a navigating contrivance of venturesome +insects, of traveling ants; while two glassy folds of +water streaming away from each bow of the steamer +across the whole width of the river ran with her up +stream smoothly, fretting their outer ends into a brown +whispering tumble of froth against the miry foot of +each bank. + +"I must," thought Sterne, "bring that brute Massy +to his bearings. It's getting too absurd in the end. +Here's the old man up there buried in his chair--he +may just as well be in his grave for all the use he'll ever +be in the world--and the Serang's in charge. Because +that's what he is. In charge. In the place that's mine +by rights. I must bring that savage brute to his bear- +ings. I'll do it at once, too . . ." + +When the mate made an abrupt start, a little brown +half-naked boy, with large black eyes, and the string +of a written charm round his neck, became panic-struck +at once. He dropped the banana he had been munch- +ing, and ran to the knee of a grave dark Arab in flow- +ing robes, sitting like a Biblical figure, incongruously, +on a yellow tin trunk corded with a rope of twisted +rattan. The father, unmoved, put out his hand to pat +the little shaven poll protectingly. + + +XI + +Sterne crossed the deck upon the track of the chief +engineer. Jack, the second, retreating backwards down +the engine-room ladder, and still wiping his hands, +treated him to an incomprehensible grin of white teeth +out of his grimy hard face; Massy was nowhere to be +seen. He must have gone straight into his berth. +Sterne scratched at the door softly, then, putting his +lips to the rose of the ventilator, said-- + +"I must speak to you, Mr. Massy. Just give me a +minute or two." + +"I am busy. Go away from my door." + +"But pray, Mr. Massy . . ." + +"You go away. D'you hear? Take yourself off alto- +gether--to the other end of the ship--quite away . . ." +The voice inside dropped low. "To the devil." + +Sterne paused: then very quietly-- + +"It's rather pressing. When do you think you will +be at liberty, sir?" + +The answer to this was an exasperated "Never"; and +at once Sterne, with a very firm expression of face, +turned the handle. + +Mr. Massy's stateroom--a narrow, one-berth cabin-- +smelt strongly of soap, and presented to view a swept, +dusted, unadorned neatness, not so much bare as barren, +not so much severe as starved and lacking in humanity, +like the ward of a public hospital, or rather (owing to +the small size) like the clean retreat of a desperately +poor but exemplary person. Not a single photograph +frame ornamented the bulkheads; not a single article of +clothing, not as much as a spare cap, hung from the +brass hooks. All the inside was painted in one plain +tint of pale blue; two big sea-chests in sailcloth covers +and with iron padlocks fitted exactly in the space under +the bunk. One glance was enough to embrace all the +strip of scrubbed planks within the four unconcealed +corners. The absence of the usual settee was striking; +the teak-wood top of the washing-stand seemed hermeti- +cally closed, and so was the lid of the writing-desk, +which protruded from the partition at the foot of the +bed-place, containing a mattress as thin as a pancake +under a threadbare blanket with a faded red stripe, and +a folded mosquito-net against the nights spent in harbor. +There was not a scrap of paper anywhere in sight, no +boots on the floor, no litter of any sort, not a speck of +dust anywhere; no traces of pipe-ash even, which, in +a heavy smoker, was morally revolting, like a manifesta- +tion of extreme hypocrisy; and the bottom of the old +wooden arm-chair (the only seat there), polished with +much use, shone as if its shabbiness had been waxed. +The screen of leaves on the bank, passing as if unrolled +endlessly in the round opening of the port, sent a waver- +ing network of light and shade into the place. + +Sterne, holding the door open with one hand, had thrust +in his head and shoulders. At this amazing intrusion +Massy, who was doing absolutely nothing, jumped up +speechless. + +"Don't call names," murmured Sterne hurriedly. "I +won't be called names. I think of nothing but your +good, Mr. Massy." + +A pause as of extreme astonishment followed. They +both seemed to have lost their tongues. Then the mate +went on with a discreet glibness. + +"You simply couldn't conceive what's going on on +board your ship. It wouldn't enter your head for a +moment. You are too good--too--too upright, Mr. +Massy, to suspect anybody of such a . . . It's enough +to make your hair stand on end." + +He watched for the effect: Massy seemed dazed, un- +comprehending. He only passed the palm of his hand +on the coal-black wisps plastered across the top of his +head. In a tone suddenly changed to confidential au- +dacity Sterne hastened on. + +"Remember that there's only six weeks left to +run . . ." The other was looking at him stonily . . . +"so anyhow you shall require a captain for the ship +before long." + +Then only, as if that suggestion had scarified his flesh +in the manner of red-hot iron, Massy gave a start and +seemed ready to shriek. He contained himself by a +great effort. + +"Require a captain," he repeated with scathing slow- +ness. "Who requires a captain? You dare to tell me +that I need any of you humbugging sailors to run my +ship. You and your likes have been fattening on me +for years. It would have hurt me less to throw +my money overboard. Pam--pe--red us--e--less +f-f-f-frauds. The old ship knows as much as the best +of you." He snapped his teeth audibly and growled +through them, "The silly law requires a captain." + +Sterne had taken heart of grace meantime. + +"And the silly insurance people too, as well," he said +lightly. "But never mind that. What I want to ask +is: Why shouldn't _I_ do, sir? I don't say but you could +take a steamer about the world as well as any of us +sailors. I don't pretend to tell YOU that it is a very +great trick . . ." He emitted a short, hollow guffaw, +familiarly . . . "I didn't make the law--but there it +is; and I am an active young fellow! I quite hold with +your ideas; I know your ways by this time, Mr. Massy. +I wouldn't try to give myself airs like that--that--er +lazy specimen of an old man up there." + +He put a marked emphasis on the last sentence, to +lead Massy away from the track in case . . . but he +did not doubt of now holding his success. The chief +engineer seemed nonplused, like a slow man invited to +catch hold of a whirligig of some sort. + +"What you want, sir, is a chap with no nonsense about +him, who would be content to be your sailing-master. +Quite right, too. Well, I am fit for the work as much +as that Serang. Because that's what it amounts to. +Do you know, sir, that a dam' Malay like a monkey is +in charge of your ship--and no one else. Just listen +to his feet pit-patting above us on the bridge--real +officer in charge. He's taking her up the river while +the great man is wallowing in the chair--perhaps asleep; +and if he is, that would not make it much worse either-- +take my word for it." + +He tried to thrust himself farther in. Massy, with +lowered forehead, one hand grasping the back of the +arm-chair, did not budge. + +"You think, sir, that the man has got you tight in +his agreement . . ." Massy raised a heavy snarling +face at this . . . "Well, sir, one can't help hearing +of it on board. It's no secret. And it has been the +talk on shore for years; fellows have been making bets +about it. No, sir! It's YOU who have got him at your +mercy. You will say that you can't dismiss him for +indolence. Difficult to prove in court, and so on. Why, +yes. But if you say the word, sir, I can tell you some- +thing about his indolence that will give you the clear +right to fire him out on the spot and put me in charge +for the rest of this very trip--yes, sir, before we leave +Batu Beru--and make him pay a dollar a day for his +keep till we get back, if you like. Now, what do you +think of that? Come, sir. Say the word. It's really +well worth your while, and I am quite ready to take +your bare word. A definite statement from you would +be as good as a bond." + +His eyes began to shine. He insisted. A simple state- +ment,--and he thought to himself that he would man- +age somehow to stick in his berth as long as it suited +him. He would make himself indispensable; the ship +had a bad name in her port; it would be easy to scare +the fellows off. Massy would have to keep him. + +"A definite statement from me would be enough," +Massy repeated slowly. + +"Yes, sir. It would." Sterne stuck out his chin +cheerily and blinked at close quarters with that uncon- +scious impudence which had the power to enrage Massy +beyond anything. + +The engineer spoke very distinctly. + +"Listen well to me, then, Mr. Sterne: I wouldn't-- +d'ye hear?--I wouldn't promise you the value of two +pence for anything YOU can tell me." + +He struck Sterne's arm away with a smart blow, and +catching hold of the handle pulled the door to. The +terrific slam darkened the cabin instantaneously to his +eye as if after the flash of an explosion. At once he +dropped into the chair. "Oh, no! You don't!" he +whispered faintly. + +The ship had in that place to shave the bank so close +that the gigantic wall of leaves came gliding like a +shutter against the port; the darkness of the primeval +forest seemed to flow into that bare cabin with the odor +of rotting leaves, of sodden soil--the strong muddy smell +of the living earth steaming uncovered after the pass- +ing of a deluge. The bushes swished loudly alongside; +above there was a series of crackling sounds, with a +sharp rain of small broken branches falling on the +bridge; a creeper with a great rustle snapped on the +head of a boat davit, and a long, luxuriant green twig +actually whipped in and out of the open port, leaving +behind a few torn leaves that remained suddenly at rest +on Mr. Massy's blanket. Then, the ship sheering out +in the stream, the light began to return but did not +augment beyond a subdued clearness: for the sun was +very low already, and the river, wending its sinuous +course through a multitude of secular trees as if at the +bottom of a precipitous gorge, had been already in- +vaded by a deepening gloom--the swift precursor of +the night. + +"Oh, no, you don't!" murmured the engineer again. +His lips trembled almost imperceptibly; his hands too, +a little: and to calm himself he opened the writing-desk, +spread out a sheet of thin grayish paper covered with +a mass of printed figures and began to scan them at- +tentively for the twentieth time this trip at least. + +With his elbows propped, his head between his hands, +he seemed to lose himself in the study of an abstruse +problem in mathematics. It was the list of the winning +numbers from the last drawing of the great lottery +which had been the one inspiring fact of so many years +of his existence. The conception of a life deprived of +that periodical sheet of paper had slipped away from +him entirely, as another man, according to his nature, +would not have been able to conceive a world without +fresh air, without activity, or without affection. A +great pile of flimsy sheets had been growing for years +in his desk, while the Sofala, driven by the faithful +Jack, wore out her boilers in tramping up and down the +Straits, from cape to cape, from river to river, from +bay to bay; accumulating by that hard labor of an +overworked, starved ship the blackened mass of these +documents. Massy kept them under lock and key like +a treasure. There was in them, as in the experience +of life, the fascination of hope, the excitement of a half- +penetrated mystery, the longing of a half-satisfied +desire. + +For days together, on a trip, he would shut himself +up in his berth with them: the thump of the toiling +engines pulsated in his ear; and he would weary his +brain poring over the rows of disconnected figures, be- +wildering by their senseless sequence, resembling the +hazards of destiny itself. He nourished a conviction +that there must be some logic lurking somewhere in the +results of chance. He thought he had seen its very +form. His head swam; his limbs ached; he puffed at +his pipe mechanically; a contemplative stupor would +soothe the fretfulness of his temper, like the passive +bodily quietude procured by a drug, while the intellect +remains tensely on the stretch. Nine, nine, aught, four, +two. He made a note. The next winning number of +the great prize was forty-seven thousand and five. These +numbers of course would have to be avoided in the future +when writing to Manilla for the tickets. He mumbled, +pencil in hand . . . "and five. Hm . . . hm." He +wetted his finger: the papers rustled. Ha! But what's +this? Three years ago, in the September drawing, it +was number nine, aught, four, two that took the first +prize. Most remarkable. There was a hint there of +a definite rule! He was afraid of missing some recondite +principle in the overwhelming wealth of his material. +What could it be? and for half an hour he would remain +dead still, bent low over the desk, without twitching a +muscle. At his back the whole berth would be thick +with a heavy body of smoke, as if a bomb had burst +in there, unnoticed, unheard. + +At last he would lock up the desk with the decision of +unshaken confidence, jump and go out. He would +walk swiftly back and forth on that part of the foredeck +which was kept clear of the lumber and of the bodies of +the native passengers. They were a great nuisance, but +they were also a source of profit that could not be dis- +dained. He needed every penny of profit the Sofala +could make. Little enough it was, in all conscience! +The incertitude of chance gave him no concern, since +he had somehow arrived at the conviction that, in the +course of years, every number was bound to have his +winning turn. It was simply a matter of time and of +taking as many tickets as he could afford for every +drawing. He generally took rather more; all the earn- +ings of the ship went that way, and also the wages he +allowed himself as chief engineer. It was the wages he +paid to others that he begrudged with a reasoned and +at the same time a passionate regret. He scowled at +the lascars with their deck brooms, at the quarter- +masters rubbing the brass rails with greasy rags; he +was eager to shake his fist and roar abuse in bad Malay +at the poor carpenter--a timid, sickly, opium-fuddled +Chinaman, in loose blue drawers for all costume, who +invariably dropped his tools and fled below, with stream- +ing tail and shaking all over, before the fury of that +"devil." But it was when he raised up his eyes to the +bridge where one of these sailor frauds was always +planted by law in charge of his ship that he felt almost +dizzy with rage. He abominated them all; it was an +old feud, from the time he first went to sea, an un- +licked cub with a great opinion of himself, in the +engine-room. The slights that had been put upon him. +The persecutions he had suffered at the hands of skip- +pers--of absolute nobodies in a steamship after all. +And now that he had risen to be a shipowner they were +still a plague to him: he had absolutely to pay away +precious money to the conceited useless loafers:--As if +a fully qualified engineer--who was the owner as well-- +were not fit to be trusted with the whole charge of a +ship. Well! he made it pretty warm for them; but it +was a poor consolation. He had come in time to hate +the ship too for the repairs she required, for the coal- +bills he had to pay, for the poor beggarly freights she +earned. He would clench his hand as he walked and hit +the rail a sudden blow, viciously, as though she could +be made to feel pain. And yet he could not do without +er; he needed her; he must hang on to her tooth and +nail to keep his head above water till the expected flood +of fortune came sweeping up and landed him safely on +the high shore of his ambition. + +It was now to do nothing, nothing whatever, and have +plenty of money to do it on. He had tasted of power, +the highest form of it his limited experience was aware +of--the power of shipowning. What a deception! +Vanity of vanities! He wondered at his folly. He had +thrown away the substance for the shadow. Of the +gratification of wealth he did not know enough to excite +his imagination with any visions of luxury. How could +he--the child of a drunken boiler-maker--going +straight from the workshop into the engine-room of a +north-country collier! But the notion of the absolute +idleness of wealth he could very well conceive. He +reveled in it, to forget his present troubles; he imagined +himself walking about the streets of Hull (he knew their +gutters well as a boy) with his pockets full of sov- +ereigns. He would buy himself a house; his married +sisters, their husbands, his old workshop chums, would +render him infinite homage. There would be nothing +to think of. His word would be law. He had been out +of work for a long time before he won his prize, and he +remembered how Carlo Mariani (commonly known as +Paunchy Charley), the Maltese hotel-keeper at the +slummy end of Denham Street, had cringed joyfully +before him in the evening, when the news had come. +Poor Charley, though he made his living by ministering +to various abject vices, gave credit for their food to +many a piece of white wreckage. He was naively over- +joyed at the idea of his old bills being paid, and he +reckoned confidently on a spell of festivities in the +cavernous grog-shop downstairs. Massy remembered +the curious, respectful looks of the "trashy" white men +in the place. His heart had swelled within him. Massy +had left Charley's infamous den directly he had realized +the possibilities open to him, and with his nose in the air. +Afterwards the memory of these adulations was a great +sadness. + +This was the true power of money,--and no trouble +with it, nor any thinking required either. He thought +with difficulty and felt vividly; to his blunt brain the +problems offered by any ordered scheme of life seemed +in their cruel toughness to have been put in his way +by the obvious malevolence of men. As a shipowner +everyone had conspired to make him a nobody. How +could he have been such a fool as to purchase that ac- +cursed ship. He had been abominably swindled; there +was no end to this swindling; and as the difficulties of his +improvident ambition gathered thicker round him, he +really came to hate everybody he had ever come in con- +tact with. A temper naturally irritable and an amazing +sensitiveness to the claims of his own personality had +ended by making of life for him a sort of inferno--a +place where his lost soul had been given up to the tor- +ment of savage brooding. + +But he had never hated anyone so much as that old +man who had turned up one evening to save him from +an utter disaster,--from the conspiracy of the wretched +sailors. He seemed to have fallen on board from the +sky. His footsteps echoed on the empty steamer, and +the strange deep-toned voice on deck repeating inter- +rogatively the words, "Mr. Massy, Mr. Massy there?" +had been startling like a wonder. And coming up from +the depths of the cold engine-room, where he had been +pottering dismally with a candle amongst the enormous +shadows, thrown on all sides by the skeleton limbs of ma- +chinery, Massy had been struck dumb by astonishment +in the presence of that imposing old man with a beard +like a silver plate, towering in the dusk rendered lurid +by the expiring flames of sunset. + +"Want to see me on business? What business? I am +doing no business. Can't you see that this ship is laid +up?" Massy had turned at bay before the pursuing +irony of his disaster. Afterwards he could not believe +his ears. What was that old fellow getting at? Things +don't happen that way. It was a dream. He would +presently wake up and find the man vanished like a +shape of mist. The gravity, the dignity, the firm and +courteous tone of that athletic old stranger impressed +Massy. He was almost afraid. But it was no dream. +Five hundred pounds are no dream. At once he became +suspicious. What did it mean? Of course it was an +offer to catch hold of for dear life. But what could +there be behind? + +Before they had parted, after appointing a meeting +in a solicitor's office early on the morrow, Massy was +asking himself, What is his motive? He spent the night +in hammering out the clauses of the agreement--a +unique instrument of its sort whose tenor got bruited +abroad somehow and became the talk and wonder of the +port. + +Massy's object had been to secure for himself as many +ways as possible of getting rid of his partner without +being called upon at once to pay back his share. Cap- +tain Whalley's efforts were directed to making the money +secure. Was it not Ivy's money--a part of her fortune +whose only other asset was the time-defying body of her +old father? Sure of his forbearance in the strength of +his love for her, he accepted, with stately serenity, +Massy's stupidly cunning paragraphs against his in- +competence, his dishonesty, his drunkenness, for the sake +of other stringent stipulations. At the end of three +years he was at liberty to withdraw from the partner- +ship, taking his money with him. Provision was made +for forming a fund to pay him off. But if he left the +Sofala before the term, from whatever cause (barring +death), Massy was to have a whole year for paying. +"Illness?" the lawyer had suggested: a young man +fresh from Europe and not overburdened with business, +who was rather amused. Massy began to whine unctu- +ously, "How could he be expected? . . ." + +"Let that go," Captain Whalley had said with a +superb confidence in his body. "Acts of God," he +added. In the midst of life we are in death, but he +trusted his Maker with a still greater fearlessness--his +Maker who knew his thoughts, his human affections, and +his motives. His Creator knew what use he was making +of his health--how much he wanted it . . . "I trust +my first illness will be my last. I've never been ill that +I can remember," he had remarked. "Let it go." + +But at this early stage he had already awakened +Massy's hostility by refusing to make it six hundred +instead of five. "I cannot do that," was all he had said, +simply, but with so much decision that Massy desisted +at once from pressing the point, but had thought to +himself, "Can't! Old curmudgeon. WON'T! He must +have lots of money, but he would like to get hold of a +soft berth and the sixth part of my profits for nothing +if he only could." + +And during these years Massy's dislike grew under the +restraint of something resembling fear. The simplicity +of that man appeared dangerous. Of late he had +changed, however, had appeared less formidable and +with a lessened vigor of life, as though he had received +a secret wound. But still he remained incomprehensible +in his simplicity, fearlessness, and rectitude. And when +Massy learned that he meant to leave him at the end of +the time, to leave him confronted with the problem of +boilers, his dislike blazed up secretly into hate. + +It had made him so clear-eyed that for a long time now +Mr. Sterne could have told him nothing he did not +know. He had much ado in trying to terrorize that +mean sneak into silence; he wanted to deal alone with +the situation; and--incredible as it might have ap- +peared to Mr. Sterne--he had not yet given up the de- +sire and the hope of inducing that hated old man to +stay. Why! there was nothing else to do, unless he were +to abandon his chances of fortune. But now, suddenly, +since the crossing of the bar at Batu Beru things +seemed to be coming rapidly to a point. It disquieted +him so much that the study of the winning numbers +failed to soothe his agitation: and the twilight in the +cabin deepened, very somber. + +He put the list away, muttering once more, "Oh, no, +my boy, you don't. Not if I know it." He did not +mean the blinking, eavesdropping humbug to force his +action. He took his head again into his hands; his im- +mobility confined in the darkness of this shut-up little +place seemed to make him a thing apart infinitely re- +moved from the stir and the sounds of the deck. + +He heard them: the passengers were beginning to +jabber excitedly; somebody dragged a heavy box +past his door. He heard Captain Whalley's voice +above-- + +"Stations, Mr. Sterne." And the answer from some- +where on deck forward-- + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +"We shall moor head up stream this time; the ebb +has made." + +"Head up stream, sir." + +"You will see to it, Mr. Sterne." + +The answer was covered by the autocratic clang on the +engine-room gong. The propeller went on beating +slowly: one, two, three; one, two, three--with pauses as +if hesitating on the turn. The gong clanged time after +time, and the water churned this way and that by the +blades was making a great noisy commotion alongside. +Mr. Massy did not move. A shore-light on the other +bank, a quarter of a mile across the river, drifted, no +bigger than a tiny star, passing slowly athwart the cir- +cle of the port. Voices from Mr. Van Wyk's jetty an- +swered the hails from the ship; ropes were thrown and +missed and thrown again; the swaying flame of a torch +carried in a large sampan coming to fetch away in state +the Rajah from down the coast cast a sudden ruddy +glare into his cabin, over his very person. Mr. Massy +did not move. After a few last ponderous turns the +engines stopped, and the prolonged clanging of the +gong signified that the captain had done with them. A +great number of boats and canoes of all sizes boarded +the off-side of the Sofala. Then after a time the tumult +of splashing, of cries, of shuffling feet, of packages +dropped with a thump, the noise of the native passen- +gers going away, subsided slowly. On the shore, a +voice, cultivated, slightly authoritative, spoke very +close alongside-- + +"Brought any mail for me this time?" + +"Yes, Mr. Van Wyk." This was from Sterne, an- +swering over the rail in a tone of respectful cordiality. +"Shall I bring it up to you?" + +But the voice asked again-- + +"Where's the captain?" + +"Still on the bridge, I believe. He hasn't left his +chair. Shall I . . ." + +The voice interrupted negligently. + +"I will come on board." + +"Mr. Van Wyk," Sterne suddenly broke out with an +eager effort, "will you do me the favor . . ." + +The mate walked away quickly towards the gangway. +A silence fell. Mr. Massy in the dark did not move. + +He did not move even when he heard slow shuffling +footsteps pass his cabin lazily. He contented himself +to bellow out through the closed door-- + +"You--Jack!" + +The footsteps came back without haste; the door +handle rattled, and the second engineer appeared in the +opening, shadowy in the sheen of the skylight at his +back, with his face apparently as black as the rest of +his figure. + +"We have been very long coming up this time," Mr. +Massy growled, without changing his attitude. + +"What do you expect with half the boiler tubes +plugged up for leaks." The second defended himself +loquaciously. + +"None of your lip," said Massy. + +"None of your rotten boilers--I say," retorted his +faithful subordinate without animation, huskily. "Go +down there and carry a head of steam on them yourself-- +if you dare. I don't." + +"You aren't worth your salt then," Massy said. The +other made a faint noise which resembled a laugh but +might have been a snarl. + +"Better go slow than stop the ship altogether," he +admonished his admired superior. Mr. Massy moved +at last. He turned in his chair, and grinding his +teeth-- + +"Dam' you and the ship! I wish she were at the +bottom of the sea. Then you would have to starve." + +The trusty second engineer closed the door gently. + +Massy listened. Instead of passing on to the bath- +room where he should have gone to clean himself, the +second entered his cabin, which was next door. Mr. +Massy jumped up and waited. Suddenly he heard the +lock snap in there. He rushed out and gave a violent +kick to the door. + +"I believe you are locking yourself up to get drunk," +he shouted. + +A muffled answer came after a while. + +"My own time." + +"If you take to boozing on the trip I'll fire you out," +Massy cried. + +An obstinate silence followed that threat. Massy +moved away perplexed. On the bank two figures ap- +peared, approaching the gangway. He heard a voice +tinged with contempt-- + +"I would rather doubt your word. But I shall cer- +tainly speak to him of this." + +The other voice, Sterne's, said with a sort of regretful +formality-- + +"Thanks. That's all I want. I must do my duty." + +Mr. Massy was surprised. A short, dapper figure +leaped lightly on the deck and nearly bounded into him +where he stood beyond the circle of light from the gang- +way lamp. When it had passed towards the bridge, +after exchanging a hurried "Good evening," Massy +said surlily to Sterne who followed with slow steps-- + +"What is it you're making up to Mr. Van Wyk for, +now?" + +"Far from it, Mr. Massy. I am not good enough for +Mr. Van Wyk. Neither are you, sir, in his opinion, I +am afraid. Captain Whalley is, it seems. He's gone +to ask him to dine up at the house this evening." + +Then he murmured to himself darkly-- + +"I hope he will like it." + + +XII + +Mr. Van Wyk, the white man of Batu Beru, an ex- +naval officer who, for reasons best known to himself, had +thrown away the promise of a brilliant career to become +the pioneer of tobacco-planting on that remote part of +the coast, had learned to like Captain Whalley. The +appearance of the new skipper had attracted his atten- +tion. Nothing more unlike all the diverse types he had +seen succeeding each other on the bridge of the Sofala +could be imagined. + +At that time Batu Beru was not what it has become +since: the center of a prosperous tobacco-growing dis- +trict, a tropically suburban-looking little settlement of +bungalows in one long street shaded with two rows of +trees, embowered by the flowering and trim luxuriance +of the gardens, with a three-mile-long carriage-road for +the afternoon drives and a first-class Resident with a +fat, cheery wife to lead the society of married estate- +managers and unmarried young fellows in the service +of the big companies. + +All this prosperity was not yet; and Mr. Van Wyk +prospered alone on the left bank on his deep clearing +carved out of the forest, which came down above and +below to the water's edge. His lonely bungalow faced +across the river the houses of the Sultan: a restless and +melancholy old ruler who had done with love and war, +for whom life no longer held any savor (except of evil +forebodings) and time never had any value. He was +afraid of death, and hoped he would die before the white +men were ready to take his country from him. He +crossed the river frequently (with never less than ten +boats crammed full of people), in the wistful hope of +extracting some information on the subject from his +own white man. There was a certain chair on the +veranda he always took: the dignitaries of the court +squatted on the rugs and skins between the furniture: +the inferior people remained below on the grass plot +between the house and the river in rows three or four +deep all along the front. Not seldom the visit began at +daybreak. Mr. Van Wyk tolerated these inroads. He +would nod out of his bedroom window, tooth-brush or +razor in hand, or pass through the throng of courtiers in +his bathing robe. He appeared and disappeared hum- +ming a tune, polished his nails with attention, rubbed +his shaved face with eau-de-Cologne, drank his early +tea, went out to see his coolies at work: returned, looked +through some papers on his desk, read a page or two +in a book or sat before his cottage piano leaning back +on the stool, his arms extended, fingers on the keys, his +body swaying slightly from side to side. When abso- +lutely forced to speak he gave evasive vaguely soothing +answers out of pure compassion: the same feeling per- +haps made him so lavishly hospitable with the aerated +drinks that more than once he left himself without soda- +water for a whole week. That old man had granted him +as much land as he cared to have cleared: it was neither +more nor less than a fortune. + +Whether it was fortune or seclusion from his kind that +Mr. Van Wyk sought, he could not have pitched upon +a better place. Even the mail-boats of the subsidized +company calling on the veriest clusters of palm-thatched +hovels along the coast steamed past the mouth of Batu +Beru river far away in the offing. The contract was +old: perhaps in a few years' time, when it had expired, +Batu Beru would be included in the service; meantime +all Mr. Van Wyk's mail was addressed to Malacca, +whence his agent sent it across once a month by the +Sofala. It followed that whenever Massy had run short +of money (through taking too many lottery tickets), +or got into a difficulty about a skipper, Mr. Van Wyk +was deprived of his letter and newspapers. In so far +he had a personal interest in the fortunes of the Sofala. +Though he considered himself a hermit (and for no +passing whim evidently, since he had stood eight years +of it already), he liked to know what went on in the +world. + +Handy on the veranda upon a walnut etagere (it had +come last year by the Sofala--everything came by the +Sofala) there lay, piled up under bronze weights, a pile +of the Times' weekly edition, the large sheets of the +Rotterdam Courant, the Graphic in its world-wide +green wrappers, an illustrated Dutch publication with- +out a cover, the numbers of a German magazine with +covers of the "Bismarck malade" color. There were +also parcels