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diff --git a/6201.txt b/6201.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5003e15 --- /dev/null +++ b/6201.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8706 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Cumner & South Sea Folk, Complete, by Gilbert Parker + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cumner & South Sea Folk, Complete + +Author: Gilbert Parker + +Posting Date: March 12, 2009 +Release Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #6201] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CUMNER & SOUTH SEA FOLK, COMPLETE *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +CUMNER'S SON AND OTHER SOUTH SEA FOLK + +by Gilbert Parker + + + +CONTENTS + + Volume 1. + CUMNER'S SON + + Volume 2. + THE HIGH COURT OF BUDGERY-GAR + AN EPIC IN YELLOW + DIBBS, R.N. + A LITTLE MASQUERADE + DERELICT + OLD ROSES + MY WIFE'S LOVERS + THE STRANGERS' HUT + + Volume 3. + THE PLANTER'S WIFE + BARBARA GOLDING + THE LONE CORVETTE + + Volume 4. + A SABLE SPARTAN + A VULGAR FRACTION + HOW PANGO WANGO WAS ANNEXED + AN AMIABLE REVENGE + THE BLIND BEGGAR AND THE LITTLE RED PEG + A FRIEND OF THE COMMUNE + + Volume 5. + A PAGAN OF THE SOUTH + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +In a Foreword to Donovan Pasha, published in 1902, I used the following +words: + +"It is now twelve years since I began giving to the public tales of life +in lands well known to me. The first of them were drawn from Australia +and the islands of the southern Pacific, where I had lived and roamed in +the middle and late eighties.... Those tales of the Far South were given +out with some prodigality. They did not appear in book form, however; +for at the time I was sending out these antipodean sketches I was also +writing--far from the scenes where they were laid--a series of Canadian +tales, many of which appeared in the 'Independent' of New York, in +the 'National Observer', edited by Mr. Henley, and in the 'Illustrated +London News'. On the suggestion of my friend Mr. Henley, the Canadian +tales, Pierre and His People, were published first; with the result that +the stories of the southern hemisphere were withheld from publication, +though they have been privately printed and duly copyrighted. Some day +I may send them forth, but meanwhile I am content to keep them in my +care." + +These stories made the collection published eventually under the title +of Cumner's Son, in 1910. They were thus kept for nearly twenty years +without being given to the public in book form. In 1910 I decided, +however, that they should go out and find their place with my readers. +The first story in the book, Cumner's Son, which represents about four +times the length of an ordinary short story, was published in Harper's +Weekly, midway between 1890 and 1900. All the earlier stories belonged +to 1890, 1891, 1892, and 1893. The first of these to be published was +'A Sable Spartan', 'An Amiable Revenge', 'A Vulgar Fraction', and 'How +Pango Wango Was Annexed'. They were written before the Pierre series, +and were instantly accepted by Mr. Frederick Greenwood, that great +journalistic figure of whom the British public still takes note, and for +whom it has an admiring memory, because of his rare gifts as an editor +and publicist, and by a political section of the public, because Mr. +Greenwood recommended to Disraeli the purchase of the Suez Canal shares. +Seventeen years after publishing these stories I had occasion to write +to Frederick Greenwood, and in my letter I said: "I can never forget +that you gave me a leg up in my first struggle for recognition in the +literary world." His reply was characteristic; it was in keeping with +the modest, magnanimous nature of the man. He said: "I cannot remember +that there was any day when you required a leg up." + +While still contributing to the 'Anti-Jacobin', which had a short life +and not a very merry one, I turned my attention to a weekly called 'The +Speaker', to which I have referred elsewhere, edited by Mr. Wemyss Reid, +afterwards Sir Wemyss Reid, and in which Mr. Quiller-Couch was then +writing a striking short story nearly every week. Up to that time I had +only interviewed two editors. One was Mr. Kinloch-Cooke, now Sir Clement +Kinloch-Cooke, who at that time was editor of the 'English Illustrated +Magazine', and a very good, courteous, and generous editor he was, and +he had a very good magazine; the other was an editor whose name I do +not care to mention, because his courtesy was not on the same expansive +level as his vanity. + +One bitter winter's day in 1891 I went to Wemyss Reid to tell him, if +he would hear me, that I had in my mind a series of short stories of +Australia and the South Seas, and to ask him if he could give them a +place in 'The Speaker'. It was a Friday afternoon, and as I went into +the smudgy little office I saw a gentleman with a small brown bag +emerging from another room. + +At that moment I asked for Mr. Wemyss Reid. The gentleman with the +little brown bag stood and looked sharply at me, but with friendly if +penetrating eyes. "I am Wemyss Reid--you wish to see me?" he said. "Will +you give me five minutes?" I asked. "I am just going to the train, but I +will spare you a minute," he replied. He turned back into another smudgy +little room, put his bag on the table, and said: "Well?" I told him +quickly, eagerly, what I wished to do, and I said to him at last: "I +apologise for seeking you personally, but I was most anxious that +my work should be read by your own eyes, because I think I should +be contented with your judgment, whether it was favourable or +unfavourable." Taking up his bag again, he replied, "Send your stories +along. If I think they are what I want I will publish them. I will read +them myself." He turned the handle of the door, and then came back to me +and again looked me in the eyes. "If I cannot use them--and there might +be a hundred reasons why I could not, and none of them derogatory to +your work--" he said, "do not be discouraged. There are many doors. Mine +is only one. Knock at the others. Good luck to you." + +I never saw Wemyss Reid again, but he made a friend who never forgot +him, and who mourned his death. It was not that he accepted my stories; +it was that he said what he did say to a young man who did not yet +know what his literary fortune might be. Well, I sent him a short story +called, 'An Epic in Yellow'. Proofs came by return of post. This story +was followed by 'The High Court of Budgery-Gar', 'Old Roses', 'My Wife's +Lovers', 'Derelict', 'Dibbs, R.N.', 'A Little Masquerade', and 'The +Stranger's Hut'. Most, if not all, of these appeared before the Pierre +stories were written. + +They did not strike the imagination of the public in the same way as the +Pierre series, but they made many friends. They were mostly Australian, +and represented the life which for nearly four years I knew and studied +with that affection which only the young, open-eyed enthusiast, who +makes his first journey in the world, can give. In the same year, for +'Macmillan's Magazine', I wrote 'Barbara Golding' and 'A Pagan of the +South', which was originally published as 'The Woman in the Morgue'. 'A +Friend of the Commune' was also published in the 'English Illustrated +Magazine', and 'The Blind Beggar and the Little Red Peg' found a place +in the 'National Observer' after W. E. Henley had ceased to be its +editor, and Mr. J. C. Vincent, also since dead, had taken his place. +'The Lone Corvette' was published in 'The Westminster Gazette' as late +as 1893. + +Of certain of these stories, particularly of the Australian group, I +have no doubt. They were lifted out of the life of that continent with +sympathy and care, and most of the incidents were those which had come +under my own observation. I published them at last in book form, because +I felt that no definitive edition of my books ought to appear--and I +had then a definitive edition in my mind--without these stories which +represented an early phase in my work. Whatever their degree of merit, +they possess freshness and individuality of outlook. Others could no +doubt have written them better, but none could have written them with +quite the same touch or turn or individuality; and, after all, what we +want in the art of fiction is not a story alone, not an incident of +life or soul simply as an incident, but the incident as seen with the +eye--and that eye as truthful and direct as possible--of one individual +personality. George Meredith and Robert Louis Stevenson might each have +chosen the same subject and the same story, and each have produced a +masterpiece, and yet the world of difference between the way it was +presented by each was the world of difference between the eyes that saw. +So I am content to let these stories speak little or much, but still to +speak for me. + + + + +CUMNER'S SON + + + + +I. THE CHOOSING OF THE MESSENGER + +There was trouble at Mandakan. You could not have guessed it from +anything the eye could see. In front of the Residency two soldiers +marched up and down sleepily, mechanically, between two ten-pounders +marking the limit of their patrol; and an orderly stood at an open door, +lazily shifting his eyes from the sentinels to the black guns, which +gave out soft, quivering waves of heat, as a wheel, spinning, throws +off delicate spray. A hundred yards away the sea spread out, languid and +huge. It was under-tinged with all the colours of a morning sunrise over +Mount Bobar not far beyond, lifting up its somnolent and massive head +into the Eastern sky. "League-long rollers" came in as steady as columns +of infantry, with white streamers flying along the line, and hovering a +moment, split, and ran on the shore in a crumbling foam, like myriads of +white mice hurrying up the sand. + +A little cloud of tobacco smoke came curling out of a window of the +Residency. It was sniffed up by the orderly, whose pipe was in barracks, +and must lie there untouched until evening at least; for he had stood at +this door since seven that morning, waiting orders; and he knew by the +look on Colonel Cumner's face that he might be there till to-morrow. + +But the ordinary spectator could not have noticed any difference in the +general look of things. All was quiet, too, in the big native city. At +the doorways the worker in brass and silver hammered away at his metal, +a sleepy, musical assonance. The naked seller of sweetmeats went by +calling his wares in a gentle, unassertive voice; in dark doorways +worn-eyed women and men gossiped in voices scarce above a whisper; and +brown children fondled each other, laughing noiselessly, or lay asleep +on rugs which would be costly elsewhere. In the bazaars nothing was +selling, and no man did anything but mumble or eat, save the few +scholars who, cross-legged on their mats, read and laboured towards +Nirvana. Priests in their yellow robes and with bare shoulders went by, +oblivious of all things. + +Yet, too, the keen observer could have seen gathered into shaded corners +here and there, a few sombre, low-voiced men talking covertly to each +other. They were not the ordinary gossipers; in the faces of some were +the marks of furtive design, of sinister suggestion. But it was all so +deadly still. + +The gayest, cheeriest person in Mandakan was Colonel Cumner's son. Down +at the opal beach, under a palm-tree, he sat, telling stories of his +pranks at college to Boonda Broke, the half-breed son of a former Dakoon +who had ruled the State of Mandakan when first the English came. The +saddest person in Mandakan was the present Dakoon, in his palace by the +Fountain of the Sweet Waters, which was guarded by four sacred warriors +in stone and four brown men armed with the naked kris. + +The Dakoon was dying, though not a score of people in the city knew it. +He had drunk of the Fountain of Sweet Waters, also of the well that is +by Bakbar; he had eaten of the sweetmeat called the Flower of Bambaba, +his chosen priests had prayed, and his favourite wife had lain all day +and all night at the door of his room, pouring out her soul; but nothing +came of it. + +And elsewhere Boonda Broke was showing Cumner's Son how to throw a kris +towards one object and make it hit another. He gave an illustration by +aiming at a palm-tree and sticking a passing dog behind the shoulder. +The dog belonged to Cumner's Son, and the lad's face suddenly blazed +with anger. He ran to the dog, which had silently collapsed like a +punctured bag of silk, drew out the kris, then swung towards Boonda +Broke, whose cool, placid eyes met his without emotion. + +"You knew that was my dog," he said quickly in English, "and--and I tell +you what, sir, I've had enough of you. A man that'd hit a dog like that +would hit a man the same way." + +He was standing with the crimson kris in his hand above the dog. His +passion was frank, vigorous, and natural. + +Boonda Broke smiled passively. + +"You mean, could hit a man the same way, honoured lord." + +"I mean what I said," answered the lad, and he turned on his heel; but +presently he faced about again, as though with a wish to give his foe +the benefit of any doubt. Though Boonda Broke was smiling, the lad's +face flushed again with anger, for the man's real character had been +revealed to him on the instant, and he was yet in the indignant warmth +of the new experience. If he had known that Boonda Broke had cultivated +his friendship for months, to worm out of him all the secrets of the +Residency, there might have been a violent and immediate conclusion to +the incident, for the lad was fiery, and he had no fear in his heart; +he was combative, high-tempered, and daring. Boonda Broke had learned +no secrets of him, had been met by an unconscious but steady resistance, +and at length his patience had given way in spite of himself. He had +white blood in his veins--fighting Irish blood--which sometimes overcame +his smooth, Oriental secretiveness and cautious duplicity; and this was +one of those occasions. He had flung the knife at the dog with a wish +in his heart that it was Cumner's Son instead. As he stood looking after +the English lad, he said between his teeth with a great hatred, though +his face showed no change: + +"English dog, thou shalt be dead like thy brother there when I am Dakoon +of Mandakan." + +At this moment he saw hurrying towards him one of those natives who, a +little while before, had been in close and furtive talk in the Bazaar. + +Meanwhile the little cloud of smoke kept curling out of the Governor's +door, and the orderly could catch the fitful murmur of talk that +followed it. Presently rifle shots rang out somewhere. Instantly a +tall, broad-shouldered figure, in white undress uniform, appeared in the +doorway and spoke quickly to the orderly. In a moment two troopers were +galloping out of the Residency Square and into the city. Before two +minutes had passed one had ridden back to the orderly, who reported to +the Colonel that the Dakoon had commanded the shooting of five men of +the tribe of the outlaw hill-chief, Pango Dooni, against the rear wall +of the Palace, where the Dakoon might look from his window and see the +deed. + +The Colonel sat up eagerly in his chair, then brought his knuckles down +smartly on the table. He looked sharply at the three men who sat with +him. + +"That clinches it," said he. "One of those fellows was Pango Dooni's +nephew, another was his wife's brother. It's the only thing to do--some +one must go to Pango Dooni, tell him the truth, ask him to come down and +save the place, and sit up there in the Dakoon's place. He'll stand by +us, and by England." + +No one answered at first. Every face was gloomy. At last a grey-haired +captain of artillery spoke his mind in broken sentences: + +"Never do--have to ride through a half-dozen sneaking tribes--Pango +Dooni, rank robber--steal like a barrack cat--besides, no man could get +there. Better stay where we are and fight it out till help comes." + +"Help!" said Cumner bitterly. "We might wait six months before a +man-of-war put in. The danger is a matter of hours. A hundred men, and a +score of niggers--what would that be against thirty thousand natives?" + +"Pango Dooni is as likely to butcher us as the Dakoon," said McDermot, +the captain of artillery. Every man in the garrison had killed at least +one of Pango Dooni's men, and every man of them was known from the Kimar +Gate to the Neck of Baroob, where Pango Dooni lived and ruled. + +The Colonel was not to be moved. "I'd ride the ninety miles myself, if +my place weren't here--no, don't think I doubt you, for I know you all! +But consider the nest of murderers that'll be let loose here when the +Dakoon dies. Better a strong robber with a strong robber's honour to +perch there in the Palace, than Boonda Broke and his cut-throats--" + +"Honour--honour?