of new music--though the piano (it had +come years ago by the Sofala in the damp atmosphere +of the forests was generally out of tune. It was vexing +to be cut off from everything for sixty days at a stretch +sometimes, without any means of knowing what was the +matter. And when the Sofala reappeared Mr. Van Wyk +would descend the steps of the veranda and stroll over +the grass plot in front of his house, down to the water- +side, with a frown on his white brow. + +"You've been laid up after an accident, I presume." + +He addressed the bridge, but before anybody could +answer Massy was sure to have already scrambled ashore +over the rail and pushed in, squeezing the palms of his +hands together, bowing his sleek head as if gummed all +over the top with black threads and tapes. And he +would be so enraged at the necessity of having to offer +such an explanation that his moaning would be posi- +tively pitiful, while all the time he tried to compose +his big lips into a smile. + +"No, Mr. Van Wyk. You would not believe it. I +couldn't get one of those wretches to take the ship out. +Not a single one of the lazy beasts could be induced, +and the law, you know, Mr. Van Wyk . . ." + +He moaned at great length apologetically; the words +conspiracy, plot, envy, came out prominently, whined +with greater energy. Mr. Van Wyk, examining with +a faint grimace his polished finger-nails, would say, +"H'm. Very unfortunate," and turn his back on him. + +Fastidious, clever, slightly skeptical, accustomed to the +best society (he had held a much-envied shore appoint- +ment at the Ministry of Marine for a year preceding +his retreat from his profession and from Europe), he +possessed a latent warmth of feeling and a capacity for +sympathy which were concealed by a sort of haughty, +arbitrary indifference of manner arising from his early +training; and by a something an enemy might have +called foppish, in his aspect--like a distorted echo of +past elegance. He managed to keep an almost mili- +tary discipline amongst the coolies of the estate he had +dragged into the light of day out of the tangle and +shadows of the jungle; and the white shirt he put +on every evening with its stiff glossy front and high +collar looked as if he had meant to preserve the decent +ceremony of evening-dress, but had wound a thick crim- +son sash above his hips as a concession to the wilderness, +once his adversary, now his vanquished companion. + +Moreover, it was a hygienic precaution. Worn wide +open in front, a short jacket of some airy silken stuff +floated from his shoulders. His fluffy, fair hair, thin +at the top, curled slightly at the sides; a carefully ar- +ranged mustache, an ungarnished forehead, the gleam +of low patent shoes peeping under the wide bottom of +trowsers cut straight from the same stuff as the gossa- +mer coat, completed a figure recalling, with its sash, a +pirate chief of romance, and at the same time the ele- +gance of a slightly bald dandy indulging, in seclusion, +a taste for unorthodox costume. + +It was his evening get-up. The proper time for the +Sofala to arrive at Batu Beru was an hour before sun- +set, and he looked picturesque, and somehow quite cor- +rect too, walking at the water's edge on the background +of grass slope crowned with a low long bungalow with +an immensely steep roof of palm thatch, and clad to the +eaves in flowering creepers. While the Sofala was being +made fast he strolled in the shade of the few trees left +near the landing-place, waiting till he could go on +board. Her white men were not of his kind. The old +Sultan (though his wistful invasions were a nuisance) +was really much more acceptable to his fastidious taste. +But still they were white; the periodical visits of the +ship made a break in the well-filled sameness of the +days without disturbing his privacy. Moreover, they +were necessary from a business point of view; and +through a strain of preciseness in his nature he was +irritated when she failed to appear at the appointed +time. + +The cause of the irregularity was too absurd, and +Massy, in his opinion, was a contemptible idiot. The +first time the Sofala reappeared under the new agree- +ment swinging out of the bend below, after he had +almost given up all hope of ever seeing her again, he +felt so angry that he did not go down at once to the +landing-place. His servants had come running to him +with the news, and he had dragged a chair close against +the front rail of the veranda, spread his elbows out, +rested his chin on his hands, and went on glaring at +her fixedly while she was being made fast opposite his +house. He could make out easily all the white faces on +board. Who on earth was that kind of patriarch they +had got there on the bridge now? + +At last he sprang up and walked down the gravel path. +It was a fact that the very gravel for his paths had +been imported by the Sofala. Exasperated out of his +quiet superciliousness, without looking at anyone right +or left, he accosted Massy straightway in so determined +a manner that the engineer, taken aback, began to +stammer unintelligibly. Nothing could be heard but +the words: "Mr. Van Wyk . . . Indeed, Mr. Van +Wyk . . . For the future, Mr. Van Wyk"--and by the +suffusion of blood Massy's vast bilious face acquired an +unnatural orange tint, out of which the disconcerted +coal-black eyes shone in an extraordinary manner. + +"Nonsense. I am tired of this. I wonder you have +the impudence to come alongside my jetty as if I had +it made for your convenience alone." + +Massy tried to protest earnestly. Mr. Van Wyk was +very angry. He had a good mind to ask that German +firm--those people in Malacca--what was their name?-- +boats with green funnels. They would be only too glad +of the opening to put one of their small steamers on +the run. Yes; Schnitzler, Jacob Schnitzler, would in a +moment. Yes. He had decided to write without delay. + +In his agitation Massy caught up his falling pipe. + +"You don't mean it, sir!" he shrieked. + +"You shouldn't mismanage your business in this +ridiculous manner." + +Mr. Van Wyk turned on his heel. The other three +whites on the bridge had not stirred during the scene. +Massy walked hastily from side to side, puffed out his +cheeks, suffocated. + +"Stuck up Dutchman!" + +And he moaned out feverishly a long tale of griefs. +The efforts he had made for all these years to please +that man. This was the return you got for it, eh? +Pretty. Write to Schnitzler--let in the green-funnel +boats--get an old Hamburg Jew to ruin him. No, +really he could laugh. . . . He laughed sobbingly. . . . +Ha! ha! ha! And make him carry the letter in his own +ship presumably. + +He stumbled across a grating and swore. He would +not hesitate to fling the Dutchman's correspondence +overboard--the whole confounded bundle. He had +never, never made any charge for that accommodation. +But Captain Whalley, his new partner, would not let +him probably; besides, it would be only putting off the +evil day. For his own part he would make a hole in the +water rather than look on tamely at the green funnels +overrunning his trade. + +He raved aloud. The China boys hung back with the +dishes at the foot of the ladder. He yelled from the +bridge down at the deck, "Aren't we going to have any +chow this evening at all?" then turned violently to +Captain Whalley, who waited, grave and patient, at +the head of the table, smoothing his beard in silence +now and then with a forbearing gesture. + +"You don't seem to care what happens to me. Don't +you see that this affects your interests as much as mine? +It's no joking matter." + +He took the foot of the table growling between his +teeth. + +"Unless you have a few thousands put away some- +where. I haven't." + +Mr. Van Wyk dined in his thoroughly lit-up bunga- +low, putting a point of splendor in the night of his +clearing above the dark bank of the river. Afterwards +he sat down to his piano, and in a pause he became aware +of slow footsteps passing on the path along the front. +A plank or two creaked under a heavy tread; he swung +half round on the music-stool, listening with his finger- +tips at rest on the keyboard. His little terrier barked +violently, backing in from the veranda. A deep voice +apologized gravely for "this intrusion." He walked out +quickly. + +At the head of the steps the patriarchal figure, who +was the new captain of the Sofala apparently (he had +seen a round dozen of them, but not one of that sort), +towered without advancing. The little dog barked un- +ceasingly, till a flick of Mr. Van Wyk's handkerchief +made him spring aside into silence. Captain Whalley, +opening the matter, was met by a punctiliously polite +but determined opposition. + +They carried on their discussion standing where they +had come face to face. Mr. Van Wyk observed his +visitor with attention. Then at last, as if forced out of +his reserve-- + +"I am surprised that you should intercede for such a +confounded fool." + +This outbreak was almost complimentary, as if its +meaning had been, "That such a man as you should +intercede!" Captain Whalley let it pass by without +flinching. One would have thought he had heard noth- +ing. He simply went on to state that he was personally +interested in putting things straight between them. +Personally . . . + +But Mr. Van Wyk, really carried away by his disgust +with Massy, became very incisive-- + +"Indeed--if I am to be frank with you--his whole +character does not seem to me particularly estimable or +trustworthy . . ." + +Captain Whalley, always straight, seemed to grow an +inch taller and broader, as if the girth of his chest had +suddenly expanded under his beard. + +"My dear sir, you don't think I came here to discuss +a man with whom I am--I am--h'm--closely asso- +ciated." + +A sort of solemn silence lasted for a moment. He was +not used to asking favors, but the importance he at- +tached to this affair had made him willing to try. . . . +Mr. Van Wyk, favorably impressed, and suddenly mol- +lified by a desire to laugh, interrupted-- + +"That's all right if you make it a personal matter; +but you can do no less than sit down and smoke a cigar +with me." + +A slight pause, then Captain Whalley stepped forward +heavily. As to the regularity of the service, for the +future he made himself responsible for it; and his name +was Whalley--perhaps to a sailor (he was speaking to +a sailor, was he not?) not altogether unfamiliar. There +was a lighthouse now, on an island. Maybe Mr. Van +Wyk himself . . . + +"Oh yes. Oh indeed." Mr. Van Wyk caught on at +once. He indicated a chair. How very interesting. +For his own part he had seen some service in the last +Acheen War, but had never been so far East. Whalley +Island? Of course. Now that was very interesting. +What changes his guest must have seen since. + +"I can look further back even--on a whole half- +century." + +Captain Whalley expanded a bit. The flavor of a +good cigar (it was a weakness) had gone straight to his +heart, also the civility of that young man. There was +something in that accidental contact of which he had +been starved in his years of struggle. + +The front wall retreating made a square recess fur- +nished like a room. A lamp with a milky glass shade, +suspended below the slope of the high roof at the end +of a slender brass chain, threw a bright round of light +upon a little table bearing an open book and an ivory +paper-knife. And, in the translucent shadows beyond, +other tables could be seen, a number of easy-chairs of +various shapes, with a great profusion of skin rugs +strewn on the teakwood planking all over the veranda. +The flowering creepers scented the air. Their foliage +clipped out between the uprights made as if several +frames of thick unstirring leaves reflecting the lamp- +light in a green glow. Through the opening at his +elbow Captain Whalley could see the gangway lantern +of the Sofala burning dim by the shore, the shadowy +masses of the town beyond the open lustrous darkness +of the river, and, as if hung along the straight edge +of the projecting eaves, a narrow black strip of the +night sky full of stars--resplendent. The famous cigar +in hand he had a moment of complacency. + +"A trifle. Somebody must lead the way. I just +showed that the thing could be done; but you men +brought up to the use of steam cannot conceive the +vast importance of my bit of venturesomeness to +the Eastern trade of the time. Why, that new route +reduced the average time of a southern passage by +eleven days for more than half the year. Eleven days! +It's on record. But the remarkable thing--speaking +to a sailor--I should say was . . ." + +He talked well, without egotism, professionally. The +powerful voice, produced without effort, filled the +bungalow even into the empty rooms with a deep and +limpid resonance, seemed to make a stillness outside; +and Mr. Van Wyk was surprised by the serene quality +of its tone, like the perfection of manly gentleness. +Nursing one small foot, in a silk sock and a patent +leather shoe, on his knee, he was immensely entertained. +It was as if nobody could talk like this now, and the +overshadowed eyes, the flowing white beard, the big +frame, the serenity, the whole temper of the man, were +an amazing survival from the prehistoric times of the +world coming up to him out of the sea. + +Captain Whalley had been also the pioneer of the early +trade in the Gulf of Pe-tchi-li. He even found occasion +to mention that he had buried his "dear wife" there +six-and-twenty years ago. Mr. Van Wyk, impassive, +could not help speculating in his mind swiftly as to +the sort of woman that would mate with such a man. +Did they make an adventurous and well-matched pair? +No. Very possible she had been small, frail, no doubt +very feminine--or most likely commonplace with do- +mestic instincts, utterly insignificant. But Captain +Whalley was no garrulous bore, and shaking his head +as if to dissipate the momentary gloom that had settled +on his handsome old face, he alluded conversationally to +Mr. Van Wyk's solitude. + +Mr. Van Wyk affirmed that sometimes he had more +company than he wanted. He mentioned smilingly +some of the peculiarities of his intercourse with "My +Sultan." He made his visits in force. Those people +damaged his grass plot in front (it was not easy to +obtain some approach to a lawn in the tropics, and the +other day had broken down some rare bushes he had +planted over there. And Captain Whalley remembered +immediately that, in 'forty-seven, the then Sultan, "this +man's grandfather," had been notorious as a great pro- +tector of the piratical fleets of praus from farther East. +They had a safe refuge in the river at Batu Beru. He +financed more especially a Balinini chief called Haji +Daman. Captain Whalley, nodding significantly his +bushy white eyebrows, had very good reason to know +something of that. The world had progressed since +that time. + +Mr. Van Wyk demurred with unexpected acrimony. +Progressed in what? he wanted to know. + +Why, in knowledge of truth, in decency, in justice, in +order--in honesty too, since men harmed each other +mostly from ignorance. It was, Captain Whalley con- +cluded quaintly, more pleasant to live in. + +Mr. Van Wyk whimsically would not admit that Mr. +Massy, for instance, was more pleasant naturally than +the Balinini pirates. + +The river had not gained much by the change. They +were in their way every bit as honest. Massy was less +ferocious than Haji Daman no doubt, but . . . + +"And what about you, my good sir?" Captain +Whalley laughed a deep soft laugh. "YOU are an im- +provement, surely." + +He continued in a vein of pleasantry. A good cigar +was better than a knock on the head--the sort of wel- +come he would have found on this river forty or fifty +years ago. Then leaning forward slightly, he became +earnestly serious. It seems as if, outside their own sea- +gypsy tribes, these rovers had hated all mankind with +an incomprehensible, bloodthirsty hatred. Meantime +their depredations had been stopped, and what was the +consequence? The new generation was orderly, peace- +able, settled in prosperous villages. He could speak +from personal knowledge. And even the few survivors +of that time--old men now--had changed so much, that +it would have been unkind to remember against them +that they had ever slit a throat in their lives. He had +one especially in his mind's eye: a dignified, venerable +headman of a certain large coast village about sixty +miles sou'west of Tampasuk. It did one's heart good +to see him--to hear that man speak. He might have +been a ferocious savage once. What men wanted was +to be checked by superior intelligence, by superior +knowledge, by superior force too--yes, by force held in +trust from God and sanctified by its use in accordance +with His declared will. Captain Whalley believed a dis- +position for good