--Pango Dooni!" broke out McDermot the gunner +scornfully. + +"I know the man," said the Governor gruffly; "I know the man, I tell +you, and I'd take his word for ten thousand pounds, or a thousand head +of cattle. Is there any of you will ride to the Neck of Baroob for me? +For one it must be, and no more--we can spare scarce that, God knows!" +he added sadly. "The women and children--" + +"I will go," said a voice behind them all; and Cumner's Son stepped +forward. "I will go, if I may ride the big sorrel from the Dakoon's +stud." + +The Colonel swung round in his chair and stared mutely at the lad. +He was only eighteen years old, but of good stature, well-knit, and +straight as a sapling. + +Seeing that no one answered him, but sat and stared incredulously, he +laughed a little, frankly and boyishly. "The kris of Boonda Broke is +for the hearts of every one of us," said he. "He may throw it +soon--to-night--to-morrow. No man can leave here--all are needed; but +a boy can ride; he is light in the saddle, and he may pass where a man +would be caught in a rain of bullets. I have ridden the sorrel of the +Dakoon often; he has pressed it on me; I will go to the master of his +stud, and I will ride to the Neck of Baroob." + +"No, no," said one after the other, getting to his feet, "I will go." + +The Governor waved them down. "The lad is right," said he, and he looked +him closely and proudly in the eyes. "By the mercy of God, you shall +ride the ride," said he. "Once when Pango Dooni was in the city, in +disguise, aye, even in the Garden of the Dakoon, the night of the Dance +of the Yellow Fire, I myself helped him to escape, for I stand for +a fearless robber before a cowardly saint." His grey moustache and +eyebrows bristled with energy as he added: "The lad shall go. He shall +carry in his breast the bracelet with the red stone that Pango Dooni +gave me. On the stone is written the countersign that all hillsmen heed, +and the tribe-call I know also." + +"The danger--the danger--and the lad so young!" said McDermot; but yet +his eyes rested lovingly on the boy. + +The Colonel threw up his head in anger. "If I, his father, can let him +go, why should you prate like women? The lad is my son, and he shall win +his spurs--and more, and more, maybe," he added. + +He took from his pocket Pango Dooni's gift and gave it to the lad, and +three times he whispered in his ear the tribe-call and the countersign +that he might know them. The lad repeated them three times, and, with +his finger, traced the countersign upon the stone. + +That night he rode silently out of the Dakoon's palace yard by a quiet +gateway, and came, by a roundabout, to a point near the Residency. + +He halted under a flame-tree, and a man came out of the darkness and +laid a hand upon his knee. + +"Ride straight and swift from the Kimar Gate. Pause by the Koongat +Bridge an hour, rest three hours at the Bar of Balmud, and pause again +where the roof of the Brown Hermit drums to the sorrel's hoofs. Ride for +the sake of the women and children and for your own honour. Ride like a +Cumner, lad." + +The last sound of the sorrel's hoofs upon the red dust beat in the +Colonel's ears all night long, as he sat waiting for news from the +Palace, the sentinels walking up and down, the orderly at the door, and +Boonda Broke plotting in the town. + + + + +II. "REST AT THE KOONGAT BRIDGE AN HOUR" + +There was no moon, and but few stars were shining. When Cumner's Son +first set out from Mandakan he could scarcely see at all, and he kept +his way through the native villages more by instinct than by sight. +As time passed he saw more clearly; he could make out the figures of +natives lying under trees or rising from their mats to note the flying +horseman. Lights flickered here and there in the houses and by the +roadside. A late traveller turned a cake in the ashes or stirred some +rice in a calabash; an anxious mother put some sandalwood on the coals +and added incense, that the gods might be good to the ailing child +on the mat; and thrice, at forges in the village, he saw the smith +languidly beating iron into shape, while dark figures sat on the floor +near by, and smoked and murmured to each other. + +These last showed alertness at the sound of the flying sorrel's hoofs, +and all at once a tall, keen-eyed horseman sprang to the broad doorway +and strained his eyes into the night after Cumner's Son. He waited a few +moments; then, as if with a sudden thought, he ran to a horse tethered +near by and vaulted into the saddle. At a word his chestnut mare got +away with telling stride in pursuit of the unknown rider, passing up the +Gap of Mandakan like a ghost. + +Cumner's Son had a start by about half a mile, but Tang-a-Dahit rode a +mare that had once belonged to Pango Dooni, and Pango Dooni had got her +from Colonel Cumner the night he escaped from Mandakan. + +For this mare the hill-chief had returned no gift save the gold bracelet +which Cumner's Son now carried in his belt. + +The mare leaned low on her bit, and travelled like a thirsty hound +to water, the sorrel tugged at the snaffle, and went like a bullmoose +hurrying to his herd, + + "That long low gallop that can tire + The hounds' deep hate or hunter's fire." + +The pace was with the sorrel. Cumner's Son had not looked behind after +the first few miles, for then he had given up thought that he might +be followed. He sat in his saddle like a plainsman; he listened like a +hillsman; he endured like an Arab water-carrier. There was not an ounce +of useless flesh on his body, and every limb, bone, and sinew had +been stretched and hardened by riding with the Dakoon's horsemen, by +travelling through the jungle for the tiger and the panther, by throwing +the kris with Boonda Broke, fencing with McDermot, and by sabre practice +with red-headed Sergeant Doolan in the barracks by the Residency Square. +After twenty miles' ride he was dry as a bone, after thirty his skin +was moist but not damp, and there was not a drop of sweat on the +skin-leather of his fatigue cap. When he got to Koongat Bridge he was +like a racer after practice, ready for a fight from start to finish. Yet +he was not foolhardy. He knew the danger that beset him, for he could +not tell, in the crisis come to Mandakan, what designs might be abroad. +He now saw through Boonda Broke's friendship for him, and he only found +peace for his mind upon the point by remembering that he had told no +secrets, had given no information of any use to the foes of the Dakoon +or the haters of the English. + +On this hot, long, silent ride he looked back carefully, but he could +not see where he had been to blame; and, if he were, he hoped to strike +a balance with his own conscience for having been friendly to Boonda +Broke, and to justify himself in his father's eyes. If he came through +all right, then "the Governor"--as he called his father, with the +friendly affection of a good comrade, and as all others in Mandakan +called him because of his position--the Governor then would say that +whatever harm he had done indirectly was now undone. + +He got down at the Koongat Bridge, and his fingers were still in the +sorrel's mane when he heard the call of a bittern from the river bank. +He did not loose his fingers, but stood still and listened intently, for +there was scarcely a sound of the plain, the river, or jungle he did +not know, and his ear was keen to balance 'twixt the false note and the +true. He waited for the sound again. From that first call he could not +be sure which had startled him--the night was so still--the voice of a +bird or the call between men lying in ambush. He tried the trigger of +his pistol softly, and prepared to mount. As he did so, the call rang +out across the water again, a little louder, a little longer. + +Now he was sure. It was not from a bittern--it was a human voice, of +whose tribe he knew not--Pango Dooni's, Boonda Broke's, the Dakoon's, +or the segments of peoples belonging to none of these--highway robbers, +cattle-stealers, or the men of the jungle, those creatures as wild and +secret as the beasts of the bush and more cruel and more furtive. + +The fear of the ambushed thing is the worst fear of this world--the +sword or the rifle-barrel you cannot see and the poisoned wooden spear +which the men of the jungle throw gives a man ten deaths, instead of +one. + +Cumner's Son mounted quickly, straining his eyes to see and keeping his +pistol cocked. When he heard the call a second time he had for a moment +a thrill of fear, not in his body, but in his brain. He had that fatal +gift, imagination, which is more alive than flesh and bone, stronger +than iron and steel. In his mind he saw a hundred men rise up from +ambush, surround him, and cut him down. He saw himself firing a +half-dozen shots, then drawing his sword and fighting till he fell; but +he did fall in the end, and there was an end of it. It seemed like years +while these visions passed through his mind, but it was no longer than +it took to gather the snaffle-rein close to the sorrel's neck, draw his +sword, clinch it in his left hand with the rein, and gather the pistol +snugly in his right. He listened again. As he touched the sorrel with +his knee he thought he heard a sound ahead. + +The sorrel sprang forward, sniffed the air, and threw up his head. His +feet struck the resounding timbers of the bridge, and, as they did so, +he shied; but Cumner's Son, looking down sharply, could see nothing to +either the right or left--no movement anywhere save the dim trees on the +banks waving in the light wind which had risen. A crocodile slipped off +a log into the water--he knew that sound; a rank odour came from the +river bank--he knew the smell of the hippopotamus. + +These very things gave him new courage. Since he came from Eton to +Mandakan he had hunted often and well, and once he had helped to quarry +the Little Men of the Jungle when they carried off the wife and daughter +of a soldier of the Dakoon. The smell and the sound of wild life roused +all the hunter in him. He had fear no longer; the primitive emotion of +fighting or self-defence was alive in him. + +He had left the bridge behind by twice the horse's length, when, all at +once, the call of the red bittern rang out the third time, louder than +before; then again; and then the cry of a grey wolf came in response. + +His peril was upon him. He put spurs to the sorrel. As he did so, dark +figures sprang up on all sides of him. Without a word he drove the +excited horse at his assailants. Three caught his bridle-rein, and +others snatched at him to draw him from his horse. + +"Hands off!" he cried, in the language of Mandakan, and levelled his +pistol. + +"He is English!" said a voice. "Cut him down!" + +"I am the Governor's son," said the lad. "Let go." "Cut him down!" +snarled the voice again. + +He fired twice quickly. + +Then he remembered the tribe-call given his father by Pango Dooni. +Rising in his saddle and firing again, he called it out in a loud voice. +His plunging horse had broken away from two of the murderers; but one +still held on, and he slashed the hand free with his sword. + +The natives were made furious by the call, and came on again, striking +at him with their krises. He shouted the tribe-call once more, but this +time it was done involuntarily. There was no response in front of him; +but one came from behind. There was clattering of hoofs on Koongat +Bridge, and the password of the clan came back to the lad, even as a +kris struck him in the leg and drew out again. Once again he called, and +suddenly a horseman appeared beside him, who clove through a native's +head with a broadsword, and with a pistol fired at the fleeing figures; +for Boonda Broke's men who were thus infesting the highway up to Koongat +Bridge, and even beyond, up to the Bar of Balmud, hearing the newcomer +shout the dreaded name of Pango Dooni, scattered for their lives, though +they were yet twenty to two. One stood his ground, and it would have +gone ill for Cumner's Son, for this thief had him at fatal advantage, +had it not been for the horseman who had followed the lad from the +forge-fire to Koongat Bridge. He stood up in his stirrups and cut down +with his broadsword, so that the blade was driven through the head and +shoulders of his foe as a woodsman splits a log half through, and grunts +with the power of his stroke. + +Then he turned to the lad. + +"What stranger calls by the word of our tribe?" he asked. + +"I am Cumner's Son," was the answer, "and my father is brother-in-blood +with Pango Dooni. I ride to Pango Dooni for the women and children's +sake." + +"Proof! Proof! If you be Cumner's Son, another word should be yours." + +The Colonel's Son took out the bracelet from his breast. "It is safe hid +here," said he, "and hid also under my tongue. If you be from the Neck +of Baroob you will know it when I speak it;" and he spoke reverently the +sacred countersign. + +By a little fire kindled in the road, the bodies of their foe beside +them, they vowed to each other, mingling their blood from dagger pricks +in the arm. Then they mounted again and rode towards the Neck of Baroob. + +In silence they rode awhile, and at last the hillsman said: "If fathers +be brothers-in-blood, behold it is good that sons be also." + +By this the lad knew that he was now brother-in-blood to the son of +Pango Dooni. + + + + +III. THE CODE OF THE HILLS + +"You travel near to Mandakan!" said the lad. "Do you ride with a +thousand men?" + +"For a thousand men there are ten thousand eyes to see; I travel alone +and safe," answered Tang-a-Dahit. + +"To thrust your head in the tiger's jaw," said Cumner's Son. "Did you +ride to be in at the death of the men of your clan?" + +"A man will ride for a face that he loves, even to the Dreadful Gates," +answered Tang-a-Dahit. "But what is this of the men of my clan?" + +Then the lad told him of those whose heads hung on the rear Palace wall, +where the Dakoon lay dying, and why he rode to Pango Dooni. + +"It is fighting and fighting, naught but fighting," said Tang-a-Dahit +after a pause; "and there is no peace. It is fighting and fighting, +for honour, and glory, and houses and cattle, but naught for love, and +naught that there may be peace." + +Cumner's Son turned round in his saddle as if to read the face of the +man, but it was too dark. + +"And naught that there maybe peace." Those were the words of a hillsman +who had followed him furiously in the night ready to kill, who had +cloven the head of a man like a piece of soap, and had been riding even +into Mandakan where a price was set on his head. + +For long they rode silently, and in that time Cumner's Son found new +thoughts; and these thoughts made him love the brown hillsman as he had +never loved any save his own father. + +"When there is peace in Mandakan," said he at last, "when Boonda Broke +is snapped in two like a pencil, when Pango Dooni sits as Dakoon in the +Palace of Mandakan--" + +"There is a maid in Mandakan," interrupted Tanga-Dahit, "and these two +years she has lain upon her bed, and she may not be moved, for the bones +of her body are as the soft stems of the lily, but her face is a perfect +face, and her tongue has the wisdom of God." + +"You ride to her through the teeth of danger?" + +"She may not come to me, and I must go to her," answered the hillsman. + +There was silence again for a long time, for Cumner's Son was turning +things over in his mind; and all at once he felt that each man's acts +must be judged by the blood that is in him and the trail by which he has +come. + +The sorrel and the chestnut mare travelled together as on one +snaffle-bar, step by step, for they were foaled in the same stable. +Through stretches of reed-beds and wastes of osiers they passed, and +again by a path through the jungle where the briar-vines caught at them +like eager fingers, and a tiger crossed their track, disturbed in his +night's rest. At length out of the dank distance they saw the first +colour of dawn. + +"Ten miles," said Tang-a-Dahit, "and we shall come to the Bar of Balmud. +Then we shall be in my own country. See, the dawn comes up! 'Twixt here +and the Bar of Balmud our danger lies. A hundred men may ambush there, +for Boonda Broke's thieves have scattered all the way from Mandakan to +our borders." + +Cumner's Son looked round. There were hills and defiles everywhere, and +a thousand places where foes could hide. The quickest way, but the most +perilous, lay through the long defile between the hills, flanked by +boulders and rank scrub. Tang-a-Dahit pointed out the ways that they +might go--by the path to the left along the hills, or through the green +defile; and Cumner's Son instantly chose the latter way. + +"If the fight were fair," said the hillsman, "and it were man to man, +the defile is the better way; but these be dogs of cowards who strike +from behind rocks. No one of them has a heart truer than Boonda Broke's, +the master of the carrion. We will go by the hills. The way is harder +but more open, and if we be prospered we will rest awhile at the Bar of +Balmud, and at noon we will tether and eat in the Neck of Baroob." + +They made their way through the medlar trees and scrub to the plateau +above, and, the height gained, they turned to look back. The sun was +up, and trailing rose and amber garments across the great Eastern arch. +Their path lay towards it, for Pango Dooni hid in the hills, where the +sun hung a roof of gold above his stronghold. + +"Forty to one!" said Tang-a-Dahit suddenly. "Now indeed we ride for our +lives!" + +Looking down the track of the hillsman's glance Cumner's Son saw a bunch +of horsemen galloping up the slope. Boonda Broke's men! + +The sorrel and the mare were fagged, the horses of their foes were +fresh; and forty to one were odds that no man would care to take. It +might be that some of Pango Dooni's men lay between them and the Bar of +Balmud, but the chance was faint. + +"By the hand of Heaven," said the hillsman, "if we reach to the Bar of +Balmud, these dogs shall eat their own heads for dinner!" + +They set their horses in the way, and gave the sorrel and mare the bit +and spur. The beasts leaned again to their work as though they had just +come from a feeding-stall and knew their riders' needs. The men rode +light and free, and talked low to their horses as friend talks to +friend. Five miles or more they went so, and then the mare stumbled. She +got to her feet again, but her head dropped low, her nostrils gaped red +and swollen, and the sorrel hung back with her, for a beast, like a man, +will travel farther two by two than one by one. At another point where +they had a long view behind they looked back. Their pursuers were +gaining. Tang-a-Dahit spurred his horse on. + +"There is one chance," said he, "and only one. See where the point juts +out beyond the great medlar tree. If, by the mercy of God, we can but +make it!" + +The horses gallantly replied to call and spur. They rounded a curve +which made a sort of apse to the side of the valley, and presently they +were hid from their pursuers. Looking back from the thicket they saw the +plainsmen riding hard. All at once Tang-a-Dahit stopped. + +"Give me the sorrel," said he. "Quick--dismount!" Cumner's Son did as he +was bid. Going a little to one side, the hillsman pushed through a thick +hedge of bushes, rolled away a rock, and disclosed an opening which led +down a steep and rough-hewn way to a great misty valley beneath, where +was never a bridle-path or causeway over the brawling streams and +boulders. + +"I will ride on. The mare is done, but the sorrel can make the Bar of +Balmud." + +Cumner's Son opened his mouth to question, but stopped, for the eyes of +the hillsman flared up, and Tang-a-Dahit said: + +"My arm in blood has touched thy arm, and thou art in my hills and not +in thine own country. Thy life is my life, and thy good is my good. +Speak not, but act. By the high wall of the valley where no man bides +there is a path which leads to the Bar of Balmud; but leave it not, +whether it go up or down or be easy or hard. If thy feet be steady, +thine eye true, and thy heart strong, thou shalt come by the Bar of +Balmud among my people." + +Then he caught the hand of Cumner's Son in his own and kissed him +between the eyes after the manner of a kinsman, and, urging him into the +hole, rolled the great stone into its place again. Mounting the sorrel +he rode swiftly out into the open, rounded the green point full in view +of his pursuers, and was hid from them in an instant. Then, dismounting, +he swiftly crept back through the long grass into the thicket again, +mounted the mare, and drove her at laboured gallop also around the +curve, so that it seemed to the plainsmen following that both men had +gone that way. He mounted the sorrel again, and loosing a long sash from +his waist drew it through the mare's bit. The mare, lightened of the +weight, followed well. When the plainsmen came to the cape of green, +they paused not by the secret place, for it seemed to them that two had +ridden past and not one. + +The Son of Pango Dooni had drawn pursuit after himself, for it is the +law of the hills that a hillsman shall give his life or all that he has +for a brother-in-blood. + +When Cumner's Son had gone a little way he understood it all! And he +would have turned back, but he knew that the hillsman had ridden far +beyond his reach. So he ran as swiftly as he could; he climbed where +it might seem not even a chamois could find a hold; his eyes scarcely +seeing the long, misty valley, where the haze lay like a vapour from +another world. There was no sound anywhere save the brawling water +or the lonely cry of the flute-bird. Here was the last refuge of the +hillsmen if they should ever be driven from the Neck of Baroob. They +could close up every entrance, and live unscathed; for here was land for +tilling, and wood, and wild fruit, and food for cattle. + +Cumner's Son was supple and swift, and scarce an hour had passed ere he +came to a steep place on the other side, with rough niches cut in the +rocks, by which a strong man might lift himself up to safety. He stood a +moment and ate some coffee-beans and drank some cold water from a stream +at the foot of the crag, and then began his ascent. Once or twice he +trembled, for he was worn and tired; but he remembered the last words +of Tang-a-Dahit, and his fingers tightened their hold. At last, with a +strain and a gasp, he drew himself up, and found himself on a shelf of +rock with all the great valley spread out beneath him. A moment only he +looked, resting himself, and then he searched for a way into the hills; +for everywhere there was a close palisade of rocks and saplings. At last +he found an opening scarce bigger than might let a cat through; but he +laboured hard, and at last drew himself out and looked down the path +which led into the Bar of Balmud--the great natural escarpment of giant +rocks and monoliths and medlar trees, where lay Pango Dooni's men. + +He ran with all his might, and presently he was inside the huge defence. +There was no living being to be seen; only the rock-strewn plain and the +woods beyond. + +He called aloud, but nothing answered; he called again the tribe-call of +Pango Dooni's men, and a hundred armed men sprang up. + +"I am a brother-in-blood of Pango Dooni's Son," said he. "Tang-a-Dahit +rides for his life to the Bar of Balmud. Ride forth if ye would save +him." + +"The lad speaks with the tongue of a friend," said a scowling hillsman, +advancing, "yet how know we but he lies?" + +"Even by this," said Cumner's Son, and he spoke the sacred countersign +and showed again the bracelet of Pango Dooni, and told what had +happened. Even as he spoke the hillsmen gave the word, and two score men +ran down behind the rocks, mounted, and were instantly away by the road +that led to the Koongat Bridge. + +The tall hillsman turned to the lad. + +"You are beaten by travel," said he. "Come, eat and drink, and rest." + +"I have sworn to breakfast where Pango Dooni bides, and there only will +I rest and eat," answered the lad. + +"The son of Pango Dooni knows the lion's cub from the tame dog's whelp. +You shall keep your word. Though the sun ride fast towards noon, faster +shall we ride in the Neck of Baroob," said the hillsman. + +It was half-way towards noon when the hoof-beats drummed over the Brown +Hermit's cave, and they rested not there; but it was noon and no more +when they rode through Pango Dooni's gates and into the square where he +stood. + +The tall hillsman dropped to the ground, and Cumner's Son made to do the +same. Yet he staggered, and would have fallen, but the hillsman ran an +arm around his shoulder. The lad put by the arm, and drew him self up. +He was most pale. Pango Dooni stood looking at him, without a word, and +Cumner's Son doffed his cap. There was no blood in his lips, and his +face was white and drawn. + +"Since last night what time the bugle blows in the Palace yard, I have +ridden," said he. + +At the sound of his voice the great chief started. "The voice I know, +but not the face," said he. + +"I am Cumner's Son," replied the lad, and once more he spoke the sacred +countersign. + + + + +IV. BY THE OLD WELL OF JAHAR + +To Cumner's Son when all was told, Pango Dooni said: "If my son be dead +where those jackals swarm, it is well he died for his friend. If he be +living, then it is also well. If he be saved, we will march to Mandakan, +with all our men, he and I, and it shall be as Cumner wills, if I stay +in Mandakan or if I return to my hills." + +"My father said in the council-room, 'Better the strong robber than the +weak coward,' and my father never lied," said the lad dauntlessly. The +strong, tall chief, with the dark face and fierce eyes, roused in him +the regard of youth for strong manhood. + +"A hundred years ago they stole from my fathers the State of Mandakan," +answered the chief, "and all that is here and all that is there is mine. +If I drive the kine of thieves from the plains to my hills, the cattle +were mine ere I drove them. If I harry the rich in the midst of the +Dakoon's men, it is gaining my own over naked swords. If I save your +tribe and Cumner's men from the half-bred jackal Boonda Broke, and hoist +your flag on the Palace wall, it is only I who should do it." + +Then he took the lad inside the house, with the great wooden pillars and +the high gates, and the dark windows all barred up and down with iron, +and he led him to a court-yard where was a pool of clear water. He made +him bathe in it, and dark-skinned natives brought him bread dipped in +wine, and when he had eaten they laid him on skins and rubbed him dry, +and rolled him in soft linen, and he drank the coffee they gave him, and +they sat by and fanned him until he fell asleep. + + ....................... + +The red birds on the window-sill sang through his sleep into his dreams. +In his dreams he thought he was in the Dakoon's Palace at Mandakan with +a thousand men before him, and three men came forward and gave him a +sword. And a bird came flying through the great chambers and hung over +him, singing in a voice that he understood, and he spoke to the three +and to the thousand, in the words of the bird, and said: + +"It is fighting, and fighting for honour and glory and houses and kine, +but naught for love, and naught that there may be peace." + +And the men said in reply: "It is all for love and it is all for peace," +and they still held out the sword to him. So he took it and buckled it +to his side, and the bird, flying away out of the great window of the +chamber, sang: "Peace! Peace! Peace!" And Pango Dooni's Son standing by, +with a shining face, said, "Peace! Peace!" and the great Cumner said, +"Peace!" and a woman's voice, not louder than a bee's, but clear above +all others, said, "Peace!" + + ...................... + +He awoke and knew it was a dream; and there beside him stood Pango +Dooni, in his dress of scarlet and gold and brown, his broadsword +buckled on, a kris at his belt, and a rich jewel in his cap. + +"Ten of my captains and three of my kinsmen are come to break bread with +Cumner's Son," said he. "They would hear the tale of our kinsmen who +died against the Palace wall, by the will of the sick Dakoon." + +The lad sprang to his feet fresh and well, the linen and skins falling +away from his lithe, clean body and limbs, and he took from the slaves +his clothes. The eye of the chief ran up and down his form, from his +keen blue eyes to his small strong ankle. + +"It is the body of a perfect man," said he. "In the days when our State +was powerful and great, when men and not dogs ruled at Mandakan, no man +might be Dakoon save him who was clear of mote or beam; of true bone and +body, like a high-bred yearling got from a perfect stud. But two such +are there that I have seen in Mandakan to-day, and they are thyself and +mine own son." + +The lad laughed. "I have eaten good meat," said he, "and I have no muddy +blood." + +When they came to the dining-hall, the lad at first was abashed, for +twenty men stood up to meet him, and each held out his hand and spoke +the vow of a brother-in-blood, for the ride he had made and his honest +face together acted on them. Moreover, whom the head of their clan +honoured they also willed to honour. They were tall, barbaric-looking +men, and some had a truculent look, but most were of a daring open +manner, and careless in speech and gay at heart. + +Cumner's Son told them of his ride and of Tang-a-Dahit, and, at last, of +the men of their tribe who died by the Palace wall. With one accord they +rose in their places and swore over bread and a drop of blood of their +chief that they would not sheathe their swords again till a thousand +of Boonda Broke's and the Dakoon's men lay where their own kinsmen had +fallen. If it chanced that Tang-a-Dahit was dead, then they would never +rest until Boonda Broke and all his clan were blotted out. Only Pango +Dooni himself was silent, for he was thinking much of what should be +done at Mandakan. + +They came out upon the plateau where the fortress stood, and five +hundred mounted men marched past, with naked swords and bare krises in +their belts, and then wheeled suddenly and stood still, and shot their +swords up into the air the full length of the arm, and called the +battle-call of their tribe. The chief looked on unmoved, save once when +a tall trooper rode near him. He suddenly called this man forth. + +"Where hast thou been, brother?" he asked. + +"Three days was I beyond the Bar of Balmud, searching for the dog who +robbed my mother; three days did I ride to keep my word with a foe, who +gave me his horse when we were both unarmed and spent, and with broken +weapons could fight no more; and two days did I ride to be by a woman's +side when her great sickness should come upon her. This is all, my lord, +since I went forth, save this jewel which I plucked from the cap of +a gentleman from the Palace. It was toll he paid even at the gates of +Mandakan." + +"Didst thou do all that thou didst promise?" + +"All, my lord." + +"Even to the woman?" The chief's eye burned upon the man. + +"A strong male child is come into the world to serve my lord," said +the trooper, and he bowed his head. "The jewel is thine and not mine, +brother," said the chief softly, and the fierceness of his eyes abated; +"but I will take the child." + +The trooper drew back among his fellows, and the columns rode towards +the farther end of the plateau. Then all at once the horses plunged into +wild gallop, and the hillsmen came thundering down towards the chief and +Cumner's Son, with swords waving and cutting to right and left, calling +aloud, their teeth showing, death and valour in their eyes. The chief +glanced at Cumner's Son. The horses were not twenty feet from the lad, +but he did not stir a muscle. They were not ten feet from him, and +swords flashed before his eyes, but still he did not stir a hair's +breadth. In response to a cry the horses stopped in full career, not +more than three feet from him. Reaching out he could have stroked the +flaming nostril of the stallion nearest him. + +Pango Dooni took from his side a short gold-handled sword and handed it +to him. + +"A hundred years ago," said he, "it hung in the belt of the Dakoon of +Mandakan; it will hang as well in thine." Then he added, for he saw a +strange look in the lad's eyes: "The father of my father's father wore +it in the Palace, and it has come from his breed to me, and it shall go +from me to thee, and from thee to thy breed, if thou wilt honour me." + +The lad stuck it in his belt with pride, and taking from his pocket a +silver-mounted pistol, said: + +"This was the gift of a fighting chief to a fighting chief when they met +in a beleaguered town, with spoil, and blood, and misery, and sick women +and children round them; and it goes to a strong man, if he will take +the gift of a lad." + +At that moment there was a cry from beyond the troopers, and it was +answered from among them by a kinsman of Pango Dooni, and presently, the +troopers parting, down the line came Tang-a-Dahit, with bandaged head +and arm. + +In greeting, Pango Dooni raised the pistol which Cumner's Son had given +him and fired it into the air. Straightway five hundred men did the +same. + +Dismounting, Tang-a-Dahit stood before his father. "Have the Dakoon's +vermin fastened on the young bull at last?" asked Pango Dooni, his eyes +glowering. "They crawled and fastened, but they have not fed," answered +Tang-a-Dahit in a strong voice, for his wounds had not sunk deep. "By +the Old Well of Jahar, which has one side to the mountain wall, and one +to the cliff edge, I halted and took my stand. The mare and the sorrel +of Cumner's Son I put inside the house that covers the well, and I +lifted two stones from the floor and set them against the entrance. A +beggar lay dead beside the well, and his dog licked his body. I killed +the cur, for, following its master, it would have peace, and peace is +more than life. Then, with the pole of the waterpail, I threw the dead +dog across the entrance upon the paving stones, for these vermin of +plainsmen will not pass where a dead dog lies, as my father knows well. +They came not by the entrance, but they swarmed elsewhere, as ants swarm +upon a sandhill, upon the roofs, and at the little window where the lamp +burns. + +"I drove them from the window and killed them through the doorway, but +they were forty to one. In the end the pest would have carried me to +death, as a jackal carries the broken meats to his den, if our