existed in every man, even if the +world were not a very happy place as a whole. In the +wisdom of men he had not so much confidence. The dis- +position had to be helped up pretty sharply sometimes, +he admitted. They might be silly, wrongheaded, un- +happy; but naturally evil--no. There was at bottom +a complete harmlessness at least . . . + +"Is there?" Mr. Van Wyk snapped acrimoniously. + +Captain Whalley laughed at the interjection, in the +good humor of large, tolerating certitude. He could +look back at half a century, he pointed out. The smoke +oozed placidly through the white hairs hiding his kindly +lips. + +"At all events," he resumed after a pause, "I am +glad that they've had no time to do you much harm as +yet." + +This allusion to his comparative youthfulness did not +offend Mr. Van Wyk, who got up and wriggled his +shoulders with an enigmatic half-smile. They walked +out together amicably into the starry night towards +the river-side. Their footsteps resounded unequally on +the dark path. At the shore end of the gangway the +lantern, hung low to the handrail, threw a vivid light +on the white legs and the big black feet of Mr. Massy +waiting about anxiously. From the waist upwards he +remained shadowy, with a row of buttons gleaming up +to the vague outline of his chin. + +"You may thank Captain Whalley for this," Mr. Van +Wyk said curtly to him before turning away. + +The lamps on the veranda flung three long squares +of light between the uprights far over the grass. A bat +flitted before his face like a circling flake of velvety +blackness. Along the jasmine hedge the night air +seemed heavy with the fall of perfumed dew; flower- +beds bordered the path; the clipped bushes uprose in +dark rounded clumps here and there before the house; +the dense foliage of creepers filtered the sheen of the +lamplight within in a soft glow all along the front; +and everything near and far stood still in a great im- +mobility, in a great sweetness. + +Mr. Van Wyk (a few years before he had had occasion +to imagine himself treated more badly than anybody +alive had ever been by a woman) felt for Captain +Whalley's optimistic views the disdain of a man who +had once been credulous himself. His disgust with the +world (the woman for a time had filled it for him com- +pletely) had taken the form of activity in retirement, +because, though capable of great depth of feeling, he +was energetic and essentially practical. But there was +in that uncommon old sailor, drifting on the outskirts +of his busy solitude, something that fascinated his +skepticism. His very simplicity (amusing enough) was +like a delicate refinement of an upright character. The +striking dignity of manner could be nothing else, in a +man reduced to such a humble position, but the ex- +pression of something essentially noble in the character. +With all his trust in mankind he was no fool; the seren- +ity of his temper at the end of so many years, since it +could not obviously have been appeased by success, wore +an air of profound wisdom. Mr. Van Wyk was amused +at it sometimes. Even the very physical traits of the +old captain of the Sofala, his powerful frame, his re- +poseful mien, his intelligent, handsome face, the big +limbs, the benign courtesy, the touch of rugged severity +in the shaggy eyebrows, made up a seductive person- +ality. Mr. Van Wyk disliked littleness of every kind, +but there was nothing small about that man, and in +the exemplary regularity of many trips an intimacy had +grown up between them, a warm feeling at bottom under +a kindly stateliness of forms agreeable to his fastidious- +ness. + +They kept their respective opinions on all worldly +matters. His other convictions Captain Whalley never +intruded. The difference of their ages was like another +bond between them. Once, when twitted with the un- +charitableness of his youth, Mr. Van Wyk, running his +eye over the vast proportions of his interlocutor, re- +torted in friendly banter-- + +"Oh. You'll come to my way of thinking yet. You'll +have plenty of time. Don't call yourself old: you look +good for a round hundred." + +But he could not help his stinging incisiveness, and +though moderating it by an almost affectionate smile, +he added-- + +"And by then you will probably consent to die from +sheer disgust." + +Captain Whalley, smiling too, shook his head. "God +forbid!" + +He thought that perhaps on the whole he deserved +something better than to die in such sentiments. The +time of course would have to come, and he trusted to +his Maker to provide a manner of going out of which +he need not be ashamed. For the rest he hoped he +would live to a hundred if need be: other men had been +known; it would be no miracle. He expected no miracles. + +The pronounced, argumentative tone caused Mr. Van +Wyk to raise his head and look at him steadily. Cap- +tain Whalley was gazing fixedly with a rapt expression, +as though he had seen his Creator's favorable decree +written in mysterious characters on the wall. He kept +perfectly motionless for a few seconds, then got his vast +bulk on to his feet so impetuously that Mr. Van Wyk +was startled. + +He struck first a heavy blow on his inflated chest: and, +throwing out horizontally a big arm that remained +steady, extended in the air like the limb of a tree on +a windless day-- + +"Not a pain or an ache there. Can you see this shake +in the least?" + +His voice was low, in an awing, confident contrast with +the headlong emphasis of his movements. He sat down +abruptly. + +"This isn't to boast of it, you know. I am nothing," +he said in his effortless strong voice, that seemed to +come out as naturally as a river flows. He picked up the +stump of the cigar he had laid aside, and added peace- +fully, with a slight nod, "As it happens, my life is +necessary; it isn't my own, it isn't--God knows." + +He did not say much for the rest of the evening, but +several times Mr. Van Wyk detected a faint smile of +assurance flitting under the heavy mustache. + +Later on Captain Whalley would now and then consent +to dine "at the house." He could even be induced to +drink a glass of wine. "Don't think I am afraid of it, +my good sir," he explained. "There was a very good +reason why I should give it up." + +On another occasion, leaning back at ease, he remarked, +"You have treated me most--most humanely, my dear +Mr. Van Wyk, from the very first." + +"You'll admit there was some merit," Mr. Van Wyk +hinted slyly. "An associate of that excellent Massy. +. . . Well, well, my dear captain, I won't say a word +against him." + +"It would be no use your saying anything against +him," Captain Whalley affirmed a little moodily. "As +I've told you before, my life--my work, is necessary, not +for myself alone. I can't choose" . . . He paused, +turned the glass before him right round. . . . "I have +an only child--a daughter." + +The ample downward sweep of his arm over the table +seemed to suggest a small girl at a vast distance. "I +hope to see her once more before I die. Meantime it's +enough to know that she has me sound and solid, thank +God. You can't understand how one feels. Bone of my +bone, flesh of my flesh; the very image of my poor wife. +Well, she . . ." + +Again he paused, then pronounced stoically the words, +"She has a hard struggle." + +And his head fell on his breast, his eyebrows remained +knitted, as by an effort of meditation. But generally his +mind seemed steeped in the serenity of boundless trust +in a higher power. Mr. Van Wyk wondered sometimes +how much of it was due to the splendid vitality of the +man, to the bodily vigor which seems to impart some- +thing of its force to the soul. But he had learned to +like him very much. + + +XIII + +This was the reason why Mr. Sterne's confidential com- +munication, delivered hurriedly on the shore alongside +the dark silent ship, had disturbed his equanimity. It +was the most incomprehensible and unexpected thing +that could happen; and the perturbation of his spirit +was so great that, forgetting all about his letters, he ran +rapidly up the bridge ladder. + +The portable table was being put together for dinner +to the left of the wheel by two pig-tailed "boys," who +as usual snarled at each other over the job, while another, +a doleful, burly, very yellow Chinaman, resembling Mr. +Massy, waited apathetically with the cloth over his arm +and a pile of thick dinner-plates against his chest. A +common cabin lamp with its globe missing, brought up +from below, had been hooked to the wooden framework +of the awning; the side-screens had been lowered all +round; Captain Whalley filling the depths of the wicker- +chair seemed to sit benumbed in a canvas tent crudely +lighted, and used for the storing of nautical objects; a +shabby steering-wheel, a battered brass binnacle on a +stout mahogany stand, two dingy life-buoys, an old cork +fender lying in a corner, dilapidated deck-lockers with +loops of thin rope instead of door-handles. + +He shook off the appearance of numbness to return +Mr. Van Wyk's unusually brisk greeting, but relapsed +directly afterwards. To accept a pressing invitation to +dinner "up at the house" cost him another very visible +physical effort. Mr. Van Wyk, perplexed, folded his +arms, and leaning back against the rail, with his little, +black, shiny feet well out, examined him covertly. + +"I've noticed of late that you are not quite yourself, +old friend." + +He put an affectionate gentleness into the last two +words. The real intimacy of their intercourse had never +been so vividly expressed before. + +"Tut, tut, tut!" + +The wicker-chair creaked heavily. + +"Irritable," commented Mr. Van Wyk to himself; and +aloud, "I'll expect to see you in half an hour, then," he +said negligently, moving off. + +"In half an hour," Captain Whalley's rigid silvery +head repeated behind him as if out of a trance. + +Amidships, below, two voices, close against the engine- +room, could be heard answering each other--one angry +and slow, the other alert. + +"I tell you the beast has locked himself in to get +drunk." + +"Can't help it now, Mr. Massy. After all, a man has +a right to shut himself up in his cabin in his own time." + +"Not to get drunk." + +"I heard him swear that the worry with the boilers +was enough to drive any man to drink," Sterne said +maliciously. + +Massy hissed out something about bursting the door +in. Mr. Van Wyk, to avoid them, crossed in the dark +to the other side of the deserted deck. The planking +of the little wharf rattled faintly under his hasty feet. + +"Mr. Van Wyk! Mr. Van Wyk!" + +He walked on: somebody was running on the path. +"You've forgotten to get your mail." + +Sterne, holding a bundle of papers in his hand, caught +up with him. + +"Oh, thanks." + +But, as the other continued at his elbow, Mr. Van +Wyk stopped short. The overhanging eaves, descend- +ing low upon the lighted front of the bungalow, threw +their black straight-edged shadow into the great body +of the night on that side. Everything was very still. +A tinkle of cutlery and a slight jingle of glasses were +heard. Mr. Van Wyk's servants were laying the table +for two on the veranda. + +"I'm afraid you give me no credit whatever for my +good intentions in the matter I've spoken to you about," +said Sterne. + +"I simply don't understand you." + +"Captain Whalley is a very audacious man, but he +will understand that his game is up. That's all that +anybody need ever know of it from me. Believe me, I +am very considerate in this, but duty is duty. I don't +want to make a fuss. All I ask you, as his friend, is +to tell him from me that the game's up. That will be +sufficient." + +Mr. Van Wyk felt a loathsome dismay at this queer +privilege of friendship. He would not demean himself +by asking for the slightest explanation; to drive the +other away with contumely he did not think prudent-- +as yet, at any rate. So much assurance staggered him. +Who could tell what there could be in it, he thought? +His regard for Captain Whalley had the tenacity of +a disinterested sentiment, and his practical instinct com- +ing to his aid, he concealed his scorn. + +"I gather, then, that this is something grave." + +"Very grave," Sterne assented solemnly, delighted at +having produced an effect at last. He was ready to add +some effusive protestations of regret at the "unavoida- +ble necessity," but Mr. Van Wyk cut him short--very +civilly, however. + +Once on the veranda Mr. Van Wyk put his hands in his +pockets, and, straddling his legs, stared down at a +black panther skin lying on the floor before a rocking- +chair. "It looks as if the fellow had not the pluck +to play his own precious game openly," he thought. + +This was true enough. In the face of Massy's last +rebuff Sterne dared not declare his knowledge. His +object was simply to get charge of the steamer and +keep it for some time. Massy would never forgive him +for forcing himself on; but if Captain Whalley left +the ship of his own accord, the command would devolve +upon him for the rest of the trip; so he hit upon the +brilliant idea of scaring the old man away. A vague +menace, a mere hint, would be enough in such a brazen +case; and, with a strange admixture of compassion, he +thought that Batu Beru was a very good place for +throwing up the sponge. The skipper could go ashore +quietly, and stay with that Dutchman of his. Weren't +these two as thick as thieves together? And on reflec- +tion he seemed to see that there was a way to work the +whole thing through that great friend of the old man's. +This was another brilliant idea. He had an inborn +preference for circuitous methods. In this particular +case he desired to remain in the background as much +as possible, to avoid exasperating Massy needlessly. +No fuss! Let it all happen naturally. + +Mr. Van Wyk all through the dinner was conscious +of a sense of isolation that invades sometimes the close- +ness of human intercourse. Captain Whalley failed +lamentably and obviously in his attempts to eat some- +thing. He seemed overcome by a strange absent- +mindedness. His hand would hover irresolutely, as if +left without guidance by a preoccupied mind. Mr. Van +Wyk had heard him coming up from a long way off in +the profound stillness of the river-side, and had noticed +the irresolute character of the footfalls. The toe of his +boot had struck the bottom stair as though he had come +along mooning with his head in the air right up to the +steps of the veranda. Had the captain of the Sofala +been another sort of man he would have suspected the +work of age there. But one glance at him was enough. +Time--after, indeed, marking him for its own--had +given him up to his usefulness, in which his simple +faith would see a proof of Divine mercy. "How could +I contrive to warn him?" Mr. Van Wyk wondered, as +if Captain Whalley had been miles and miles away, out +of sight and earshot of all evil. He was sickened by +an immense disgust of Sterne. To even mention his +threat to a man like Whalley would be positively inde- +cent. There was something more vile and insulting in +its hint than in a definite charge of crime--the debasing +taint of blackmailing. "What could anyone bring +against him?" he asked himself. This was a limpid +personality. "And for what object?" The Power +that man trusted had thought fit to leave him nothing +on earth that envy could lay hold of, except a bare crust +of bread. + +"Won't you try some of this?" he asked, pushing a +dish slightly. Suddenly it seemed to Mr. Van Wyk that +Sterne might possibly be coveting the command of the +Sofala. His cynicism was quite startled by what looked +like a proof that no man may count himself safe from +his kind unless in the very abyss of misery. An in- +trigue of that sort was hardly worth troubling about, +he judged; but still, with such a fool as Massy to deal +with, Whalley ought to and must be warned. + +At this moment Captain Whalley, bolt upright, the +deep cavities of the eyes overhung by a bushy frown, +and one large brown hand resting on each side of his +empty plate, spoke across the tablecloth abruptly-- + +"Mr. Van Wyk, you've always treated me with the +most humane consideration." + +"My dear captain, you make too much of a simple +fact that I am not a savage." Mr. Van Wyk, utterly +revolted by the thought of Sterne's obscure attempt, +raised his voice incisively, as if the mate had been hiding +somewhere within earshot. "Any consideration I have +been able to show was no more than the rightful due +of a character I've learned to regard by this time with +an esteem that nothing can shake." + +A slight ring of glass made him lift his eyes from the +slice of pine-apple he was cutting into small pieces on +his plate. In changing his position Captain Whalley +had contrived to upset an empty tumbler. + +Without looking that way, leaning sideways on his +elbow, his other hand shading his brow, he groped +shakily for it, then desisted. Van Wyk stared blankly, +as if something momentous had happened all at once. +He did not know why he should feel so startled; but he +forgot Sterne utterly for the moment. + +"Why, what's the matter?" + +And Captain Whalley, half-averted, in a deadened, +agitated voice, muttered-- + +"Esteem!" + +"And I may add something more," Mr. Van Wyk, +very steady-eyed, pronounced slowly. + +"Hold! Enough!" Captain Whalley did not +change his attitude or raise his voice. "Say no more! +I can make you no return. I am too poor even for that +now. Your esteem is worth having. You are not a +man that would stoop to deceive the poorest sort of devil +on earth, or make a ship unseaworthy every time he +takes her to sea." + +Mr. Van Wyk, leaning forward, his face gone pink +all over, with the starched table-napkin over his knees, +was inclined to mistrust his senses, his power of com- +prehension, the sanity of his guest. + +"Where? Why? In the name of God!--what's this? +What ship? I don't understand who . . ." + +"Then, in the name of God, it is I! A ship's unsea- +worthy when her captain can't see. I am going blind." + +Mr. Van Wyk made a slight movement, and sat very +still afterwards for a few seconds; then, with the +thought of Sterne's "The game's up," he ducked under +the table to pick up the napkin which had slipped off +his knees. This was the game that was up. And at +the same time the muffled voice of Captain Whalley +passed over him-- + +"I've deceived them all. Nobody knows." + +He emerged flushed to the eyes. Captain Whalley, +motionless under the full blaze of the lamp, shaded his +face with his hand. + +"And you had that courage?" + +"Call it by what name you like. But you are a hu- +mane man--a--a--gentleman, Mr. Van Wyk. You may +have asked me what I had done with my conscience." + +He seemed to muse, profoundly silent, very still in his +mournful pose. + +"I began to tamper with it in my pride. You begin +to see a lot of things when you are going blind. I +could not be frank with an old chum even. I was not +frank with Massy--no, not altogether. I knew he took +me for a wealthy sailor fool, and I let him. I wanted +to keep up my importance--because there was poor Ivy +away there--my daughter. What did I want to trade +on his misery for? I did trade on it--for her. And +now, what mercy could I expect from him? He would +trade on mine if he knew it. He would hunt the old +fraud out, and stick to the money for a year. Ivy's +money. And I haven't kept a penny for myself. How +am I going to live for a year. A year! In a year there +will be no sun in the sky for her father." + +His deep voice came out, awfully veiled, as though he +had been overwhelmed by the earth of a landslide, and +talking to you of the thoughts that haunt the dead in +their graves. A cold shudder ran down Mr. Van Wyk's +back. + +"And how long is it since you have . . .?" he +began. + +"It was a long time before I could bring myself to +believe in this--this visitation." Captain Whalley +spoke with gloomy patience from under his hand. + +He had not thought he had deserved it. He had begun +by deceiving himself from day to day, from week to +week. He had the Serang at hand there--an old +servant. It came on gradually, and when he could no +longer deceive himself . . . + +His voice died out almost. + +"Rather than give her up I set myself to deceive +you all." + +"It's incredible," whispered Mr. Van Wyk. Captain +Whalley's appalling murmur flowed on. + +"Not even the sign of God's anger could make me +forget her. How could I forsake my child, feeling my +vigor all the time--the blood warm within me? Warm +as yours. It seems to me that, like the blinded Samson, +I would find the strength to shake down a temple upon +my head. She's a struggling woman--my own child +that we used to pray over together, my poor wife and I. +Do you remember that day I as well as told you +that I believed God would let me live to a hundred for +her sake? What sin is there in loving your child? Do +you see it? I was ready for her sake to live for ever. +I half believed I would. I've been praying for death +since. Ha! Presumptuous man--you wanted to +live . . ." + +A tremendous, shuddering upheaval of that big frame, +shaken by a gasping sob, set the glasses jingling all +over the table, seemed to make the whole house tremble +to the roof-tree. And Mr. Van Wyk, whose feeling of +outraged love had been translated into a form of strug- +gle with nature, understood very well that, for that man +whose whole life had been conditioned by action, there +could exist no other expression for all the emotions; that, +to voluntarily cease venturing, doing, enduring, for his +child's sake, would have been exactly like plucking his +warm love for her out of his living heart. Something +too monstrous, too impossible, even to conceive. + +Captain Whalley had not changed his attitude, that +seemed to express something of shame, sorrow, and +defiance. + +"I have even deceived you. If it had not been for +that word 'esteem.' These are not the words for me. +I would have lied to you. Haven't I lied to you? +Weren't you going to trust your property on board this +very trip?" + +"I have a floating yearly policy," Mr. Van Wyk said +almost unwittingly, and was amazed at the sudden crop- +ping up of a commercial detail. + +"The ship is unseaworthy, I tell you. The policy +would be invalid if it were known . . ." + +"We shall share the guilt, then." + +"Nothing could make mine less," said Captain +Whalley. + +He had not dared to consult a doctor; the man would +have perhaps asked who he was, what he was doing; +Massy might have heard something. He had lived on +without any help, human or divine. The very prayers +stuck in his throat. What was there to pray for? and +death seemed as far as ever. Once he got into his cabin +he dared not come out again; when he sat down he dared +not get up; he dared not raise his eyes to anybody's +face; he felt reluctant to look upon the sea or up to +the sky. The world was fading before his great fear +of giving himself away. The old ship was his last +friend; he was not afraid of her; he knew every inch +of her deck; but at her too he hardly dared to look, for +fear of finding he could see less than the day before. +A great incertitude enveloped him. The horizon was +gone; the sky mingled darkly with the sea. Who was +this figure standing over yonder? what was this thing +lying down there? And a frightful doubt of the reality +of what he could see made even the remnant of sight +that remained to him an added torment, a pitfall always +open for his miserable pretense. He was afraid to +stumble inexcusably over something--to say a fatal Yes +or No to a question. The hand of God was upon him, +but it could not tear him away from his child. And, +as if in a nightmare of humiliation, every featureless +man seemed an enemy. + +He let his hand fall heavily on the table. Mr. Van +Wyk, arms down, chin on breast, with a gleam of white +teeth pressing on the lower lip, meditated on Sterne's +"The game's up." + +"The Serang of course does not know." + +"Nobody," said Captain Whalley, with assurance. + +"Ah yes. Nobody. Very well. Can you keep it up +to the end of the trip? That is the last under the agree- +ment with Massy." + +Captain Whalley got up and stood erect, very stately, +with the great white beard lying like a silver breastplate +over the awful secret of his heart. Yes; that was the +only hope there was for him of ever seeing her again, +of securing the money, the last he could do for her, +before he crept away somewhere--useless, a burden, a +reproach to himself. His voice faltered. + +"Think of it! Never see her any more: the only +human being besides myself now on earth that can re- +member my wife. She's just like her mother. Lucky +the poor woman is where there are no tears shed over +those they loved on earth and that remain to pray not +to be led into temptation--because, I suppose, the +blessed know the secret of grace in God's dealings with +His created children." + +He swayed a little, said with austere dignity-- + +"I don't. I know only the child He has given me." + +And he began to walk. Mr. Van Wyk, jumping up, +saw the full meaning of the rigid head, the hesitating +feet, the vaguely extended hand. His heart was beat- +ing fast; he moved a chair aside, and instinctively ad- +vanced as if to offer his arm. But Captain Whalley +passed him by, making for the stairs quite straight. + +"He could not see me at all out of his line," Van Wyk +thought, with a sort of awe. Then going to the head +of the stairs, he asked a little tremulously-- + +"What is it like--like a mist--like . . ." + +Captain Whalley, half-way down, stopped, and turned +round undismayed to answer. + +"It is as if the light were ebbing out of the world. +Have you ever watched the ebbing sea on an open +stretch of sands withdrawing farther and farther away +from you? It is like this--only there will be no flood +to follow. Never. It is as if the sun were growing +smaller, the stars going out one by one. There can't be +many left that I can see by this. But I haven't had the +courage to look of late . . ." He must have been able +to make out Mr. Van Wyk, because he checked him by +an authoritative gesture and a stoical-- + +"I can get about alone yet." + +It was as if he had taken his line, and would accept no +help from men, after having been cast out, like a pre- +sumptuous Titan, from his heaven. Mr. Van Wyk, ar- +rested, seemed to count the footsteps right out of ear- +shot. He walked between the tables, tapping smartly +with his heels, took up a paper-knife, dropped it after +a vague glance along the blade; then happening upon +the piano, struck a few chords again and again, vigor- +ously, standing up before the keyboard with an atten- +tive poise of the head like a piano-tuner; closing it, he +pivoted on his heels brusquely, avoided the little terrier +sleeping trustfully on crossed forepaws, came upon the +stairs next, and, as though he had lost his balance on +the top step, ran down headlong out of the house. His +servants, beginning to clear the table, heard him mutter +to himself (evil words no doubt) down there, and then +after a pause go away with a strolling gait in the direc- +tion of the wharf. + +The bulwarks of the Sofala lying alongside the bank +made a low, black wall on the undulating contour of the +shore. Two masts and a funnel uprose from behind it +with a great rake, as if about to fall: a solid, square +elevation in the middle bore the ghostly shapes of white +boats, the curves of davits, lines of rail and stanchions, +all confused and mingling darkly everywhere; but low +down, amidships, a single lighted port stared out on +the night, perfectly round, like a small, full moon, +whose yellow beam caught a patch of wet mud, the +edge of trodden grass, two turns of heavy cable +wound round the foot of a thick wooden post in the +ground. + +Mr. Van Wyk, peering alongside, heard a muzzy +boastful voice apparently jeering at a person called +Prendergast. It mouthed abuse thickly, choked; then +pronounced very distinctly the word "Murphy," and +chuckled. Glass tinkled tremulously. All these sounds +came from the lighted port. Mr. Van Wyk hesitated, +stooped; it was impossible to look through unless he +went down into the mud. + +"Sterne," he said, half aloud. + +The drunken voice within said gladly-- + +"Sterne--of course. Look at him blink. Look at +him! Sterne, Whalley, Massy. Massy, Whalley, +Sterne. But Massy's the best. You can't come over +him. He would just love to see you starve." + +Mr. Van Wyk moved away, made out farther forward +a shadowy head stuck out from under the awnings as +if on the watch, and spoke quietly in Malay, "Is the +mate asleep?" + +"No. Here, at your service." + +In a moment Sterne appeared, walking as noiselessly +as a cat on the wharf. + +"It's so jolly dark, and I had no idea you would be +down to-night." + +"What's this horrible raving?" asked Mr. Van Wyk, +as if to explain the cause of a shudder than ran over +him audibly. + +"Jack's broken out on a drunk. That's our second. +It's his way. He will be right enough by to-morrow +afternoon, only Mr. Massy will keep on worrying up +and down the deck. We had better get away." + +He muttered suggestively of a talk "up at the house." +He had long desired to effect an entrance there, but Mr. +Van Wyk nonchalantly demurred: it would not, he +feared, be quite prudent, perhaps; and the opaque +black shadow under one of the two big trees left at the +landing-place swallowed them up, impenetrably dense, +by the side of the wide river, that seemed to spin into +threads of glitter the light of a few big stars dropped +here and there upon its outspread and flowing stillness. + +"The situation is grave beyond doubt," Mr. Van Wyk +said. Ghost-like in their white clothes they could not +distinguish each others' features, and their feet made +no sound on the soft earth. A sort of purring was +heard. Mr. Sterne felt gratified by such a beginning. + +"I thought, Mr. Van Wyk, a gentleman of your sort +would see at once how awkwardly I was situated." + +"Yes, very. Obviously his health is bad. Perhaps +he's breaking up. I see, and he himself is well aware-- +I assume I am speaking to a man of sense--he is well +aware that his legs are giving out." + +"His legs--ah!" Mr. Sterne was disconcerted, and +then turned sulky. "You may call it his legs if you +like; what I want to know is whether he intends to clear +out quietly. That's a good one, too! His legs! +Pooh!" + +"Why, yes. Only look at the way he walks." Mr. +Van Wyk took him up in a perfectly cool and undoubt- +ing tone. "The question, however, is whether your +sense of duty does not carry you too far from your true +interest. After all, I too could do something to serve +you. You know who I am." + +"Everybody along the Straits has heard of you, sir." + +Mr. Van Wyk presumed that this meant something +favorable. Sterne had a soft laugh at this pleasantry. +He should think so! To the opening statement, that +the partnership agreement was to expire at the end of +this very trip, he gave an attentive assent. He was +aware. One heard of nothing else on board all the +blessed day long. As to Massy, it was no secret that he +was in a jolly deep hole with these worn-out boilers. +He would have to borrow somewhere a couple of hun- +dred first of all to pay off the captain; and then he +would have to raise money on mortgage upon the ship +for the new boilers--that is, if he could find a lender at +all. At best it meant loss of time, a break in the trade, +short earnings for the year--and there was always the +danger of having his connection filched away from him +by the Germans. It was whispered about that he had +already tried two firms. Neither would have anything +to do with him. Ship too old, and the man too well +known in the place. . . . Mr. Sterne's final rapid wink- +ing remained buried in the deep darkness sibilating with +his whispers. + +"Supposing, then, he got the loan," Mr. Van Wyk +resumed in a deliberate undertone, "on your own show- +ing he's more than likely to get a mortgagee's man +thrust upon him as captain. For my part, I know that +I would make that very stipulation myself if I had to +find the money. And as a matter of fact I am thinking +of doing so. It would be worth my while in many ways. +Do you see how this would bear on the case under dis- +cussion?" + +"Thank you, sir. I am sure you couldn't get any- +body that would care more for your interests." + +"Well, it suits my interest that Captain Whalley +should finish his time. I shall probably take a passage +with you down the Straits. If that can be done, I'll be +on the spot when all these changes take place, and in a +position to look after YOUR interests." + +"Mr. Van Wyk, I want nothing better. I am sure +I am infinitely . . ." + +"I take it, then, that this may be done without any +trouble." + +"Well, sir, what risk there is can't be helped; but +(speaking to you as my employer now) the thing is +more safe than it looks. If anybody had told me of it +I wouldn't have believed it, but I have been looking on +myself. That old Serang has been trained up to the +game. There's nothing the matter with his--his-- +limbs, sir. He's got used to doing things himself in a +remarkable way. And let me tell you, sir, that Cap- +tain Whalley, poor man, is by no means useless. Fact. +Let me explain to you, sir. He stiffens up that old +monkey of a Malay, who knows well enough what to do. +Why, he must have kept captain's watches in all sorts of +country ships off and on for the last five-and-twenty +years. These natives, sir, as long as they have a white +man close at the back, will go on doing the right thing +most surprisingly well--even if left quite to themselves. +Only the white man must be of the sort to put