hillsmen +had not come. For an hour I fought, and five of them I killed and seven +wounded, and then at the shouts of our hillsmen they fled at last. Nine +of them fell by the hands of our people. Thrice was I wounded, but my +wounds are no deeper than the scratches of a tiger's cub." + +"Hadst thou fought for thyself the deed were good," said Pango Dooni, +"but thy blood was shed for another, and that is the pride of good men. +We have true men here, but thou art a true chief and this shalt thou +wear." + +He took the rich belt from his waist, and fastened it round the waist of +his son. + +"Cumner's Son carries the sword that hung in the belt. We are for war, +and the sword should be out of the belt. When we are at peace again ye +shall put the sword in the belt once more, and hang it upon the wall of +the Palace at Mandakan, even as ye who are brothers shall never part." + +Two hours Tang-a-Dahit rested upon skins by the bathing pool, and an +hour did the slaves knead him and rub him with oil, and give him food +and drink; and while yet the sun was but half-way down the sky, they +poured through the Neck of Baroob, over five hundred fighting men, on +horses that would kneel and hide like dogs, and spring like deer, and +that knew each tone of their masters' voices. By the Bar of Balmud they +gathered another fifty hillsmen, and again half-way beyond the Old Well +of Jahar they met two score more, who had hunted Boonda Broke's men, and +these moved into column. So that when they came to Koongat Bridge, in +the country infested by the men of the Dakoon, seven hundred stalwart +and fearless men rode behind Pango Dooni. From the Neck of Baroob +to Koongat Bridge no man stayed them, but they galloped on silently, +swiftly, passing through the night like a cloud, upon which the dwellers +by the wayside gazed in wonder and in fear. + +At Koongat Bridge they rested for two hours, and drank coffee, and broke +bread, and Cumner's Son slept by the side of Tang-a-Dahit, as brothers +sleep by their mother's bed. And Pango Dooni sat on the ground near them +and pondered, and no man broke his meditation. When the two hours were +gone, they mounted again and rode on through the dark villages towards +Mandakan. + +It was just at the close of the hour before dawn that the squad of +troopers who rode a dozen rods before the columns, heard a cry from the +dark ahead. "Halt-in the name of the Dakoon!" + + + + +V. CHOOSE YE WHOM YE WILL SERVE + +The company drew rein. All they could see in the darkness was a single +mounted figure in the middle of the road. The horseman rode nearer. + +"Who are you?" asked the leader of the company. + +"I keep the road for the Dakoon, for it is said that Cumner's Son has +ridden to the Neck of Baroob to bring Pango Dooni down." + +By this time the chief and his men had ridden up. The horseman +recognised the robber chief, and raised his voice. + +"Two hundred of us rode out to face Pango Dooni in this road. We had +not come a mile from the Palace when we fell into an ambush, even two +thousand men led by Boonda Broke, who would steal the roof and bed of +the Dakoon before his death. For an hour we fought but every man was cut +down save me." + +"And you?" asked Pango Dooni. + +"I come to hold the road against Pango Dooni, as the Dakoon bade me." + +Pango Dooni laughed. "Your words are large," said he. "What could you, +one man, do against Pango Dooni and his hillsman?" + +"I could answer the Dakoon here or elsewhere, that I kept the road till +the hill-wolves dragged me down." + +"We be the wolves from the hills," answered Pango Dooni. "You would +scarce serve a scrap of flesh for one hundred, and we are seven." + +"The wolves must rend me first," answered the man, and he spat upon the +ground at Pango Dooni's feet. + +A dozen men started forward, but the chief called them back. + +"You are no coward, but a fool," said he to the horseman. "Which is it +better: to die, or to turn with us and save Cumner and the English, and +serve Pango Dooni in the Dakoon's Palace?" + +"No man knows that he must die till the stroke falls, and I come to +fight and not to serve a robber mountaineer." + +Pango Dooni's eyes blazed with anger. "There shall be no fighting, but a +yelping cur shall be hung to a tree," said he. + +He was about to send his men upon the stubborn horseman when the fellow +said: + +"If you be a man you will give me a man to fight. We were two hundred. +If it chance that one of a company shall do as the Dakoon hath said, +then is all the company absolved; and beyond the mists we can meet the +Dakoon with open eyes and unafraid when he saith, 'Did ye keep your +faith?'" + +"By the word of a hillsman, but thou shalt have thy will," said the +chief. "We are seven hundred men--choose whom to fight." + +"The oldest or the youngest," answered the man. "Pango Dooni or Cumner's +Son." + +Before the chief had time to speak, Cumner's Son struck the man with the +flat of his sword across the breast. + +The man did not lift his arm, but looked at the lad steadily for a +moment. "Let us speak together before we fight," said he, and to show +his good faith he threw down his sword. + +"Speak," said Cumner's Son, and laid his sword across the pommel of his +saddle. + +"Does a man when he dies speak his heart to the ears of a whole tribe?" + +"Then choose another ear than mine," said Cumner's Son. "In war I have +no secrets from my friends." + +A look of satisfaction came into Pango Dooni's face. "Speak with the man +alone," said he, and he drew back. + +Cumner's Son drew a little to one side with the man, who spoke quickly +and low in English. + +"I have spoken the truth," said he. "I am Cushnan Di"--he drew himself +up--"and once I had a city of my own and five thousand men, but a plague +and then a war came, and the Dakoon entered upon my city. I left my +people and hid, and changed myself that no one should know me, and I +came to Mandakan. It was noised abroad that I was dead. Little by little +I grew in favour with the Dakoon, and little by little I gathered strong +men about me-two hundred in all at last. It was my purpose, when the day +seemed ripe, to seize upon the Palace as the Dakoon had seized upon my +little city. I knew from my father, whose father built a new portion +of the Palace, of a secret way by the Aqueduct of the Failing Fountain, +even into the Palace itself. An army could ride through and appear in +the Palace yard like the mist-shapes from the lost legions. When I had a +thousand men I would perform this thing, I thought. + +"But day by day the Dakoon drew me to him, and the thing seemed hard to +do, even now before I had the men. Then his sickness came, and I could +not strike an ailing man. When I saw how he was beset by traitors, in +my heart I swore that he should not suffer by my hands. I heard of your +riding to the Neck of Baroob--the men of Boonda Broke brought word. So +I told the Dakoon, and I told him also that Boonda Broke was ready to +steal into his Palace even before he died. He started up, and new life +seemed given him. Calling his servants, he clothed himself, and he came +forth and ordered out his troops. He bade me take my men to keep the +road against Pango Dooni. Then he ranged his men before the Palace, and +scattered them at points in the city to resist Boonda Broke. + +"So I rode forth, but I came first to my daughter's bedside. She lies +in a little house not a stone's throw from the Palace, and near to the +Aqueduct of the Falling Fountain. Once she was beautiful and tall and +straight as a bamboo stem, but now she is in body no more than a piece +of silken thread. Yet her face is like the evening sky after a rain. +She is much alone, and only in the early mornings may I see her. She is +cared for by an old woman of our people, and there she bides, and thinks +strange thoughts, and speaks words of wisdom. + +"When I told her what the Dakoon bade me do, and what I had sworn to +perform when the Dakoon was dead, she said: + +"'But no. Go forth as the Dakoon hath bidden. Stand in the road and +oppose the hillsmen. If Cumner's Son be with them, thou shalt tell him +all. If he speak for the hillsmen and say that all shall be well with +thee, and thy city be restored when Pango Dooni sits in the Palace of +the Dakoon, then shalt thou join with them, that there may be peace in +the land, for Pango Dooni and the son of Pango Dooni be brave strong +men. But if he will not promise for the hillsmen, then shalt thou keep +the secret of the Palace, and abide the will of God."' + +"Dost thou know Pango Dooni's son?" asked the lad, for he was sure that +this man's daughter was she of whom Tang-a-Dahit had spoken. + +"Once when I was in my own city and in my Palace I saw him. Then my +daughter was beautiful, and her body was like a swaying wand of the +boolda tree. But my city passed, and she was broken like a trailing +vine, and the young man came no more." + +"But if he came again now?" + +"He would not come." + +"But if he had come while she lay there like a trailing vine, and +listened to her voice, and thought upon her words and loved her still. +If for her sake he came secretly, daring death, wouldst thou stand--" + +The man's eyes lighted. "If there were such truth in any man," he +interrupted, "I would fight, follow him, and serve him, and my city +should be his city, and the knowledge of my heart be open to his eye." + +Cumner's Son turned and called to Pango Dooni and his son, and they came +forward. Swiftly he told them all. When he had done so the man sprang +from his horse, and taking off the thin necklet of beaten gold he wore +round his throat, without a word he offered it to Tang-a-Dahit, and +Tang-a-Dahit kissed him on the cheek and gave him the thick, loose chain +of gold he wore. + +"For this was it you risked your life going to Mandakan," said Pango +Dooni, angrily, to his son; "for a maid with a body like a withered +gourd." Then all at once, with a new look in his face, he continued +softly: "Thou hast the soul of a woman, but thy deeds are the deeds of a +man. As thy mother was in heart so art thou." + + ...................... + +Day was breaking over Mandakan, and all the city was a tender pink. +Tower and minaret were like inverted cups of ruddy gold, and the streets +all velvet dust, as Pango Dooni, guided by Cushnan Di, halted at the +wood of wild peaches, and a great thicket near to the Aqueduct of the +Failing Fountain, and looked out towards the Palace of the Dakoon. It +was the time of peach blossoms, and all through the city the pink and +white petals fell like the gay crystals of a dissolving sunrise. Yet +there rose from the midst of it a long, rumbling, intermittent murmur, +and here and there marched columns of men in good order, while again +disorderly bands ran hither and hither with krises waving in the sun, +and the red turban of war wound round their heads. + +They could not see the front of the Palace, nor yet the Residency +Square, but, even as they looked, a cannonade began, and the smoke of +the guns curled through the showering peach-trees. Hoarse shoutings +and cries came rolling over the pink roofs, and Cumner's Son could hear +through all the bugle-call of the artillery. + +A moment later Cushnan Di was leading them through a copse of pawpaw +trees to a secluded garden by the Aqueduct, overgrown with vines and +ancient rose trees, and cherry shrubs. After an hour's labour with +spades, while pickets guarded all approach, an opening was disclosed +beneath the great flag-stones of a ruined building. Here was a wide +natural corridor overhung with stalactites, and it led on into an +artificial passage which inclined gradually upwards till it came into +a mound above the level by which they entered. Against this mound +was backed a little temple in the rear of the Palace. A dozen men had +remained behind to cover up the entrance again. When these heard Pango +Dooni and the others in the Palace yard they were to ride straight for a +gate which should be opened to them. + +There was delay in opening the stone door which led into the temple, +but at last they forced their way. The place was empty, and they rode +through the Palace yard, pouring out like a stream of spectral horsemen +from the altar of the temple. Not a word was spoken as Pango Dooni and +his company galloped towards the front of the Palace. Hundreds of the +Dakoon's soldiers and terrified people who had taken refuge in the great +court-yard, ran screaming into corners, or threw themselves in terror +upon the ground. The walls were lined with soldiers, but not one raised +his hand to strike--so sudden was the coming of the dreaded hillsman. +They knew him by the black flag and the yellow sunburst upon it. + +Presently Pango Dooni gave the wild battle-call of his tribe, and every +one of his seven hundred answered him as they rode impetuously to the +Palace front. Two thousand soldiers of the Dakoon, under command of his +nephew, Gis-yo-Bahim, were gathered there. They were making ready to +march out and defend the Palace. When they saw the flag and heard the +battle-cry there was a movement backward, as though this handful of +men were an overwhelming army coming at them. Scattered and disorderly +groups of men swayed here and there, and just before the entrance of the +Palace was a wailing group, by which stood two priests with their yellow +robes and bare shoulders, speaking to them. From the walls the soldiers +paused from resisting the swarming herds without. + +"The Dakoon is dead!" cried Tang-a-Dahit. + +As if in response came the wailing death-cry of the women of the Palace +through the lattice windows, and it was taken up by the discomfited +crowd before the Palace door. + +"The Lord of all the Earth, the great Dakoon, is dead." + +Pango Dooni rode straight upon the group, who fled at his approach, and, +driving the priests indoors, he called aloud: + +"The Dakoon is living. Fear not!" + +For a moment there was no reply, and he waved his men into place +before the Palace, and was about to ride down upon the native army, but +Cumner's Son whispered to him, and an instant after the lad was riding +alone upon the dark legions. He reined in his horse not ten feet away +from the irregular columns. + +"You know me," said he. "I am Cumner's Son. I rode into the hills at the +Governor's word to bring a strong man to rule you. Why do ye stand +here idle? My father, your friend, fights with a hundred men at the +Residency. Choose ye between Boonda Broke, the mongrel, and Pango Dooni, +the great hillsman. If ye choose Boonda Broke, then shall your city be +levelled to the sea, and ye shall lose your name as a people. Choose!" + +One or two voices cried out; then from the people, and presently from +the whole dark battalions, came the cry: "Long live Pango Dooni!" + +Pango Dooni rode down with Tang-a-Dahit and Cushnan Di. He bade all but +five hundred mounted men to lay down their arms. Then he put over them a +guard of near a hundred of his own horsemen. Gathering the men from the +rampart he did the same with these, reserving only one hundred to remain +upon the walls under guard of ten hillsmen. Then, taking his own six +hundred men and five hundred of the Dakoon's horsemen, he bade the gates +to be opened, and with Cushnan Di marched out upon the town, leaving +Tanga-Dahit and Cumner's Son in command at the Palace. + +At least four thousand besiegers lay before the walls, and, far beyond, +they could see the attack upon the Residency. + +The gates of the Palace closed on the last of Pango Dooni's men, and +with a wild cry they rode like a monstrous wave upon the rebel mob. +There was no preparation to resist the onset. The rush was like a storm +out of the tropics, and dread of Pango Dooni's name alone was as death +among them. + +The hillsmen clove the besiegers through like a piece of pasteboard, +and turning, rode back again through the broken ranks, their battle-call +ringing high above the clash of steel. Again they turned at the Palace +wall, and, gathering impetus, they rode at the detached and battered +segments of the miserable horde, and once more cut them down, then +furiously galloped towards the Residency. + +They could hear one gun firing intermittently, and the roars of Boonda +Broke's men. They did not call or cry till within a few hundred yards +of the Residency Square. Then their battle-call broke forth, and Boonda +Broke turned to see seven hundred bearing down on his ten thousand, the +black flag with the yellow sunburst over them. + +Cumner, the Governor, and McDermot heard the cry of the hillsmen, too, +and took heart. + +Boonda Broke tried to divide his force, so that half of them should face +the hillsmen, and half the Residency; but there was not time enough; +and his men fought as they were attacked, those in front against Pango +Dooni, those behind against Cumner. The hillsmen rode upon the frenzied +rebels, and were swallowed up by the great mass of them, so that they +seemed lost. But slowly, heavily, and with ferocious hatred, they drove +their hard path on. A head and shoulders dropped out of sight here and +there; but the hillsmen were not counting their losses that day, and +when Pango Dooni