starch +into them, and the captain is just the one for that. +Why, sir, he has drilled him so well that now he needs +hardly speak at all. I have seen that little wrinkled +ape made to take the ship out of Pangu Bay on a +blowy morning and on all through the islands; take +her out first-rate, sir, dodging under the old man's +elbow, and in such quiet style that you could not have +told for the life of you which of the two was doing the +work up there. That's where our poor friend would be +still of use to the ship even if--if--he could no longer +lift a foot, sir. Provided the Serang does not know +that there's anything wrong." + +"He doesn't." + +"Naturally not. Quite beyond his apprehension. +They aren't capable of finding out anything about us, +sir." + +"You seem to be a shrewd man," said Mr. Van Wyk +in a choked mutter, as though he were feeling sick. + +"You'll find me a good enough servant, sir." + +Mr. Sterne hoped now for a handshake at least, but +unexpectedly, with a "What's this? Better not to be +seen together," Mr. Van Wyk's white shape wavered, +and instantly seemed to melt away in the black air under +the roof of boughs. The mate was startled. Yes. +There was that faint thumping clatter. + +He stole out silently from under the shade. The +lighted port-hole shone from afar. His head swam with +the intoxication of sudden success. What a thing it +was to have a gentleman to deal with! He crept aboard, +and there was something weird in the shadowy stretch +of empty decks, echoing with shouts and blows proceed- +ing from a darker part amidships. Mr. Massy was +raging before the door of the berth: the drunken voice +within flowed on undisturbed in the violent racket of +kicks. + +"Shut up! Put your light out and turn in, you +confounded swilling pig--you! D'you hear me, you +beast?" + +The kicking stopped, and in the pause the muzzy +oracular voice announced from within-- + +"Ah! Massy, now--that's another thing. Massy's +deep." + +"Who's that aft there? You, Sterne? He'll drink +himself into a fit of horrors." The chief engineer ap- +peared vague and big at the corner of the engine- +room. + +"He will be good enough for duty to-morrow. I would +let him be, Mr. Massy." + +Sterne slipped away into his berth, and at once had +to sit down. His head swam with exultation. He got +into his bunk as if in a dream. A feeling of profound +peace, of pacific joy, came over him. On deck all was +quiet. + +Mr. Massy, with his ear against the door of Jack's +cabin, listened critically to a deep stertorous breathing +within. This was a dead-drunk sleep. The bout was +over: tranquilized on that score, he too went in, and +with slow wriggles got out of his old tweed jacket. It +was a garment with many pockets, which he used to put +on at odd times of the day, being subject to sudden +chilly fits, and when he felt warmed he would take it off +and hang it about anywhere all over the ship. It would +be seen swinging on belaying-pins, thrown over the +heads of winches, suspended on people's very door- +handles for that matter. Was he not the owner? But +his favorite place was a hook on a wooden awning +stanchion on the bridge, almost against the binnacle. +He had even in the early days more than one tussle on +that point with Captain Whalley, who desired the +bridge to be kept tidy. He had been overawed then. +Of late, though, he had been able to defy his partner +with impunity. Captain Whalley never seemed to +notice anything now. As to the Malays, in their awe +of that scowling man not one of the crew would dream +of laying a hand on the thing, no matter where or what +it swung from. + +With an unexpectedness which made Mr. Massy jump +and drop the coat at his feet, there came from the next +berth the crash and thud of a headlong, jingling, clat- +tering fall. The faithful Jack must have dropped to +sleep suddenly as he sat at his revels, and now had +gone over chair and all, breaking, as it seemed by the +sound, every single glass and bottle in the place. After +the terrific smash all was still for a time in there, as +though he had killed himself outright on the spot. Mr. +Massy held his breath. At last a sleepy uneasy groan- +ing sigh was exhaled slowly on the other side of the +bulkhead. + +"I hope to goodness he's too drunk to wake up now," +muttered Mr. Massy. + +The sound of a softly knowing laugh nearly drove +him to despair. He swore violently under his breath. +The fool would keep him awake all night now for cer- +tain. He cursed his luck. He wanted to forget his +maddening troubles in sleep sometimes. He could detect +no movements. Without apparently making the slight- +est attempt to get up, Jack went on sniggering to him- +self where he lay; then began to speak, where he had +left off as it were-- + +"Massy! I love the dirty rascal. He would like to +see his poor old Jack starve--but just you look where +he has climbed to." . . . He hiccoughed in a superior, +leisurely manner. . . . "Ship-owning it with the best. +A lottery ticket you want. Ha! ha! I will give you +lottery tickets, my boy. Let the old ship sink and the +old chum starve--that's right. He don't go wrong-- +Massy don't. Not he. He's a genius--that man is. +That's the way to win your money. Ship and chum +must go." + +"The silly fool has taken it to heart," muttered Massy +to himself. And, listening with a softened expression +of face for any slight sign of returning drowsiness, he +was discouraged profoundly by a burst of laughter full +of joyful irony. + +"Would like to see her at the bottom of the sea! Oh, +you clever, clever devil! Wish her sunk, eh? I should +think you would, my boy; the damned old thing and +all your troubles with her. Rake in the insurance money +--turn your back on your old chum--all's well--gentle- +man again." + +A grim stillness had come over Massy's face. Only +his big black eyes rolled uneasily. The raving fool. +And yet it was all true. Yes. Lottery tickets, too. +All true. What? Beginning again? He wished he +wouldn't. . . . + +But it was even so. The imaginative drunkard on +the other side of the bulkhead shook off the deathlike +stillness that after his last words had fallen on the dark +ship moored to a silent shore. + +"Don't you dare to say anything against George +Massy, Esquire. When he's tired of waiting he will do +away with her. Look out! Down she goes--chum and +all. He'll know how to . . ." + +The voice hesitated, weary, dreamy, lost, as if dying +away in a vast open space. + +". . . Find a trick that will work. He's up to it-- +never fear . . ." + +He must have been very drunk, for at last the heavy +sleep gripped him with the suddenness of a magic spell, +and the last word lengthened itself into an interminable, +noisy, in-drawn snore. And then even the snoring +stopped, and all was still. + +But it seemed as though Mr. Massy had suddenly come +to doubt the efficacy of sleep as against a man's troubles; +or perhaps he had found the relief he needed in the +stillness of a calm contemplation that may contain the +vivid thoughts of wealth, of a stroke of luck, of long +idleness, and may bring before you the imagined form +of every desire; for, turning about and throwing his +arms over the edge of his bunk, he stood there with his +feet on his favorite old coat, looking out through the +round port into the night over the river. Sometimes +a breath of wind would enter and touch his face, a cool +breath charged with the damp, fresh feel from a vast +body of water. A glimmer here and there was all he +could see of it; and once he might after all suppose he +had dozed off, since there appeared before his vision, +unexpectedly and connected with no dream, a row of +flaming and gigantic figures--three naught seven one +two--making up a number such as you may see on a +lottery ticket. And then all at once the port was no +longer black: it was pearly gray, framing a shore +crowded with houses, thatched roof beyond thatched +roof, walls of mats and bamboo, gables of carved teak +timber. Rows of dwellings raised on a forest of piles +lined the steely band of the river, brimful and still, with +the tide at the turn. This was Batu Beru--and the +day had come. + +Mr. Massy shook himself, put on the tweed coat, and, +shivering nervously as if from some great shock, made +a note of the number. A fortunate, rare hint that. +Yes; but to pursue fortune one wanted money--ready +cash. + +Then he went out and prepared to descend into the +engine-room. Several small jobs had to be seen to, and +Jack was lying dead drunk on the floor of his cabin, +with the door locked at that. His gorge rose at the +thought of work. Ay! But if you wanted to do noth- +ing you had to get first a good bit of money. A +ship won't save you. He cursed the Sofala. True, all +true. He was tired of waiting for some chance that +would rid him at last of that ship that had turned out +a curse on his life. + + +XIV + +The deep, interminable hoot of the steam-whistle had, +in its grave, vibrating note, something intolerable, +which sent a slight shudder down Mr. Van Wyk's back. +It was the early afternoon; the Sofala was leaving Batu +Beru for Pangu, the next place of call. She swung in +the stream, scantily attended by a few canoes, and, glid- +ing on the broad river, became lost to view from the +Van Wyk bungalow. + +Its owner had not gone this time to see her off. Gen- +erally he came down to the wharf, exchanged a few +words with the bridge while she cast off, and waved his +hand to Captain Whalley at the last moment. This day +he did not even go as far as the balustrade of the +veranda. "He couldn't see me if I did," he said to +himself. "I wonder whether he can make out the house +at all." And this thought somehow made him feel more +alone than he had ever felt for all these years. What +was it? six or seven? Seven. A long time. + +He sat on the veranda with a closed book on his knee, +and, as it were, looked out upon his solitude, as if the +fact of Captain Whalley's blindness had opened his +eyes to his own. There were many sorts of heartaches +and troubles, and there was no place where they could +not find a man out. And he felt ashamed, as though +he had for six years behaved like a peevish boy. + +His thought followed the Sofala on her way. On the +spur of the moment he had acted impulsively, turning +to the thing most pressing. And what else could he +have done? Later on he should see. It seemed neces- +sary that he should come out into the world, for a time +at least. He had money--something could be ar- +ranged; he would grudge no time, no trouble, no loss +of his solitude. It weighed on him now--and Captain +Whalley appeared to him as he had sat shading his +eyes, as if, being deceived in the trust of his faith, he +were beyond all the good and evil that can be wrought +by the hands of men. + +Mr. Van Wyk's thoughts followed the Sofala down the +river, winding about through the belt of the coast forest, +between the buttressed shafts of the big trees, through +the mangrove strip, and over the bar. The ship crossed +it easily in broad daylight, piloted, as it happened, by +Mr. Sterne, who took the watch from four to six, and +then went below to hug himself with delight at the pros- +pect of being virtually employed by a rich man--like +Mr. Van Wyk. He could not see how any hitch could +occur now. He did not seem able to get over the feeling +of being "fixed up at last." From six to eight, in the +course of duty, the Serang looked alone after the ship. +She had a clear road before her now till about three in +the morning, when she would close with the Pangu +group. At eight Mr. Sterne came out cheerily to take +charge again till midnight. At ten he was still chir- +ruping and humming to himself on the bridge, and +about that time Mr. Van Wyk's thought abandoned the +Sofala. Mr. Van Wyk had fallen asleep at last. + +Massy, blocking the engine-room companion, jerked +himself into his tweed jacket surlily, while the second +waited with a scowl. + +"Oh. You came out? You sot! Well, what have +you got to say for yourself?" + +He had been in charge of the engines till then. A +somber fury darkened his mind: a hot anger against +the ship, against the facts of life, against the men for +their cheating, against himself too--because of an in- +ward tremor of his heart. + +An incomprehensible growl answered him. + +"What? Can't you open your mouth now? You yelp +out your infernal rot loud enough when you are drunk. +What do you mean by abusing people in that way?-- +you old useless boozer, you!" + +"Can't help it. Don't remember anything about it. +You shouldn't listen." + +"You dare to tell me! What do you mean by going +on a drunk like this!" + +"Don't ask me. Sick of the dam' boilers--you would +be. Sick of life." + +"I wish you were dead, then. You've made me sick +of you. Don't you remember the uproar you made last +night? You miserable old soaker!" + +"No; I don't. Don't want to. Drink is drink." + +"I wonder what prevents me from kicking you out. +What do you want here?" + +"Relieve you. You've been long enough down there, +George." + +"Don't you George me--you tippling old rascal, you! +If I were to die to-morrow you would starve. Remem- +ber that. Say Mr. Massy." + +"Mr. Massy," repeated the other stolidly. + +Disheveled, with dull blood-shot eyes, a snuffy, grimy +shirt, greasy trowsers, naked feet thrust into ragged +slippers, he bolted in head down directly Massy had +made way for him. + +The chief engineer looked around. The deck was +empty as far as the taffrail. All the native passengers +had left in Batu Beru this time, and no others had +joined. The dial of the patent log tinkled periodically +in the dark at the end of the ship. It was a dead calm, +and, under the clouded sky, through the still air that +seemed to cling warm, with a seaweed smell, to her slim +hull, on a sea of somber gray and unwrinkled, the ship +moved on an even keel, as if floating detached in empty +space. But Mr. Massy slapped his forehead, tottered +a little, caught hold of a belaying-pin at the foot of +the mast. + +"I shall go mad," he muttered, walking across the deck +unsteadily. A shovel was scraping loose coal down be- +low--a fire-door clanged. Sterne on the bridge began +whistling a new tune. + +Captain Whalley, sitting on the couch, awake and fully +dressed, heard the door of his cabin open. He did not +move in the least, waiting to recognize the voice, with +an appalling strain of prudence. + +A bulkhead lamp blazed on the white paint, the crim- +son plush, the brown varnish of mahogany tops. The +white wood packing-case under the bed-place had re- +mained unopened for three years now, as though Cap- +tain Whalley had felt that, after the Fair Maid was +gone, there could be no abiding-place on earth for his +affections. His hands rested on his knees; his hand- +some head with big eyebrows presented a rigid profile +to the doorway. The expected voice spoke out at +last. + +"Once more, then. What am I to call you?" + +Ha! Massy. Again. The weariness of it crushed his +heart--and the pain of shame was almost more than he +could bear without crying out. + +"Well. Is it to be 'partner' still?" + +"You don't know what you ask." + +"I know what I want . . ." + +Massy stepped in and closed the door. + +". . . And I am going to have a try for it with you +once more." + +His whine was half persuasive, half menacing. + +"For it's no manner of use to tell me that you are +poor. You don't spend anything on yourself, that's +true enough; but there's another name for that. You +think you are going to have what you want out of me +for three years, and then cast me off without hearing +what I think of you. You think I would have submitted +to your airs if I had known you had only a beggarly +five hundred pounds in the world. You ought to have +told me." + +"Perhaps," said Captain Whalley, bowing his head. +"And yet it has saved you." . . . Massy laughed +scornfully. . . . "I have told you often enough +since." + +"And I don't believe you now. When I think how +I let you lord it over my ship! Do you remember how +you used to bullyrag me about my coat and YOUR bridge? +It was in his way. HIS bridge! 'And I won't be a +party to this--and I couldn't think of doing that.' +Honest man! And now it all comes out. 