at last came near to Boonda Broke the men he had lost +seemed found again, for it was like water to the thirsty the sight of +this man. + +But suddenly there was a rush from the Residency Square, and thirty men, +under the command of Cumner, rode in with sabres drawn. + +There was a sudden swaying movement of the shrieking mass between Boonda +Broke and Pango Dooni, and in the confusion and displacement Boonda +Broke had disappeared. + +Panic and flight came after, and the hillsmen and the little garrison +were masters of the field. + +"I have paid the debt of the mare," said Pango Dooni, laughing. + +"No debt is paid till I see the face of my son," answered Cumner +anxiously. + +Pango Dooni pointed with his sword. "In the Palace yard," said he. + +"In the Palace yard, alive?" asked Cumner. Pango Dooni smiled. "Let us +go and see." + +Cumner wiped the sweat and dust and blood from his face, and turned to +McDermot. + +"Was I right when I sent the lad?" said he proudly. "The women and +children are safe." + + + + +VI. CONCERNING THE DAUGHTER OF CUSHNAN DI + +The British flag flew half-mast from the Palace dome, and two others +flew behind it; one the black and yellow banner of the hillsmen, the +other the red and white pennant of the dead Dakoon. In the Palace yard +a thousand men stood at attention, and at their head was Cushnan Di with +fifty hillsmen. At the Residency another thousand men encamped, with a +hundred hillsmen and eighty English, under the command of Tang-a-Dahit +and McDermot. By the Fountain of the Sweet Waters, which is over against +the Tomb where the Dakoon should sleep, another thousand men were +patrolled, with a hundred hillsmen, commanded by a kinsman of Pango +Dooni. Hovering near were gloomy, wistful crowds of people, who drew +close to the mystery of the House of Death, as though the soul of a +Dakoon were of more moment than those of the thousand men who had fallen +that day. Along the line of the Bazaar ranged another thousand men, +armed only with krises, under the command of the heir of the late +Dakoon, and with these were a hundred and fifty mounted hillsmen, +watchful and deliberate. These were also under the command of a kinsman +of Pango Dooni. + +It was at this very point that the danger lay, for the nephew of the +Dakoon, Gis-yo-Bahim, was a weak but treacherous man, ill-fitted to +rule; a coward, yet ambitious; distrusted by the people, yet the heir to +the throne. Cumner and Pango Dooni had placed him at this point for +no other reason than to give him his chance for a blow, if he dared +to strike it, at the most advantageous place in the city. The furtive +hangers-on, cut-throats, mendicants, followers of Boonda Broke, and +haters of the English, lurked in the Bazaars, and Gis-yo-Bahim should +be tempted for the first and the last time. Crushed now, he could never +rise again. Pango Dooni had carefully picked the hillsmen whom he had +sent to the Bazaar, and their captain was the most fearless and the +wariest fighter from the Neck of Baroob, save Pango Dooni himself. + +Boonda Broke was abroad still. He had escaped from the slaughter before +the Residency and was hidden somewhere in the city. There were yet in +Mandakan ten thousand men who would follow him that would promise the +most, and Boonda Broke would promise the doors of Heaven as a gift to +the city, and the treasures of Solomon to the people, if it might serve +his purposes. But all was quiet save where the mourners followed their +dead to the great funeral pyres, which were set on three little hills +just outside the city. These wailed as they passed by. The smoke of the +burnt powder had been carried away by a gentle wind, and in its place +was the pervasive perfume of the peach and cherry trees, and the aroma +of the gugan wood which was like cut sandal in the sun after a rain. In +the homes of a few rich folk there was feasting also, for it mattered +little to them whether Boonda Broke or Pango Dooni ruled in Mandakan, +so that their wealth was left to them. But hundreds of tinkling little +bells broke the stillness. These were carried by brown bare-footed boys, +who ran lightly up and down the streets, calling softly: "Corn and tears +and wine for the dead!" It was the custom for mourners to place in the +hands of the dead a bottle of tears and wine, and a seed of corn, as it +is written in the Proverbs of Dol: + +"When thou journeyest into the Shadows, take not sweetmeats with thee, +but a seed of corn and a bottle of tears and wine; that thou mayest have +a garden in the land whither thou goest." + +It was yet hardly night when the pyres were lighted on the little +hills and a warm glow was thrown over all the city, made warmer by +roseate-hued homes and the ruddy stones and velvety dust of the streets. +At midnight the Dakoon was to be brought to the Tomb with the Blue +Dome. Now in the Palace yard his body lay under a canopy, the flags of +Mandakan and England over his breast, twenty of his own naked body-guard +stood round, and four of his high chiefs stood at his head and four at +his feet, and little lads ran softly past, crying: "Corn and tears and +wine for the dead!" And behind all these again were placed the dark +battalions and the hillsmen. It went abroad through the city that Pango +Dooni and Cumner paid great homage to the dead Dakoon, and the dread of +the hillsmen grew less. + +But in one house there had been no fear, for there, by the Aqueduct of +the Failing Fountain, lived Cushnan Di, a fallen chief, and his +daughter with the body like a trailing vine; for one knew the sorrow of +dispossession and defeat and the arm of a leader of men, and the other +knew Tang-a-Dahit and the soul that was in him. + +This night, while yet there was an hour before the body of the dead +Dakoon should go to the Tomb with the Blue Dome, the daughter of Cushnan +Di lay watching for her door to open; for she knew what had happened in +the city, and there was one whom her spirit longed for. An old woman sat +beside her with hands clasped about her knees. + +"Dost thou hear nothing?" said a voice from the bed. "Nothing but the +stir of the mandrake trees, beloved." + +"Nay, but dost thou not hear a step?" + +"Naught, child of the heaven-flowers, but a dog's foot in the moss." + +"Thou art sure that my father is safe?" + +"The Prince is safe, angel of the high clouds. He led the hillsmen by +the secret way into the Palace yard." There was silence for a moment, +and then the girl's voice said again: "Hush! but there was a footstep--I +heard a breaking twig." + +Her face lighted, and the head slightly turned towards the door. But the +body did not stir. It lay moveless, save where the bosom rose and fell +softly, quivering under the white robe. A great wolf-dog raised its head +at the foot of the bed and pointed its ears, looking towards the door. + +The face of the girl was beautiful. A noble peace was upon it, and the +eyes were like lamps of dusky fire, as though they held all the strength +of the nerveless body. The love burning in them was not the love of a +maid for a man, but that which comes after, through pain and trouble and +wisdom. It was the look that lasts after death, the look shot forward +from the Hereafter upon a living face which has looked into the great +mystery, but has not passed behind the curtains. + +There was a knock upon the door, and, in response to a summons, +Tang-a-Dahit stepped inside. A beautiful smile settled upon the girl's +face, and her eyes brooded tenderly upon the young hillsman. + +"I am here, Mami," said he. + +"Friend of my heart," she answered. "It is so long!" + +Then he told her how, through Cumner's Son, he had been turned from his +visit two days before, and of the journey down, and of the fighting, and +of all that had chanced. + +She smiled, and assented with her eyes--her father had told her. "My +father knows that thou dost come to me, and he is not angry," she said. + +Then she asked him what was to be the end of all, and he shook his head. +"The young are not taken into counsel," he answered, "neither I nor +Cumner's Son." + +All at once her eyes brightened as though a current of light had been +suddenly sent through them. "Cumner's Son," said she--"Cumner's Son, and +thou--the future of Mandakan is all with ye; neither with Cumner, nor +with Pango Dooni, nor with Cushnan Di. To the old is given counsel, and +device, and wisdom, and holding; but to the young is given hope, and +vision, and action, and building, and peace." + +"Cumner's Son is without," said he. "May I fetch him to thee?" + +She looked grave, and shrank a little, then answered yes. + +"So strong, so brave, so young!" she said, almost under her breath, as +the young man entered. Cumner's Son stood abashed at first to see this +angelic head, so full of light and life, like nothing he had ever seen, +and the nerveless, moveless body, like a flower with no roots. + +"Thou art brave," said she, "and thy heart is without fear, for thou +hast no evil in thee. Great things shall come to thee, and to thee," she +added, turning to Tang-a-Dahit, "but by different ways." + +Tang-a-Dahit looked at her as one would look at the face of a saint; and +his fingers, tired yet with the swinging of the sword, stroked the white +coverlet of her couch gently and abstractedly. Once or twice Cumner's +Son tried to speak, but failed; and at last all he could say was: "Thou +art good--thou art good!" and then he turned and stole quietly from the +room. + +At midnight they carried the Dakoon to the resting-place of his fathers. +A thousand torches gleamed from the Palace gates through the Street of +Divers Pities, and along the Path by the Bazaar to the Tomb with the +Blue Dome. A hundred hillsmen rode before, and a hundred behind, and +between were two thousand soldiers of Mandakan on foot and fifty of +the late Dakoon's body-guard mounted and brilliant in scarlet and gold. +Behind the gun-carriage, which bore the body, walked the nephew of the +great Dakoon, then came a clear space, and then Pango Dooni, and +Cumner, and behind these twenty men of the artillery, at whose head rode +McDermot and Cumner's Son. + +As they passed the Path by the Bazaar every eye among the hillsmen and +among the handful of British was alert. Suddenly a savage murmuring +among the natives in the Bazaar broke into a loud snarl, and it seemed +as if a storm was about to break; but as suddenly, at a call from +Cumner, the hillsmen, the British, and a thousand native soldiers, faced +the Bazaar in perfect silence, their lances, swords, and rifles in a +pose of menace. The whole procession stood still for a moment. In the +pause the crowds in the Bazaar drew back, then came a loud voice calling +on them to rescue the dead Dakoon from murderers and infidels; and +a wave of dark bodies moved forward, but suddenly cowered before the +malicious stillness of the hillsmen and the British, and the wave +retreated. + +Cumner's Son had recognised the voice, and his eye followed its +direction with a perfect certainty. Even as he saw the figure of Boonda +Broke disguised as a native soldier the half-breed's arm was raised, and +a kris flew from his hands, aimed at the heart of Pango Dooni. But as +the kris flew the youth spurred his horse out of the ranks and down upon +the murderer, who sprang back into the Bazaar. The lad fearlessly rode +straight into the Bazaar, and galloped down upon the fugitive, who +suddenly swung round to meet him with naked kris; but, as he did so, +a dog ran across his path, tripped him up, and he half fell. Before he +could recover himself a pistol was at his head. "March!" said the lad; +and even as ten men of the artillery rode through the crowd to rescue +their Colonel's son, he marched the murderer on. But a sudden frenzy +possessed Boonda Broke. He turned like lightning on the lad, and raised +his kris to throw; but a bullet was quicker, and he leaped into the air +and fell dead without a cry, the kris dropping from his hand. + +As Cumner's Son came forth into the path the hills men and artillery +cheered him, the native troops took it up, and it was answered by the +people in all the thoroughfare. + +Pango Dooni had also seen the kris thrown at himself, but he could not +escape it, though he half swung round. It struck him in the shoulder, +and quivered where it struck, but he drew it out and threw it down. A +hillsman bound up the wound, and he rode on to the Tomb. + +The Dakoon was placed in his gorgeous house of death, and every man +cried: "Sleep, lord of the earth!" Then Cumner stood up in his saddle, +and cried aloud: + +"To-morrow, when the sun stands over the gold dome of the Palace, ye +shall come to hear your Dakoon speak in the hall of the Heavenly Hours." + +No man knew from Cumner's speech who was to be Dakoon, yet every man in +Mandakan said in the quiet of his home that night: + +"To-morrow Pango Dooni will be Dakoon. We will be as the stubble of the +field before him. But Pango Dooni is a strong man." + + + + +VII. THE RED PLAGUE + + "He promised he'd bring me a basket of posies, + A garland of lilies, a garland of roses, + A little straw hat to set off the blue ribbons + That tie up my bonnie brown hair." + +This was the song McDermot sang to himself as he walked up the great +court-yard of the Palace, past the lattice windows, behind which the +silent women of the late Dakoon's household still sat, passive and +grief-stricken. How knew they what the new Dakoon would do--send them +off into the hills, or kill them? McDermot was in a famous humour, for +he had just come from Pango Dooni, the possessor of a great secret, +and he had been paid high honour. He looked round on the court-yard +complacently, and with an air of familiarity and possession which seemed +hardly justified by his position. He noted how the lattices stirred as +he passed through this inner court-yard where few strangers were ever +allowed to pass, and he cocked his head vaingloriously. He smiled at the +lizards hanging on the foundation stones, he paused to dip his finger +in the basin of a fountain, he eyed good-humouredly the beggars--old +pensioners of the late Dakoon--seated in the shade with outstretched +hands. One of them drew his attention, a slim, cadaverous-looking wretch +who still was superior to his fellows, and who sat apart from them, +evidently by their wish as much as by his own. + +McDermot was still humming the song to himself as he neared the group; +but he stopped short, as he heard the isolated beggar repeat after him +in English: + + "He promised he'd bring me a bunch of blue ribbons, + To tie up my bonnie brown hair." + +He was startled. At first he thought it might be an Englishman in +disguise, but the brown of the beggar's face was real, and there was no +mistaking the high narrow forehead, the slim fingers, and the sloe-black +eyes. Yet he seemed not a native of Mandakan. McDermot was about to ask +him who he was, when there was a rattle of horse's hoofs, and Cumner's +Son galloped excitedly up the court-yard. + +"Captain, captain," said he, "the Red Plague is on the city!" + +McDermot staggered back in consternation. "No, no," cried he, "it is not +so, sir!" + +"The man, the first, lies at the entrance of the Path by the Bazaar. No +one will pass near him, and all the city goes mad with fear. What's to +be done? What's to be done? Is there no help for it?" the lad cried in +despair. "I'm going to Pango Dooni. Where is he? In the Palace?" + +McDermot shook his head mournfully, for he knew the history of this +plague, the horror of its ravages, the tribes it had destroyed. + +The beggar leaned back against the cool wall and laughed. McDermot +turned on him in his fury, and would have kicked him, but Cumner's Son, +struck by some astute intelligence in the man's look, said: + +"What do you know of the Red Plague?" + +Again the beggar laughed. "Once I saved the city of Nangoon from the +plague, but they forgot me, and when I complained and in my anger went +mad at the door of the Palace, the Rajah drove me from the country. That +was in India, where I learned to speak English; and here am I at the +door of a Palace again!" + +"Can you save the city from the plague?" asked Cumner's Son, coming +closer and eagerly questioning. "Is the man dead?" asked the beggar. + +"Not when I saw him--he had just been taken." + +"Good. The city may be saved if--" he looked at Cumner's Son, "if thou +wilt save him with me. If he be healed there is no danger; it is the +odour of death from the Red Plague which carries death abroad." + +"Why do you ask this?" asked McDermot, nodding towards Cumner's Son. + +The beggar shrugged his shoulders. "That he may not do with me as did +the Rajah of Nangoon." + +"He is not Dakoon," said McDermot. + +"Will the young man promise me?" + +"Promise what?" asked Cumner's Son. + +"A mat to pray on, a house, a servant, and a loaf of bread, a bowl of +goat's milk, and a silver najil every day till I die." + +"I am not Dakoon," said the lad, "but I promise for the Dakoon--he will +do this thing to save the city." + +"And if thou shouldst break thy promise?" + +"I keep my promises," said the lad stoutly. + +"But if not, wilt thou give thy life to redeem it?" + +"Yes." + +The beggar laughed again and rose. "Come," said he. + +"Don't go--it's absurd!" said McDermot, laying a hand on the young man's +arm. "The plague cannot be cured." + +"Yes, I will go," answered Cumner's Son. "I believe he speaks the truth. +Go you to Pango Dooni and tell him all." + +He spurred his horse and trotted away, the beggar running beside him. +They passed out of the court-yard, and through the Gate by the Fountain +of Sweet Waters. + +They had not gone far when they saw Cumner, the Governor, and six men of +the artillery riding towards them. The Governor stopped, and asked him +where he was going. + +The young man told him all. + +The Colonel turned pale. "You would do this thing!" said he dumfounded. +"Suppose this rascal," nodding towards the beggar, "speaks the truth; +and suppose that, after all, the sick man should die and--" + +"Then the lad and myself would be the first to follow him," interrupted +the beggar, "and all the multitude would come after, from the babe on +the mat to the old man by the Palace gates. But if the sick man lives--" + +The Governor looked at his son partly in admiration, partly in pain, and +maybe a little of anger. + +"Is there no one else? I tell you I--" + +"There is no one else; the lad or death for the city! I can believe the +young; the old have deceived me," interposed the beggar again. + +"Time passes," said Cumner's Son anxiously. "The man may die. You say +yes to my going, sir?" he asked his father. + +The Governor frowned, and the skin of his cheeks tightened. + +"Go-go, and good luck to you, boy." He made as if to ride on, but +stopped short, flung out his hand, and grasped the hand of his son. "God +be with you, lad," said he; then his jaws closed tightly, and he rode +on. It was easier for the lad than for him. + +When he told the story to Pango Dooni the chief was silent for a moment; +then he said: + +"Until we know whether it be death or life, whether Cumner's Son save +the city or lose his life for its sake, we will not call the people +together in the Hall of the Heavenly Hours. I will send the heralds +abroad, if it be thy pleasure, Cumner." + +At noon--the hour when the people had been bidden to cry, "Live, Prince +of the Everlasting Glory!"--they were moving restlessly, fearfully +through the Bazaar and the highways, and watching from a distance a +little white house, with blue curtains, where lay the man who was sick +with the Red Plague, and where watched beside his bed Cumner's Son and +the beggar of Nangoon. No one came near. + +From the time the sick man had been brought into the house, the beggar +had worked with him, giving him tinctures which he boiled with sweetmeat +called the Flower of Bambaba, while Cumner's Son rubbed an ointment into +his body. Now and again the young man went to the window and looked +out at the lines of people hundreds of yards away, and the empty spaces +where the only life that showed was a gay-plumaged bird that drifted +across the sunlight, or a monkey that sat in the dust eating a nut. All +at once the awe and danger of his position fell upon him. Imagination +grew high in him in a moment--that beginning of fear and sorrow +and heart-burning; yet, too, the beginning of hope and wisdom and +achievement. For the first time in his life that knowledge overcame him +which masters us all sometimes. He had a desire to fly the place; he +felt like running from the house, shrieking as he went. A sweat broke +out on his forehead, his lips clung to his teeth, his mouth was dry, his +breast seemed to contract, and breathing hurt him. + +"What a fool I was! What a fool I was to come here!" he said. + +He buried his head in his arms as he leaned against the wall, and his +legs trembled. From that moment he passed from headlong, daring, lovable +youth, to manhood; understanding, fearful, conscientious, and morally +strong. Just as abject as was his sudden fear, so triumphant was his +reassertion of himself. + +"It was the only way," he said to himself, suddenly wresting his head +from his protecting arms. "There's a chance of life, anyhow, chance +for all of us." He turned away to the sick man's bed, to see the beggar +watching him with cold, passive eyes and a curious, half-sneering smile. +He braced himself and met the passive, scrutinising looks firmly. The +beggar said nothing, but motioned to him to lift the sick man upright, +while he poured some tincture down his throat, and bound the head and +neck about with saturated linen. + +There came a knocking at the door. The beggar frowned, but Cumner's Son +turned eagerly. He had only been in this room ten hours, but it seemed +like years in which he had lived alone-alone. But he met firmly the +passive, inquisitorial eyes of the healer of the plague, and he turned, +dropped another bar across the door, and bade the intruder to depart. + +"It is I, Tang-a-Dahit. Open!" came a loud, anxious voice. + +"You may not come in." + +"I am thy brother-in-blood, and my life is thine." + +"Then keep it safe for those who prize it. Go back to the Palace." + +"I am not needed there. My place is with thee." + +"Go, then, to the little house by the Aqueduct." There was silence for a +moment, and then Tang-a-Dahit said: + +"Wilt thou not let me enter?" + +The sudden wailing of the stricken man drowned Tang-a-Dahit's words, +and without a word Cumner's Son turned again to the victim of the Red +Plague. + +All day the people watched from afar, and all day long soldiers and +hillsmen drew a wide cordon of quarantine round the house. Terror seized +the people when the sun went down, and to the watchers the suspense +grew. Ceaseless, alert, silent, they had watched and waited, and at last +the beggar knelt with his eyes fixed on the sleeper, and did not stir. A +little way off from him stood Cumner's Son-patient, pale, worn, older by +ten years than he was three days before. + +In the city dismay and misery ruled. Boonda Broke and the dead Dakoon +were forgotten. The people were in the presence of a monster which could +sweep them from their homes as a hail-storm scatters the hanging nests +of wild bees. In a thousand homes little red lights of propitiation were +shining, and the sweet boolda wood was burning at a thousand shrines. +Midnight came, then the long lethargic hours after; then that moment +when all cattle of the field and beasts of the forest wake and stand +upon their feet, and lie down again, and the cocks crow, and the birds +flutter their wings, and all resign themselves to sleep once more. It +was in this hour that the sick man opened his eyes and raised his head, +as though the mysterious influence of primitive life were rousing him. +He said nothing and did nothing, but lay back and drew in a long, good +breath of air, and afterwards fell asleep. + +The beggar got to his feet. "The man is safe," said he. + +"I will go and tell them," said Cumner's Son gladly, and he made as if +to open the door. + +"Not till dawn," commanded the beggar. "Let them suffer for their sins. +We hold the knowledge of life and death in our hands." + +"But my father, and Tang-a-Dahit, and Pango Dooni." + +"Are they without sin?" asked the beggar scornfully. "At dawn, only at +dawn!" + +So they sat and waited till dawn. And when the sun was well risen, the +beggar threw wide open the door of the house, and called aloud to the +horsemen far off, and Cumner's Son waved with his hand; and McDermot +came galloping to them. He jumped from his horse and wrung the boy's +hand, then that of the beggar, then talked in broken sentences, which +were spattered by the tears in his throat. He told Cumner's Son that his +face was as that of one who had lain in a grave, and he called aloud in +a blustering voice, and beckoned for troopers to come. The whole line +moved down on them, horsemen and soldiers and people. + +The city was saved from the Red Plague, and the people, gone mad with +joy, would have carried Cumner's Son to the Palace on their shoulders, +but he walked beside the beggar to his father's house, hillsmen in front +and English soldiers behind; and wasted and ghostly, from riding and +fighting and watching, he threw himself upon the bed in his own room, +and passed, as an eyelid blinks, into a deep sleep. + +But the beggar sat down on a mat with a loaf of bread, a bowl of goat's +milk, and a long cigar which McDermot gave him, and he received idly all +who came, even to the sick man, who ere the day was done was brought +to the Residency, and, out of danger and in his right mind, lay in the +shade of a banyan tree, thinking of nothing save the joy of living. + + + + +VIII. THE CHOOSING OF THE DAKOON + +It was noon again. In the Hall of the Heavenly Hours all the chiefs and +great people of the land were gathered, and in the Palace yard without +were thousands of the people of the Bazaars and the one-storied houses. +The Bazaars were almost empty, the streets deserted. Yet silken banners +of gorgeous colours flew above the pink terraces, and the call of the +silver horn of Mandakan, which was made first when Tubal Cain was young, +rang through the long vacant avenues. A few hundred native troops and +a handful of hillsmen rode up and down, and at the Residency fifty +men kept guard under command of Sergeant Doolan of the artillery--his +superior officers and the rest of his comrades were at the Palace. + +In the shade of a banyan tree sat the recovered victim of the Red Plague +and the beggar of Nangoon, playing a game of chuck-farthing, taught them +by Sergeant Doolan, a bowl of milk and a calabash of rice beside them, +and cigarettes in their mouths. The beggar had a new turban and robe, +and he sat on a mat which came from the Palace. + +He had gone to the Palace that morning as Colonel Cumner had commanded, +that he might receive the thanks of the Dakoon for the people of +Mandakan; but he had tired of the great place, and had come back to play +at chuck-farthing. Already he had won everything the other possessed, +and was now playing for his dinner. He was still chuckling over his +victory when an orderly and two troopers arrived with a riderless horse, +bearing the command of Colonel Cumner for the beggar to appear at once +at the Palace. The beggar looked doubtfully at the orderly a moment, +then rose with an air of lassitude and languidly mounted the horse. +Before he had got half-way to the Palace he suddenly slid from the horse +and said: + +"Why should I go? The son of the great Cumner promised for the Dakoon. +He tells the truth. Light of my soul, but truth is the greatest of all! +I go to play chuck-farthing." + +So saying, he turned and ran lazily back to the Residency and sat down +beneath the banyan tree. The orderly had no commands to bring him by +force, so he returned to the Palace, and entered it as the English +Governor was ending his speech to the people. "We were in danger," +said Cumner, "and the exalted chief, Pango Dooni, came to save us. He +shielded us from evil and death and the dagger of the mongrel chief, +Boonda Broke. Children of heavenly Mandakan, Pango Dooni has lived at +variance with us, but now he is our friend. A strong man should rule +in the Palace of Mandakan as my brother and the friend of my people. I +speak for Pango Dooni. For whom do you speak?" + +As he had said, so said all the people in the Hall of the Heavenly +Hours, and it was taken up with shouts by the people in the Palace yard. +Pango Dooni should be Dakoon! + +Pango Dooni came forward and said: "If as ye say I have saved ye, then +will ye do after my desire, if it be right. I am too long at variance +with this Palace to sit comfortably here. Sometime, out of my bitter +memories, I should smite ye. Nay, let the young, who have no wrongs to +satisfy, let the young who have dreams and visions and hopes, rule; not +the old lion of the hills, who loves too well himself and his rugged +ease of body and soul. But if ye owe me any debt, and if ye mean me +thanks, then will ye make my son Dakoon. For he is braver than I, and +between ye there is no feud. Then will I be your friend, and because my +son shall be Dakoon I will harry ye no more, but bide in my hills, free +and friendly, and ready with sword and lance to stand by the faith and +fealty that I promise. If this be your will, and the will of the great +Cumner, speak." + +Cumner bowed his head in assent, and the people called in a loud voice +for Tang-a-Dahit. + +The young man stepped forth, and baring his head, said: + +"It is meet that the race be to the swift, to those who have proven +their faith and their swords; who have the gift for ruling, and the +talent of the sword to sustain it. For me, if ye will hear me, I will +go another way. I will not rule. My father hath passed on this honour to +me, but I yield it up to one who hath saved ye from a double death, even +to the great Cumner's Son. He rode, as ye know, through peril to Pango +Dooni, bearing the call for help, and he hath helped to save the whole +land from the Red Plague. But for him Mandakan would be only a place of +graves. Speak, children of heavenly Mandakan, whom will ye choose?" When +Cumner's Son stood forth he was pale and astounded before the cries +of greeting that were carried out through the Palace yard, through the +highways, and even to the banyan tree where sat the beggar of Nangoon. + +"I have done nothing, I have done nothing," said he sincerely. "It was +Pango Dooni, it was the beggar of Nangoon. I am not fit to rule." + +He turned to his father, but saw no help in his eyes for refusal. The +lad read the whole story of his father's face, and he turned again to +the people. + +"If ye will have it so, then, by the grace of God, I will do right by +this our land," said he. + +A half-hour later he stood before them, wearing the costly robe of +yellow feathers and gold and perfect silk of the Dakoon of Mandakan. + +"The beggar of Nangoon who saved our city, bid him come near," he said; +but the orderly stepped forward and told his story of how the beggar had +returned to his banyan tree. + +"Then tell the beggar of Nangoon," said he, "that if he will not visit +me, I will visit him; and all that I promised for the Dakoon of Mandakan +I will fulfil. Let Cushnan Di stand forth," he added, and the old man +came near. "The city which was yours is yours, again, and all that was +taken from it shall be restored," said he. + +Then he called him by his real name, and the people were amazed. + +Cushnan Di, as he had been known to them, said quietly: + +"If my Lord will give me place near him as general of his armies and +keeper of the gates, I will not ask that my city be restored, and I will +live near to the Palace--" + +"Nay, but in the Palace," interrupted Cumner's Son, "and thy daughter +also, who hath the wisdom of heaven, that there be always truth shining +in these high places." + +An hour later the Dakoon passed through the Path by the Bazaar. + +"Whither goes the Dakoon?" asked a native chief of McDermot. + +"To visit a dirty beggar in the Residency Square, and afterwards to the +little house of Cushnan Di," was the reply. + + + + +IX. THE PROPHET OF PEACE + +The years went by. + +In the cool of a summer evening a long procession of people passed +through the avenues of blossoming peach and cherry trees in Mandakan, +singing a high chant or song. It was sacred, yet it was not solemn; +peaceful, yet not sombre; rather gentle, aspiring, and clear. The people +were not of the city alone, but they had been gathered from all parts of +the land--many thousands, who were now come on a pilgrimage to Mandakan. + +At the head of the procession was a tall, lithe figure, whose face +shone, and whose look was at once that of authority and love. Three +years' labour had given him these followers and many others. His dreams +were coming true. + +"Fighting, fighting, naught but fighting for honour and glory and +homes and kine, but naught for love, and naught that there may be +peace."