'I am poor, +and I can't. I have only this five hundred in the world.'" + +He contemplated the immobility of Captain Whalley, +that seemed to present an inconquerable obstacle in +his path. His face took a mournful cast. + +"You are a hard man." + +"Enough," said Captain Whalley, turning upon him. +"You shall get nothing from me, because I have noth- +ing of mine to give away now." + +"Tell that to the marines!" + +Mr. Massy, going out, looked back once; then the door +closed, and Captain Whalley, alone, sat as still as before. +He had nothing of his own--even his past of honor, +of truth, of just pride, was gone. All his spotless life +had fallen into the abyss. He had said his last good-by +to it. But what belonged to HER, that he meant to save. +Only a little money. He would take it to her in his own +hands--this last gift of a man that had lasted too long. +And an immense and fierce impulse, the very passion of +paternity, flamed up with all the unquenched vigor of +his worthless life in a desire to see her face. + +Just across the deck Massy had gone straight to his +cabin, struck a light, and hunted up the note of the +dreamed number whose figures had flamed up also with +the fierceness of another passion. He must contrive +somehow not to miss a drawing. That number meant +something. But what expedient could he contrive to +keep himself going? + +"Wretched miser!" he mumbled. + +If Mr. Sterne could at no time have told him anything +new about his partner, he could have told Mr. Sterne +that another use could be made of a man's affliction than +just to kick him out, and thus defer the term of a diffi- +cult payment for a year. To keep the secret of the +affliction and induce him to stay was a better move. If +without means, he would be anxious to remain; and that +settled the question of refunding him his share. He did +not know exactly how much Captain Whalley was dis- +abled; but if it so happened that he put the ship ashore +somewhere for good and all, it was not the owner's fault +--was it? He was not obliged to know that there was +anything wrong. But probably nobody would raise +such a point, and the ship was fully insured. He had +had enough self-restraint to pay up the premiums. But +this was not all. He could not believe Captain Whalley +to be so confoundedly destitute as not to have some more +money put away somewhere. If he, Massy, could get +hold of it, that would pay for the boilers, and every- +thing went on as before. And if she got lost in the +end, so much the better. He hated her: he loathed the +troubles that took his mind off the chances of fortune. +He wished her at the bottom of the sea, and the in- +surance money in his pocket. And as, baffled, he left +Captain Whalley's cabin, he enveloped in the same +hatred the ship with the worn-out boilers and the man +with the dimmed eyes. + +And our conduct after all is so much a matter of outside +suggestion, that had it not been for his Jack's drunken +gabble he would have there and then had it out with this +miserable man, who would neither help, nor stay, nor +yet lose the ship. The old fraud! He longed to kick +him out. But he restrained himself. Time enough for +that--when he liked. There was a fearful new thought +put into his head. Wasn't he up to it after all? How +that beast Jack had raved! "Find a safe trick to get +rid of her." Well, Jack was not so far wrong. A very +clever trick had occurred to him. Aye! But what of +the risk? + +A feeling of pride--the pride of superiority to com- +mon prejudices--crept into his breast, made his heart +beat fast, his mouth turn dry. Not everybody would +dare; but he was Massy, and he was up to it! + +Six bells were struck on deck. Eleven! He drank a +glass of water, and sat down for ten minutes or so to +calm himself. Then he got out of his chest a small +bull's-eye lantern of his own and lit it. + +Almost opposite his berth, across the narrow passage +under the bridge, there was, in the iron deck-structure +covering the stokehold fiddle and the boiler-space, a +storeroom with iron sides, iron roof, iron-plated floor, +too, on account of the heat below. All sorts of rubbish +was shot there: it had a mound of scrap-iron in a corner; +rows of empty oil-cans; sacks of cotton-waste, with a +heap of charcoal, a deck-forge, fragments of an old hen- +coop, winch-covers all in rags, remnants of lamps, and +a brown felt hat, discarded by a man dead now (of a +fever on the Brazil coast), who had been once mate of +the Sofala, had remained for years jammed forcibly be- +hind a length of burst copper pipe, flung at some time +or other out of the engine-room. A complete and im- +perious blackness pervaded that Capharnaum of for- +gotten things. A small shaft of light from Mr. Massy's +bull's-eye fell slanting right through it. + +His coat was unbuttoned; he shot the bolt of the door +(there was no other opening), and, squatting before the +scrap-heap, began to pack his pockets with pieces of +iron. He packed them carefully, as if the rusty nuts, +the broken bolts, the links of cargo chain, had been so +much gold he had that one chance to carry away. He +packed his side-pockets till they bulged, the breast +pocket, the pockets inside. He turned over the pieces. +Some he rejected. A small mist of powdered rust began +to rise about his busy hands. Mr. Massy knew some- +thing of the scientific basis of his clever trick. If you +want to deflect the magnetic needle of a ship's compass, +soft iron is the best; likewise many small pieces in the +pockets of a jacket would have more effect than a few +large ones, because in that way you obtain a greater +amount of surface for weight in your iron, and it's sur- +face that tells. + +He slipped out swiftly--two strides sufficed--and in +his cabin he perceived that his hands were all red--red +with rust. It disconcerted him, as though he had found +them covered with blood: he looked himself over hastily. +Why, his trowsers too! He had been rubbing his rusty +palms on his legs. + +He tore off the waistband button in his haste, brushed +his coat, washed his hands. Then the air of guilt left +him, and he sat down to wait. + +He sat bolt upright and weighted with iron in his +chair. He had a hard, lumpy bulk against each hip, +felt the scrappy iron in his pockets touch his ribs at +every breath, the downward drag of all these pounds +hanging upon his shoulders. He looked very dull too, +sitting idle there, and his yellow face, with motionless +black eyes, had something passive and sad in its quiet- +ness. + +When he heard eight bells struck above his head, he +rose and made ready to go out. His movements seemed +aimless, his lower lip had dropped a little, his eyes +roamed about the cabin, and the tremendous tension of +his will had robbed them of every vestige of intelligence. + +With the last stroke of the bell the Serang appeared +noiselessly on the bridge to relieve the mate. Sterne +overflowed with good nature, since he had nothing more +to desire. + +"Got your eyes well open yet, Serang? It's middling +dark; I'll wait till you get your sight properly." + +The old Malay murmured, looked up with his worn +eyes, sidled away into the light of the binnacle, and, +crossing his hands behind his back, fixed his eyes on the +compass-card. + +"You'll have to keep a good look-out ahead for +land, about half-past three. It's fairly clear, though. +You have looked in on the captain as you came +along--eh? He knows the time? Well, then, I am +off." + +At the foot of the ladder he stood aside for the captain. +He watched him go up with an even, certain tread, and +remained thoughtful for a moment. "It's funny," he +said to himself, "but you can never tell whether that +man has seen you or not. He might have heard me +breathe this time." + +He was a wonderful man when all was said and done. +They said he had had a name in his day. Mr. Sterne +could well believe it; and he concluded serenely that +Captain Whalley must be able to see people more or less +--as himself just now, for instance--but not being cer- +tain of anybody, had to keep up that unnoticing silence +of manner for fear of giving himself away. Mr. Sterne +was a shrewd guesser. + +This necessity of every moment brought home to Cap- +tain Whalley's heart the humiliation of his falsehood. +He had drifted into it from paternal love, from in- +credulity, from boundless trust in divine justice meted +out to men's feelings on this earth. He would give his +poor Ivy the benefit of another month's work; perhaps +the affliction was only temporary. Surely God would +not rob his child of his power to help, and cast him +naked into a night without end. He had caught at +every hope; and when the evidence of his misfortune +was stronger than hope, he tried not to believe the mani- +fest thing. + +In vain. In the steadily darkening universe a sinister +clearness fell upon his ideas. In the illuminating mo- +ments of suffering he saw life, men, all things, the whole +earth with all her burden of created nature, as he had +never seen them before. + +Sometimes he was seized with a sudden vertigo and an +overwhelming terror; and then the image of his daughter +appeared. Her, too, he had never seen so clearly before. +Was it possible that he should ever be unable to do +anything whatever for her? Nothing. And not see +her any more? Never. + +Why? The punishment was too great for a little pre- +sumption, for a little pride. And at last he came to +cling to his deception with a fierce determination to carry +it out to the end, to save her money intact, and behold +her once more with his own eyes. Afterwards--what? +The idea of suicide was revolting to the vigor of his +manhood. He had prayed for death till the prayers had +stuck in his throat. All the days of his life he had +prayed for daily bread, and not to be led into tempta- +tion, in a childlike humility of spirit. Did words mean +anything? Whence did the gift of speech come? The +violent beating of his heart reverberated in his head-- +seemed to shake his brain to pieces. + +He sat down heavily in the deck-chair to keep the pre- +tense of his watch. The night was dark. All the nights +were dark now. + +"Serang," he said, half aloud. + +"Ada, Tuan. I am here." + +"There are clouds on the sky?" + +"There are, Tuan." + +"Let her be steered straight. North." + +"She is going north, Tuan." + +The Serang stepped back. Captain Whalley recog- +nized Massy's footfalls on the bridge. + +The engineer walked over to port and returned, pass- +ing behind the chair several times. Captain Whalley +detected an unusual character as of prudent care in this +prowling. The near presence of that man brought with +it always a recrudescence of moral suffering for Captain +Whalley. It was not remorse. After all, he had done +nothing but good to the poor devil. There was also +a sense of danger--the necessity of a greater care. + +Massy stopped and said-- + +"So you still say you must go?" + +"I must indeed." + +"And you couldn't at least leave the money for a term +of years?" + +"Impossible." + +"Can't trust it with me without your care, eh?" + +Captain Whalley remained silent. Massy sighed +deeply over the back of the chair. + +"It would just do to save me," he said in a tremulous +voice. + +"I've saved you once." + +The chief engineer took off his coat with careful +movements, and proceeded to feel for the brass hook +screwed into the wooden stanchion. For this purpose he +placed himself right in front of the binnacle, thus hid- +ing completely the compass-card from the quarter- +master at the wheel. "Tuan!" the lascar at last mur- +mured softly, meaning to let the white man know that +he could not see to steer. + +Mr. Massy had accomplished his purpose. The coat +was hanging from the nail, within six inches of the +binnacle. And directly he had stepped aside the quarter- +master, a middle-aged, pock-marked, Sumatra Malay, +almost as dark as a negro, perceived with amazement +that in that short time, in this smooth water, with no +wind at all, the ship had gone swinging far out of her +course. He had never known her get away like this +before. With a slight grunt of astonishment he turned +the wheel hastily to bring her head back north, which +was the course. The grinding of the steering-chains, +the chiding murmurs of the Serang, who had come over +to the wheel, made a slight stir, which attracted Cap- +tain Whalley's anxious attention. He said, "Take +better care." Then everything settled to the usual quiet +on the bridge. Mr. Massy had disappeared. + +But the iron in the pockets of the coat had done its +work; and the Sofala, heading north by the compass, +made untrue by this simple device, was no longer mak- +ing a safe course for Pangu Bay. + +The hiss of water parted by her stem, the throb of her +engines, all the sounds of her faithful and laborious life, +went on uninterrupted in the great calm of the sea join- +ing on all sides the motionless layer of cloud over the +sky. A gentle stillness as vast as the world seemed to +wait upon her path, enveloping her lovingly in a su- +preme caress. Mr. Massy thought there could be no +better night for an arranged shipwreck. + +Run up high and dry on one of the reefs east of +Pangu--wait for daylight--hole in the bottom--out +boats--Pangu Bay same evening. That's about it. As +soon as she touched he would hasten on the bridge, get +hold of the coat (nobody would notice in the dark), +and shake it upside-down over the side, or even fling +it into the sea. A detail. Who could guess? Coat been +seen hanging there from that hook hundreds of times. +Nevertheless, when he sat down on the lower step of the +bridge-ladder his knees knocked together a little. The +waiting part was the worst of it. At times he would +begin to pant quickly, as though he had been running, +and then breathe largely, swelling with the intimate +sense of a mastered fate. Now and then he would hear +the shuffle of the Serang's bare feet up there: quiet, low +voices would exchange a few words, and lapse almost +at once into silence. . . . + +"Tell me directly you see any land, Serang." + +"Yes, Tuan. Not yet." + +"No, not yet," Captain Whalley would agree. + +The ship had been the best friend of his decline. He +had sent all the money he had made by and in the +Sofala to his daughter. His thought lingered on the +name. How often he and his wife had talked over the +cot of the child in the big stern-cabin of the Condor; she +would grow up, she would marry, she would love them, +they would live near her and look at her happiness--it +would go on without end. Well, his wife was dead, to +the child he had given all he had to give; he wished he +could come near her, see her, see her face once, live in +the sound of her voice, that could make the darkness of +the living grave ready for him supportable. He had +been starved of love too long. He imagined her tender- +ness. + +The Serang had been peering forward, and now and +then glancing at the chair. He fidgeted restlessly, and +suddenly burst out close to Captain Whalley-- + +"Tuan, do you see anything of the land?" + +The alarmed voice brought Captain Whalley to his feet +at once. He! See! And at the question, the curse of +his blindness seemed to fall on him with a hundredfold +force. + +"What's the time?" he cried. + +"Half-past three, Tuan." + +"We are close. You MUST see. Look, I say. Look." + +Mr. Massy, awakened by the sudden sound of talking +from a short doze on the lowest step, wondered why he +was there. Ah! A faintness came over him. It is one +thing to sow the seed of an accident and another to see +the monstrous fruit hanging over your head ready to +fall in the sound of agitated voices. + +"There's no danger," he muttered thickly. + +The horror of incertitude had seized upon Captain +Whalley, the miserable mistrust of men, of things--of +the very earth. He had steered that very course thirty- +six times by the same compass--if anything was certain +in this world it was its absolute, unerring correctness. +Then what had happened? Did the Serang lie? Why +lie? Why? Was he going blind too? + +"Is there a mist? Look low on the water. Low down, +I say." + +"Tuan, there's no mist. See for yourself." + +Captain Whalley steadied the trembling of his limbs +by an effort. Should he stop the engines at once and +give himself away. A gust of irresolution swayed all +sorts of bizarre notions in his mind. The unusual had +come, and he was not fit to deal with it. In this passage +of inexpressible anguish he saw her face--the face of +a young girl--with an amazing strength of illusion. +No, he must not give himself away after having gone +so far for her sake. "You steered the course? You +made it? Speak the truth." + +"Ya, Tuan. On the course now. Look." + +Captain Whalley strode to the binnacle, which to him +made such a dim spot of light in an infinity of shape- +less shadow. By bending his face right down to the +glass he had been able before . . . + +Having to stoop so low, he put out, instinctively, his +arm to where he knew there was a stanchion to steady +himself against. His hand closed on something that +was not wood but cloth. The slight pull adding to the +weight, the loop broke, and Mr. Massy's coat falling, +struck the deck heavily with a dull thump, accompanied +by a lot of clicks. + +"What's this?" + +Captain Whalley fell on his knees, with groping hands +extended in a frank gesture of blindness. They trem- +bled, these hands feeling for the truth. He saw it. Iron +near the compass. Wrong course. Wreck her! His +ship. Oh no. Not that. + +"Jump and stop her!" he roared out in a voice not +his own. + +He ran himself--hands forward, a blind man, and +while the clanging of the gong echoed still all over the +ship, she seemed to butt full tilt into the side of a +mountain. + +It was low water along the north side of the strait. +Mr. Massy had not reckoned on that. Instead of run- +ning aground for half her length, the Sofala butted the +sheer ridge of a stone reef which would have been +awash at high water. This made the shock absolutely +terrific. Everybody in the ship that was standing was +thrown down headlong: the shaken rigging made a great +rattling to the very trucks. All the lights went out: +several chain-guys, snapping, clattered against the +funnel: there were crashes, pings of parted wire-rope, +splintering sounds, loud cracks, the masthead lamp flew +over the bows, and all the doors about the deck began +to bang heavily. Then, after having hit, she rebounded, +hit the second time the very same spot like a battering- +ram. This completed the havoc: the funnel, with all +the guys gone, fell over with a hollow sound of thunder, +smashing the wheel to bits, crushing the frame of the +awnings, breaking the lockers, filling the bridge with +a mass of splinters, sticks, and broken wood. Captain +Whalley picked himself up and stood knee-deep in +wreckage, torn, bleeding, knowing the nature of the +danger he had escaped mostly by the sound, and holding +Mr. Massy's coat in his arms. + +By this time Sterne (he had been flung out of his +bunk) had set the engines astern. They worked for a +few turns, then a voice bawled out, "Get out of the +damned engine-room, Jack!"--and they stopped; but +the ship had gone clear of the reef and lay still, with a +heavy cloud of steam issuing from the broken deck- +pipes, and vanishing in wispy shapes into the night. +Notwithstanding the suddenness of the disaster there +was no shouting, as if the very violence of the shock +had half-stunned the shadowy lot of people swaying +here and there about her decks. The voice of the Serang +pronounced distinctly above the confused murmurs-- + +"Eight fathom." He had heaved the lead. + +Mr. Sterne cried out next in a strained pitch-- + +"Where the devil has she got to? Where are we?" + +Captain Whalley replied in a calm bass-- + +"Amongst the reefs to the eastward." + +"You know it, sir? Then she will never get out +again." + +"She will be sunk in five minutes. Boats, Sterne. +Even one will save you all in this calm." + +The Chinaman stokers went in a disorderly rush for +the port boats. Nobody tried to check them. The +Malays, after a moment of confusion, became quiet, +and Mr. Sterne showed a good countenance. Captain +Whalley had not moved. His thoughts were darker +than this night in which he had lost his first ship. + +"He made me lose a ship." + +Another tall figure standing before him amongst the +litter of the smash on the bridge whispered insanely-- + +"Say nothing of it." + +Massy stumbled closer. Captain Whalley heard the +chattering of his teeth. + +"I have the coat." + +"Throw it down and come along," urged the chatter- +ing voice. "B-b-b-b-boat!" + +"You will get fifteen years for this." + +Mr. Massy had lost his voice. His speech was a mere +dry rustling in his throat. + +"Have mercy!" + +"Had you any when you made me lose my ship? Mr. +Massy, you shall get fifteen years for this!" + +"I wanted money! Money! My own money! I will +give you some money. Take half of it. You love +money yourself." + +"There's a justice . . ." + +Massy made an awful effort, and in a strange, half +choked utterance-- + +"You blind devil! It's you that drove me to it." + +Captain Whalley, hugging the coat to his breast, +made no sound. The light had ebbed for ever from the +world--let everything go. But this man should not +escape scot-free. + +Sterne's voice commanded-- + +"Lower away!" + +The blocks rattled. + +"Now then," he cried, "over with you. This way. +You, Jack, here. Mr. Massy! Mr. Massy! Captain! +Quick, sir! Let's get-- + +"I shall go to prison for trying to cheat the insurance, +but you'll get exposed; you, honest man, who has been +cheating me. You are poor. Aren't you? You've +nothing but the five hundred pounds. Well, you have +nothing at all now. The ship's lost, and the insurance +won't be paid." + +Captain Whalley did not move. True! Ivy's money! +Gone in this wreck. Again he had a flash of insight. +He was indeed at the end of his tether. + +Urgent voices cried out together alongside. Massy +did not seem able to tear himself away from the bridge. +He chattered and hissed despairingly-- + +"Give it up to me! Give it up!" + +"No," said Captain Whalley; "I could not give it up. +You had better go. Don't wait, man, if you want to +live. She's settling down by the head fast. No; I shall +keep it, but I shall stay on board." + +Massy did not seem to understand; but the love of life, +awakened suddenly, drove him away from the bridge. + +Captain Whalley laid the coat down, and stumbled +amongst the heaps of wreckage to the side. + +"Is Mr. Massy in with you?" he called out into the +night. + +Sterne from the boat shouted-- + +"Yes; we've got him. Come along, sir. It's madness +to stay longer." + +Captain Whalley felt along the rail carefully, and, +without a word, cast off the painter. They were ex- +pecting him still down there. They were waiting, till +a voice suddenly exclaimed-- + +"We are adrift! Shove off!" + +"Captain Whalley! Leap! . . . pull up a little . . . +leap! You can swim." + +In that old heart, in that vigorous body, there was, +that nothing should be wanting, a horror of death that +apparently could not be overcome by the horror of +blindness. But after all, for Ivy he had carried his +point, walking in his darkness to the very verge of a +crime. God had not listened to his prayers. The light +had finished ebbing out of the world; not a glimmer. It +was a dark waste; but it was unseemly that a Whalley +who had gone so far to carry a point should continue +to live. He must pay the price. + +"Leap as far as you can, sir; we will pick you up." + +They did not hear him answer. But their shouting +seemed to remind him of something. He groped his +way back, and sought for Mr. Massy's coat. He could +swim indeed; people sucked down by the whirlpool of +a sinking ship do come up sometimes to the surface, and +it was unseemly that a Whalley, who had made up his +mind to die, should be beguiled by chance into a +struggle. He would put all these pieces of iron into his +own pockets. + +They, looking from the boat, saw the Sofala, a black +mass upon a black sea, lying still at an appalling cant. +No sound came from her. Then, with a great bizarre +shuffling noise, as if the boilers had broken through the +bulkheads, and with a faint muffled detonation, where +the ship had been there appeared for a moment some- +thing standing upright and narrow, like a rock out of +the sea. Then that too disappeared. + + +When the Sofala failed to come back to Batu Beru at +the proper time, Mr. Van Wyk understood at once that +he would never see her any more. But he did not know +what had happened till some months afterwards, when, +in a native craft lent him by his Sultan, he had made +his way to the Sofala's port of registry, where already +her existence and the official inquiry into her loss was +beginning to be forgotten. + +It had not been a very remarkable or interesting case, +except for the fact that the captain had gone down with +his sinking ship. It was the only life lost; and Mr. Van +Wyk would not have been able to learn any details had +it not been for Sterne, whom he met one day on the quay +near the bridge over the creek, almost on the very spot +where Captain Whalley, to preserve his daughter's five +hundred pounds intact, had turned to get a sampan +which would take him on board the Sofala. + +From afar Mr. Van Wyk saw Sterne blink straight at +him and raise his hand to his hat. They drew into the +shade of a building (it was a bank), and the mate re- +lated how the boat with the crew got into Pangu Bay +about six hours after the accident, and how they had +lived for a fortnight in a state of destitution before they +found an opportunity to get away from that beastly +place. The inquiry had exonerated everybody from all +blame. The loss of the ship was put down to an un- +usual set of the current. Indeed, it could not have been +anything else: there was no other way to account for +the ship being set seven miles to the eastward of her +position during the middle watch. + +"A piece of bad luck for me, sir." + +Sterne passed his tongue on his lips, and glanced aside. +"I lost the advantage of being employed by you, sir. +I can never be sorry enough. But here it is: one man's +poison, another man's meat. This could not have been +handier for Mr. Massy if he had arranged that ship- +wreck himself. The most timely total loss I've ever +heard of." + +"What became of that Massy?" asked Mr. Van Wyk. + +"He, sir? Ha! ha! He would keep on telling me +that he meant to buy another ship; but as soon as he +had the money in his pocket he cleared out for Manilla +by mail-boat early in the morning. I gave him chase +right aboard, and he told me then he was going to make +his fortune dead sure in Manilla. I could go to the +devil for all he cared. And yet he as good as promised +to give me the command if I didn't talk too much." + +"You never said anything . . ." Mr. Van Wyk +began. + +"Not I, sir. Why should I? I mean to get on, but +the dead aren't in my way," said Sterne. His eyelids +were beating rapidly, then drooped for an instant. +"Besides, sir, it would have been an awkward business. +You made me hold my tongue just a bit too long." + +"Do you know how it was that Captain Whalley re- +mained on board? Did he really refuse to leave? Come +now! Or was it perhaps an accidental . . .?" + +"Nothing!" Sterne interrupted with energy. "I tell +you I yelled for him to leap overboard. He simply +MUST have cast off the painter of the boat himself. We +all yelled to him--that is, Jack and I. He wouldn't even +answer us. The ship was as silent as a grave to the last. +Then the boilers fetched away, and down she went. +Accident! Not it! The game was up, sir, I tell you." + +This was all that Sterne had to say. + +Mr. Van Wyk had been of course made the guest of +the club for a fortnight, and it was there that he met +the lawyer in whose office had been signed the agreement +between Massy and Captain Whalley. + +"Extraordinary old man," he said. "He came into +my office from nowhere in particular as you may say, +with his five hundred pounds to place, and that engineer +fellow following him anxiously. And now he is gone out +a little inexplicably, just as he came. I could never +understand him quite. There was no mystery at all +about that Massy, eh? I wonder whether Whalley re- +fused to leave the ship. It would have been foolish. +He was blameless, as the court found." + +Mr. Van Wyk had known him well, he said, and he +could not believe in suicide. Such an act would not +have been in character with what he knew of the man. + +"It is my opinion, too," the lawyer agreed. The gen- +eral theory was that the captain had remained too long +on board trying to save something of importance. Per- +haps the chart which would clear him, or else something +of value in his cabin. The painter of the boat had +come adrift of itself it was supposed. However, strange +to say, some little time before that voyage poor Whalley +had called in his office and had left with him a sealed +envelope addressed to his daughter, to be forwarded to +her in case of his death. Still it was nothing very un- +usual, especially in a man of his age. Mr. Van Wyk +shook his head. Captain Whalley looked good for a +hundred years. + +"Perfectly true," assented the lawyer. "The old +fellow looked as though he had come into the world full- +grown and with that long beard. I could never, some- +how, imagine him either younger or older--don't you +know. There was a sense of physical power about that +man too. And perhaps that was the secret of that some- +thing peculiar in his person which struck everybody who +came in contact with him. He looked indestructible by +any ordinary means that put an end to the rest of us. +His deliberate, stately courtesy of manner was full of +significance. It was as though he were certain of hav- +ing plenty of time for everything. Yes, there was +something indestructible about him; and the way he +talked sometimes you might have thought he believed +it himself. When he called on me last with that letter +he wanted me to take charge of, he was not depressed at +all. Perhaps a shade more deliberate in his talk and +manner. Not depressed in the least. Had he a pre- +sentiment, I wonder? Perhaps! Still it seems a misera- +ble end for such a striking figure." + +"Oh yes! It was a miserable end," Mr. Van Wyk said, +with so much fervor that the lawyer looked up at him +curiously; and afterwards, after parting with him, he +remarked to an acquaintance-- + +"Queer person that Dutch tobacco-planter from Batu +Beru. Know anything of him?" + +"Heaps of money," answered the bank manager. "I +hear he's going home by the next mail to form a com- +pany to take over his estates. Another tobacco district +thrown open. He's wise, I think. These good times +won't last for ever." + +In the southern hemisphere Captain Whalley's daugh- +ter had no presentiment of evil when she opened the +envelope addressed to her in the lawyer's handwriting. +She had received it in the afternoon; all the boarders +had gone out, her boys were at school, her husband sat +upstairs in his big arm-chair with a book, thin-faced, +wrapped up in rugs to the waist. The house was still, +and the grayness of a cloudy day lay against the panes +of three lofty windows. + +In a shabby dining-room, where a faint cold smell of +dishes lingered all the year round, sitting at the end of +a long table surrounded by many chairs pushed in with +their backs close against the edge of the perpetually laid +table-cloth, she read the opening sentence: "Most pro- +found regret--painful duty--your father is no more-- +in accordance with his instructions--fatal casualty-- +consolation--no blame attached to his memory. . . ." + +Her face was thin, her temples a little sunk under the +smooth bands of black hair, her lips remained resolutely +compressed, while her dark eyes grew larger, till at last, +with a low cry, she stood up, and instantly stooped to +pick up another envelope which had slipped off her +knees on to the floor. + +She tore it open, snatched out the inclosure. . . . + +"My dearest child," it said, "I am writing this while +I am able yet to write legibly. I am trying hard to +save for you all the money that is left; I have only kept +it to serve you better. It is yours. It shall not be lost: +it shall not be touched. There's five hundred pounds. +Of what I have earned I have kept nothing back till +now. For the future, if I live, I must keep back some-- +a little--to bring me to you. I must come to you. I +must see you once more. + +"It is hard to believe that you will ever look on these +lines. God seems to have forgotten me. I want to see +you--and yet death would be a greater favor. If you +ever read these words, I charge you to begin by thank- +ing a God merciful at last, for I shall be dead then, and +it will be well. My dear, I am at the end of my tether." + +The next paragraph began with the words: "My sight +is going . . ." + +She read no more that day. The hand holding up the +paper to her eyes fell slowly, and her slender figure in +a plain black dress walked rigidly to the window. Her +eyes were dry: no cry of sorrow or whisper of thanks +went up to heaven from her lips. Life had been too +hard, for all the efforts of his love. It had silenced her +emotions. But for the first time in all these years its +sting had departed, the carking care of poverty, the +meanness of a hard struggle for bread. Even the image +of her husband and of her children seemed to glide away +from her into the gray twilight; it was her father's +face alone that she saw, as though he had come to see +her, always quiet and big, as she had seen him last, but +with something more august and tender in his aspect. + +She slipped his folded letter between the two buttons +of her plain black bodice, and leaning her forehead +against a window-pane remained there till dusk, per- +fectly motionless, giving him all the time she could +spare. Gone! Was it possible? My God, was it possi- +ble! The blow had come softened by the spaces of the +earth, by the years of absence. There had been whole +days when she had not thought of him at all--had no +time. But she had loved him, she felt she had loved +him, after all. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of End of the Tether, by Joseph Conrad + |