--This was no longer true; for the sword of the young Dakoon was +ever lifted for love and for peace. + +The great procession stopped near a little house by the Aqueduct of the +Failing Fountain, and spread round it, and the leader stepped forward to +the door of the little house and entered. A silence fell upon the crowd, +for they were to look upon the face of a dying girl, who chose to dwell +in her little home rather than in a palace. + +She was carried forth on a litter, and set down, and the long procession +passed by her as she lay. She smiled at all an ineffable smile of peace, +and her eyes had in them the light of a good day drawing to its close. +Only once did she speak, and that was when all had passed, and a fine +troop of horsemen came riding up. + +This was the Dakoon of Mandakan and his retinue. When he dismounted and +came to her, and bent over her, he said something in a low tone for her +ear alone, and she smiled at him, and whispered the one word "Peace!" + +Then the Dakoon, who once was known only as Cumner's Son, turned and +embraced the prophet Sandoni, as he was now called, though once he had +been called Tang-a-Dahit the hillsman. + +"What message shall I bear thy father?" asked the Dakoon, after they had +talked a while. + +Sandoni told him, and then the Dakoon said: + +"Thy father and mine, who are gone to settle a wild tribe of the hills +in a peaceful city, send thee a message." And he held up his arm, where +a bracelet shone. + +The Prophet read thereon the Sacred Countersign of the hillsmen. + + + + +THE HIGH COURT OF BUDGERY-GAR + +We were camped on the edge of a billabong. Barlas was kneading a damper, +Drysdale was tenderly packing coals about the billy to make the water +boil, and I was cooking the chops. The hobbled horses were picking the +grass and the old-man salt-bush near, and Bimbi, the black boy, +was gathering twigs and bark for the fire. That is the order of +merit--Barlas, Drysdale, myself, the horses and Bimbi. Then comes the +Cadi all by himself. He is given an isolated and indolent position, +because he was our guest and also because, in a way, he represented +the Government. And though bushmen do not believe much in a far-off +Government--even though they say when protesting against a bad Land +Law, "And your Petitioners will ever Pray," and all that kind of +yabber-yabber--they give its representative the lazy side of the fire +and a fig of the best tobacco when he bails up a camp as the Cadi did +ours. Stewart Ruttan, the Cadi, was the new magistrate at Windowie and +Gilgan, which stand for a huge section of the Carpentaria country. He +was now on his way to Gilgan to try some cases there. He was a new chum, +though he had lived in Australia for years. As Barlas said, he'd been +kept in a cultivation-paddock in Sydney and Brisbane; and he was now +going to take the business of justice out of the hands of Heaven and +its trusted agents the bushmen, and reduce the land to the peace of the +Beatitudes by the imposing reign of law and summary judgments. Barlas +had just said as much, though in different language. + +I knew by the way that Barlas dropped the damper on the hot ashes and +swung round on his heel that he was in a bad temper. "And so you think, +Cadi," said he, "that we squatters and bushmen are a strong, murderous +lot; that we hunt down the Myalls--[Aborigines]--like kangaroos or +dingoes, and unrighteously take justice in our own hands instead of +handing it over to you?" + +"I think," said the Cadi, "that individual and private revenge +should not take the place of the Courts of Law. If the blacks commit +depredations--" + +"Depredations!" interjected Drysdale with sharp scorn. + +"If they commit depredations and crimes," the Cadi continued, "they +should be captured as criminals are captured elsewhere and be brought in +and tried. In that way respect would be shown to British law and--" here +he hesitated slightly, for Barlas's face was not pleasant to see--"and +the statutes." + +But Barlas's voice was almost compassionate as he said: "Cadi, every +man to his trade, and you've got yours. But you haven't learned yet that +this isn't Brisbane or Melbourne. You haven't stopped to consider how +many police would be necessary for this immense area of country if you +are really to be of any use. And see here,"--his face grew grim and +dark, "you don't know what it is to wait for the law to set things right +in this Never Never Land. There isn't a man in the Carpentaria and Port +Darwin country but has lost a friend by the cowardly crack of a waddy +in the dead of night or a spear from behind a tree. Never any fair +fighting, but red slaughter and murder--curse their black hearts!" +Barlas gulped down what seemed very like a sob. + +Drysdale and I knew how strongly Barlas felt. He had been engaged to be +married to a girl on the Daly River, and a week before the wedding she +and her mother and her two brothers were butchered by blacks whom they +had often befriended and fed. We knew what had turned Barlas's hair grey +and spoiled his life. + +Drysdale took up the strain: "Yes, Cadi, you've got the true missionary +gospel, the kind of yabber they fire at each other over tea and buns at +Darling Point and Toorak--all about the poor native and the bad, bad men +who don't put peas in their guns, and do sometimes get an eye for an eye +and a tooth for a tooth.... Come here, Bimbi." Bimbi came. + +"Yes, master," Bimbi said. + +"You kill that black-fellow mother belonging to you?" + +"Yes, master." + +"Yes," Drysdale continued, "Bimbi went out with a police expedition +against his own tribe, and himself cut his own mother's head off. As a +race, as a family, the blacks have no loyalty. They will track their +own brothers down for the whites as ruthlessly as they track down the +whites. As a race they are treacherous and vile, though as individuals +they may have good points." + +"No, Cadi," once more added Barlas, "we can get along very well without +your consolidated statutes or High Courts or Low Courts just yet. They +are too slow. Leave the black devils to us. You can never prove anything +against them in a court of law. We've tried that. Tribal punishment is +the only proper thing for individual crime. That is what the nations +practise in the islands of the South Seas. A trader or a Government +official is killed. Then a man-of-war sweeps a native village out of +existence with Hotchkiss guns. Cadi, we like you; but we say to you, Go +back to your cultivation-paddock at Brisbane, and marry a wife and beget +children before the Lord, and feed on the Government, and let us work +out our own salvation. We'll preserve British justice and the statutes, +too. ... There, the damper, as Bimbi would say, is 'corbon budgery', and +your chop is done to a turn, Cadi. And now let's talk of something that +doesn't leave a bad taste in the mouth." + +The Cadi undoubtedly was more at home with reminiscences of nights +at the Queensland Club and moonlight picnics at lovely Humpy Bong and +champagne spreads in a Government launch than at dispensing law in +the Carpentaria district. And he had eager listeners. Drysdale's +open-mouthed, admiring "My word!" as he puffed his pipe, his back +against an ironbark tree, was most eloquent of long banishment from the +delights of the "cultivation-paddock"; and Barlas nodded frequently his +approval, and was less grim than usual. Yet, peaceful as we were, it +might have puzzled a stranger to see that all of us were armed--armed +in this tenantless, lonely wilderness! Lonely and tenantless enough +it seemed. There was the range of the Copper-mine hills to the south, +lighted by the wan moon; and between and to the west a rough scrub +country, desolating beyond words, and where even edible snakes would +be scarce; spots of dead-finish, gidya, and brigalow-bush to north and +east, and in the trees by the billabong the cry of the cockatoo and the +laughing-jackass. It was lonely, but surely it was safe. Yes, perhaps it +was safe! + +It was late when we turned in, our heads upon our saddles, for the Cadi +had been more than amusing--he had been confidential, and some political +characters were roughly overhauled for our benefit, while so-called +Society did not escape flagellation. Next morning the Cadi left us. He +gave us his camps--Bora Bora, Budgery-Gar, Wintelliga, and Gilgan--since +we were to go in his direction also soon. He turned round in his saddle +as he rode off, and said gaily: "Gentlemen, I hope you'll always help to +uphold the majesty of the law as nobly as you have sustained its envoy +from your swags." + +Drysdale and I waved our hands to him, but Barlas muttered something +between his teeth. We had two days of cattle-hunting in the Copper-mine +hills, and then we started westward, in the tracks of the Cadi, to make +for Barlas's station. The second day we camped at Bora Bora Creek. We +had just hobbled the horses, and were about to build a fire, when Bimbi +came running to us. "Master, master," he said to Drysdale, "that fellow +Cadi yarraman mumkull over there. Plenty myall mandowie!"--('Master, +master, the Cadi's horse is dead over there, and there are plenty of +black fellows' tracks about.') + +We found the horse pierced with spears. The Cadi had evidently mounted +and tried to get away. And soon, by a clump of the stay-a-while bush, +we discovered, alas! the late companion of our camp-fire. He was gashed +from head to foot, and naked. + +We buried him beneath a rustling sandal-tree, and on its bark carved the +words: + +"Sacred to the memory of Stewart Ruttan." + +And beneath, Barlas added the following: + +"The Cadi sleeps. The Law regards him not." + +In a pocket of the Cadi's coat, which lay near, we found the picture of +a pretty girl. On it was written: + +"To dearest Stewart, from Alice." + +Barlas's face was stern and drawn. He looked at us from under his shaggy +brows. + +"There's a Court to be opened," he said. "Do you stand for law or +justice?" + +"For justice," we replied. + +Four days later in a ravine at Budgery-Gar a big camp of blacks were +feasting. With loathsome pantomime they were re-enacting the murders +they had committed within the past few days; murders of innocent white +women and children, and good men and true--among them the Cadi, God help +him! Great fires were burning in the centre of the camp, and the bodies +of the black devils writhed with hideous colour in the glare. Effigies +of murdered whites were speared and mangled with brutal cries, and then +black women of the camp were brought out, and mockeries of unnameable +horrors were performed. Hell had emptied forth its carrion. + +But twelve bitter white men looked down upon this scene from the scrub +and rocks above, and their teeth were set. Barlas, their leader, turned +to them and said: "This court is open. Are you ready?" + +The click of twelve rifles was the reply. + +When these twelve white jurymen rode away from the ravine there was +not one but believed that justice had been done by the High Court of +Budgery-Gar. + + + + +AN EPIC IN YELLOW + +There was a culminating growth of irritation on board the Merrie +Monarch. The Captain was markedly fitful and, to a layman's eye, +unreliable at the helm; the Hon. Skye Terryer was smoking violently, and +the Newspaper Correspondent--representing an American syndicate--chewed +his cigar in silence. + +"Yes," Gregson, the Member of Parliament, continued, "if I had my way +I'd muster every mob of Chinamen in Australia, I'd have one thundering +big roundup, and into the Pacific and the Indian Sea they'd go, to the +crack of a stock-whip or of something more convincing." The Hon. Skye +Terryer was in agreement with the Squatting Member in the principle +of his argument if not in the violence of his remedies. He was a young +travelling Englishman; one of that class who are Radicals at twenty, +Independents at thirty, and Conservatives at forty. He had not yet +reached the intermediate stage. He saw in this madcap Radical Member one +of the crude but strong expressions of advanced civilisation. He had the +noble ideal of Australia as a land trodden only by the Caucasian. The +Correspondent, much to our surprise, had by occasional interjections at +the beginning of the discussion showed that he was not antipathetic to +Mongolian immigration. The Captain? + +"Yes, I'd give 'em Botany Bay, my word!" added the Member as an +anti-climax. + +The Captain let go the helm with a suddenness which took our breath +away, apparently regardless that we were going straight as an arrow on +the Island of Pentecost, the shore of which, in its topaz and emerald +tints, was pretty enough to look at but not to attack, end on. He pushed +both hands down deep into his pockets and squared himself for war. + +"Gregson," he said, "that kind of talk may be good enough for Parliament +and for labour meetings, but it is not proper diet for the Merrie +Monarch. It's a kind of political gospel that's no better than the creed +of the Malay who runs amuck. God's Providence--where would your Port +Darwin Country have been without the Chinaman? What would have come +to tropical agriculture in North Queensland if it had not been for the +same? And what would all your cities do for vegetables to eat and +clean shirts to their backs if it was not for the Chinkie? As for their +morals, look at the police records of any well-regulated city where they +are--well-regulated, mind you, not like San Francisco! I pity the morals +of a man and the stupidity of him and the benightedness of him that +would drive the Chinaman out at the point of the bayonet or by the crack +of a rifle. I pity that man, and--and I wash my hands of him." + +And having said all this with a strong Scotch accent the Captain +opportunely turned to his duty and prevented us from trying conclusions +with the walls of a precipice, over which fell silver streams of water +like giant ropes up which the Naiads might climb to the balmy enclosures +where the Dryads dwelt. The beauty of the scene was but a mechanical +impression, to be remembered afterward when thousands of miles away, +for the American Correspondent now at last lit his cigar and took up the +strain. + +"Say, the Captain's right," he said. "You English are awful prigs and +hypocrites, politically; as selfish a lot as you'll find on the face of +the globe. But in this matter of the Chinaman there isn't any difference +between a man from Oregon and one from Sydney, only the Oregonian isn't +a prig and a hypocrite; he's only a brute, a bragging, hard-handed +brute. He got the Chinaman to build his railways--he couldn't get any +other race to do it--same fix as the planter in North Queensland with +the Polynesian; and to serve him in pioneer times and open up the +country, and when that was done he turns round and says: 'Out you go, +you Chinkie--out you go and out you stay! We're going to reap this +harvest all alone; we're going to Chicago you clean off the table!' And +Washington, the Home of Freedom and Tammany Tigers, shoves a prohibitive +Bill through the Legislature, as Parkes did in Sydney; only Parkes +talked a lot of Sunday-school business about the solidarity of the +British race, and Australia for the Australians, and all that patter; +and the Oregonian showed his dirty palm of selfishness straight out, and +didn't blush either. 'Give 'em Botany Bay! Give'em the stock-whip and +the rifle!' That's a nice gospel for the Anglo-Saxon dispensation." + +The suddenness of the attack overwhelmed the Member, but he was choking +with wrath. Had he not stone-walled in the New South Wales Parliament +for nine hours, and been placed on a Royal Commission for that service? +"My word!" But the box of cigars was here amiably passed, and what +seemed like a series of international complications was stayed. It was +perhaps fortunate, however, that at this moment a new interest sprang +up. We were rounding a lofty headland crowned with groves of cocoa-palms +and bananas and with trailing skirts of flowers and vines, when we saw +ahead of us a pretty little bay, and on the shore a human being plainly +not a Polynesian. Up the hillside that rose suddenly from the beach was +a thatched dwelling, not built open all round like most native houses, +and apparently having but one doorway. In front of the house, and near +it, was a tall staff, and on the staff the British Flag. + +In a moment we, too, had the British Flag flying at our mast-head. + +Long ago I ceased to wonder at coincidences, still I confess I was +scarcely prepared for the Correspondent's exclamation, as, taking the +marine glass from his eyes, he said: "Well, I'm decalogued if it ain't a +Chinaman!" + +It certainly was so. Here on the Island of Pentecost, in the New +Hebrides, was a Celestial washing clothes on the beach as much at home +as though he were in Tacoma or Cooktown. The Member's "My oath!" +Skye Terryer's "Ah!" and the Captain's chuckle were as weighty with +importance as though the whole question of Chinese immigration were now +to be settled. As we hove-to and dropped anchor, a boat was pushed out +into the surf by a man who had hurriedly come down the beach from the +house. In a moment or two he was alongside. An English face and an +English voice greeted us, and in the doorway of the house were an +English woman and her child. + +What pleasure this meeting gave to us and to the trader--for such he +was, those only can know who have sailed these Southern Seas through +long and nerveless tropic days, and have lived, as this man did with his +wife and child, for months never seeing a white face, and ever in danger +of an attack from cannibal tribes, who, when apparently most disposed to +amity, are really planning a massacre. Yet with that instinct of gain +so strong in the Anglo-Saxon, this trader had dared the worst for the +chance of making money quickly and plentifully by the sale of copra +to occasional vessels. The Chinaman had come with the trader from +Queensland, and we were assured was "as good as gold." If colour +counted, he looked it. At this the pro-Mongolian magnanimously forbore +to show any signs of triumph. The Correspondent, on the contrary, turned +to the Chinaman and began chaffing him; he continued it as the others, +save myself, passed on towards the house. + +This was the close of the dialogue: "Well, John, how are you getting +on?" + +"Welly good," was John's reply; "thirletty dollars a month, and learn +the plan of salvation." + +The Correspondent laughed. + +"Well, you good Englishman, John? You like British flag? You fight?" + +And John, blinking jaundicely, replied: "John allee samee +Linglishman-muchee fightee blimeby--nigger no eatee China boy;" and he +chuckled. + +A day and a night we lingered in the little Bay of Vivi, and then we +left it behind; each of us, however, watching till we could see the +house on the hillside and the flag no longer, and one at least wondering +if that secret passage into the hills from the palm-thatched home would +ever be used as the white dwellers fled for their lives. + +We had promised that, if we came near Pentecost again on our cruise, we +would spend another idle day in the pretty bay. Two months passed +and then we kept our word. As we rounded the lofty headland the +Correspondent said: "Say, I'm hankering after that baby!" But the +Captain at the moment hoarsely cried: "God's love! but where are the +house and the flag?" + +There was no house and there was no flag above the Bay of Vivi. + +Ten minutes afterwards we stood beside the flag-staff, and at our feet +lay a moaning, mangled figure. It was the Chinaman, and over his gashed +misery were drawn the folds of the flag that had flown on the staff. +What horror we feared for those who were not to be seen needs no telling +here. + +As for the Chinaman, it was as he said; the cannibals would not "eatee +Chinee boy." They were fastidious. They had left him, disdaining even to +take his head for a trophy. + +Hours after, on board the Merrie Monarch, we learned in fragments the +sad story. It was John Chinaman that covered the retreat of the wife and +child into the hills when the husband had fallen. + +The last words that the dying Chinkie said were these: "Blitish flag +wellee good thing keepee China boy walm; plentee good thing China boy +sleepee in all a-time." + +So it was. With rude rites and reverent hands, we lowered him to the +deep from the decks of the Merrie Monarch, and round him was that +flag under which he had fought for English woman and English child so +valorously. + + "And he went like a warrior into his rest + With the Union Jack around him." + +That was the paraphrasing epitaph the Correspondent wrote for him in the +pretty Bay of Vivi, and when he read it, we all drank in silence to the +memory of "a Chinkie." + +We found the mother and the child on the other side of the island ere +a week had passed, and bore them away in safety. They speak to-day of a +member of a despised race, as one who showed + + "The constant service of the antique world." + + + + +DIBBS, R.N. + +"Now listen to me, Neddie Dibbs," she said, as she bounced the ball +lightly on her tennis-racket, "you are very precipitate. It's only four +weeks since you were court-martialed, and you escaped being reduced by +the very closest shave; and yet you come and make love to me, and want +me to marry you. You don't lack confidence, certainly." + +Commander Dibbs, R.N. was hurt; but he did not become dramatic. He felt +the point of his torpedo-cut beard, and smiled up pluckily at her--she +was much taller than he. + +"I know the thing went against me rather," he said, "but it was all +wrong, I assure you. It's cheeky, of course, to come to you like this so +soon after, but for two years I've been looking forward up there in the +China Sea to meeting you again. You don't know what a beast of a station +it is--besides, I didn't think you'd believe the charge." + +"The charge was that you had endangered the safety of one of her +Majesty's cruisers by trying to run through an unexplored opening in the +Barrier Reef. Was that it?" + +"That was it." + +"And you didn't endanger her?" + +"Yes, I did, but not wilfully, of course, nor yet stupidly." + +"I read the evidence, and, frankly, it looked like stupidity." + +"I haven't been called stupid usually, have I?" + +"No. I've heard you called many things, but never that." + +Every inch of his five-feet-five was pluck. He could take her shots +broadside, and laugh while he winced. "You've heard me called a good +many things not complimentary, I suppose, for I know I'm not much to +look at, and I've an edge to my tongue sometimes. What is the worst +thing you ever said of me?" he added a little bitterly. + +"What I say to you now--though, by the way, I've never said it +before--that your self-confidence is appalling. Don't you know that +I'm very popular, that they say I'm clever, and that I'm a tall, +good-looking girl?" + +She looked down at him, and said it with such a delightful naivete, +through which a tone of raillery ran, that it did not sound as it +may read. She knew her full value, but no one had ever accused her of +vanity--she was simply the most charming, outspoken girl in the biggest +city of Australia. + +"Yes, I know all that," he replied with an honest laugh. "When you were +a little child,--according to your mother, and were told you were not +good, you said: 'No, I'm not good--I'm only beautiful.'" + +Dibbs had a ready tongue, and nothing else he said at the moment could +have had so good an effect. She laughed softly and merrily. "You have +awkward little corners in your talk at times. I wonder they didn't +reduce you at the court-martial. You were rather keen with your words +once or twice there." + +A faint flush ran over Dibbs's face, but he smiled through it, and +didn't give away an inch of self-possession. "If the board had been +women, I'd have been reduced right enough--women don't go by evidence, +but by their feelings; they don't know what justice really is, though by +nature they've some undisciplined generosity." + +"There again you are foolish. I'm a woman. Now why do you say such +things to me, especially when--when you are aspiring! Properly, I ought +to punish you. But why did you say those sharp things at your trial? +They probably told against you." + +"I said them because I felt them, and I hate flummery and +thick-headedness. I was as respectful as I could be; but there were +things about the trial I didn't like--irregular things, which the +Admiral himself, who knows his business, set right." + +"I remember the Admiral said there were points about the case that he +couldn't quite understand, but that they could only go by such testimony +as they had." + +"Exactly," he said sententiously. + +She wheeled softly on him, and looked him full in the eyes. "What other +testimony was there to offer?" + +"We are getting a long way from our starting-point," he answered +evasively. "We were talking of a more serious matter." + +"But a matter with which this very thing has to do, Neddie Dibbs. +There's a mystery somewhere. I've asked Archie; but he won't say a word +about it, except that he doesn't think you were to blame." + +"Your brother is a cautious fellow." Then, hurriedly: "He is quite right +to express no opinion as to any mystery. Least said soonest mended." + +"You mean that it is proper not to discuss professional matters in +society?" + +"That's it." A change had passed over Dibbs's face--it was slightly +paler, but his voice was genial and inconsequential. + +"Come and sit down at the Point," she said. + +They went to a cliff which ran out from one corner of the garden, and +sat down on a bench. Before them stretched the harbour, dotted with +sails; men-of-war lay at anchor, among them the little Ruby, Commander +Dibbs's cruiser. Pleasure-steamers went hurrying along to many shady +harbours; a tall-masted schooner rode grandly in between the Heads, +balanced with foam; and a beach beneath them shone like opal: it was a +handsome sight. + +For a time they were silent. At last he said: "I know I haven't much to +recommend me. I'm a little beggar--nothing to look at; I'm pretty poor; +I've had no influence to push me on; and just at the critical point in +my career--when I was expecting promotion--I get this set-back, and lose +your good opinion, which is more to me, though I say it bluntly like a +sailor, than the praise of all the Lords of the Admiralty, if it could +be got. You see, I always was ambitious; I was certain I'd be a captain; +I swore I'd be an admiral one day; and I fell in love with the best girl +in the world, and said I'd not give up thinking I would marry her until +and unless I saw her wearing another man's name--and I don't know that I +should even then." + +"Now that sounds complicated--or wicked," she said, her face turned away +from him. + +"Believe me, it is not complicated; and men marry widows sometimes." + +"You are shocking," she said, turning on him with a flush to her cheek +and an angry glitter in her eye. "How dare you speak so cold-bloodedly +and thoughtlessly?" + +"I am not cold-blooded or thoughtless, nor yet shocking. I only speak +what is in my mind with my usual crudeness. I know it sounds insolent +of me, but, after all, it is only being bold with the woman for +whom--half-disgraced, insignificant, but unquenchable fellow as I +am--I'd do as much as, and, maybe, dare more for than any one of the men +who would marry her if they could." + +"I like ambitious men," she said relenting, and meditatively pushing +the grass with her tennis-racket; "but ambition isn't everything, is +it? There must be some kind of fulfilment to turn it into capital, as it +were. Don't let me hurt your feelings, but you haven't done a great deal +yet, have you?" + +"No, I haven't. There must be occasion. The chance to do something big +may start up any time, however. You never can tell when things will come +your way. You've got to be ready, that's all." + +"You are very confident." + +"You'll call me a prig directly, perhaps, but I can't help that. I've +said things to you that I've never said to any one in the world, and I +don't regret saying them." + +She looked at him earnestly. She had never been made love to in this +fashion. There was no sentimentalism in it, only straightforward +feeling, forceful, yet gentle. She knew he was aware that the Admiral +of his squadron had paid, and was paying, court to her; that a titled +aide-de-camp at Government House was conspicuously attentive; that one +of the richest squatters in the country was ready to make astonishing +settlements at any moment; and that there was not a young man of +note acquainted with her who did not offer her gallant service-in the +ball-room. She smiled as she thought of it. He was certainly not large, +but no finer head was ever set on a man's shoulders, powerful, +strongly outlined, nobly balanced. The eyes were everywhere; searching, +indomitable, kind. It was a head for a sculptor. Ambition became it +well. She had studied that head from every stand-point, and had had the +keenest delight in talking to the man. But, as he said, that was two +years before, and he had had bad luck since then. + +She suddenly put this question to him: "Tell me all the truth about that +accident to the Ruby. You have been hiding something. The Admiral was +right, I know. Some evidence was not forthcoming that would have thrown +a different light on the affair." + +"I can tell you nothing," he promptly replied. + +"I shall find out one day," she said. + +"I hope not; though I'm grateful that you wish to do so." + +He rose hurriedly to his feet; he was looking at the harbour below. He +raised the field-glass he had carried from the veranda to his eyes. He +was watching a yacht making across the bay towards them. + +She spoke again. "You are going again to-morrow?" + +"Yes; all the ships of the squadron but one get away." + +"How long shall you be gone?" + +"Six months at least----Great God!" + +He had not taken the glasses from his eyes as they talked, but had +watched the yacht as she came on to get under the lee of the high shore +at their right. He had noticed that one of those sudden fierce winds, +called Southerly Busters, was sweeping down towards the craft, and would +catch it when it came round sharp, as it must do. He recognised the boat +also. It belonged to Laura Harman's father, and her brother Archie was +in it. The gale caught the yacht as Dibbs foresaw, and swamped her. +He dropped the glass, cried to the girl to follow, and in a minute had +scrambled down the cliff, and thrown off most of his things. He had +launched a skiff by the time the girl reached the shore. She got in +without a word. She was deadly pale, but full of nerve. They rowed hard +to where they could see two men clinging to the yacht; there had been +three in it. The two men were not hauled in, for the gale was blowing +too hard, but they clung to the rescuing skiff. The girl's brother was +not to be seen. Instantly Dibbs dived under the yacht. It seemed an +incredible time before he reappeared; but when he did, he had a body +with him. Blood was coming from his nose, the strain of holding his +breath had been so great. It was impossible to get the insensible body +into the skiff. He grasped the side, and held the boy's head up. The +girl rowed hard, but made little headway. Other rescue boats arrived +presently, however, and they were all got to shore safely. + +Lieutenant Archie Harman did not die. Animation was restored after great +difficulty, but he did not sail away with the Ruby next morning to the +Polynesian Islands. Another man took his place. + +Little was said between Commander Dibbs and Laura Harman at parting late +that night. She came from her brother's bedside and laid her hand upon +his arm. "It is good," she said, "for a man to be brave as well as +ambitious. You are sure to succeed; and I shall be proud of you, +for--for you saved my brother's life, you see," she timidly added; and +she was not often timid. + + ......................... + +Five months after, when the Ruby was lying with the flag-ship off one +of the Marshall Islands, a packet of letters was brought from Fiji by +a trading-schooner. One was for Commander Dibbs. It said in brief: "You +saved my brother's life--that was brave. You saved his honour--that was +noble. He has told me all. He will resign and clear you when the Admiral +returns. You are a good man." + +"He ought to be kicked," Dibbs said to himself. "Did the cowardly beggar +think I did it for him--blast him!" + +He raged inwardly; but he soon had something else to think of, for a +hurricane came down on them as they lay in a trap of coral with only +one outlet, which the Ruby had surveyed that day. He took his ship out +gallantly, but the flag-ship dare not attempt it--Dibbs was the only man +who knew the passage thoroughly. He managed to land on the shore below +the harbour, and then, with a rope round him, essayed to reach the +flag-ship from the beach. It was a wild chance, but he got there badly +battered. Still, he took her with her Admiral out to the open safely. + +That was how Dibbs became captain of a great iron-clad. + +Archie Harman did not resign; Dibbs would not let him. Only Archie's +sister knew that he was responsible for the accident to the Ruby, which +nearly cost Dibbs his reputation; for he and Dibbs had surveyed the +passage in the Barrier Reef when serving on another ship, and he had +neglected instructions and wrongly and carelessly interpreted the chart. +And Dibbs had held his tongue. + +One evening Laura Harman said to Captain Dibbs: "Which would you rather +be--Admiral of the Fleet or my husband?" Her hand was on his arm at the +time. + +He looked up at her proudly, and laughed slyly. "I mean to be both, dear +girl." + +"You have an incurable ambition," she said. + + + + +A LITTLE MASQUERADE + +"Oh, nothing matters," she said, with a soft, ironical smile, as she +tossed a bit of sugar to the cockatoo. + +"Quite so," was his reply, and he carefully gathered in a loose leaf +of his cigar. Then, after a pause: "And yet, why so? It's a very pretty +world one way and another." + +"Yes, it's a pretty world at times." + +At that moment they were both looking out over a part of the world known +as the Nindobar Plains, and it was handsome to the eye. As far as could +be seen was a carpet of flowers under a soft sunset. The homestead by +which they sat was in a wilderness of blossoms. To the left was a high +rose-coloured hill, solemn and mysterious; to the right--afar off--a +forest of gum-trees, pink and purple against the horizon. At their feet, +beyond the veranda, was a garden joyously brilliant, and bright-plumaged +birds flitted here and there. + +The two looked out for a long time, then, as if by a mutual impulse, +suddenly turned their eyes on each other. They smiled, and, somehow, +that smile was not delightful to see. The girl said presently: "It is +all on the surface." + +Jack Sherman gave a little click of the tongue peculiar to him, and +said: "You mean that the beautiful birds have dreadful voices; that the +flowers are scentless; that the leaves of the trees are all on edge and +give no shade; that where that beautiful carpet of blossoms is there was +a blazing quartz plain six months ago, and there's likely to be the +same again; that, in brief, it's pretty, but hollow." He made a slight +fantastic gesture, as though mocking himself for so long a speech, and +added: "Really, I didn't prepare this little oration." + +She nodded, and then said: "Oh, it's not so hollow,--you would not call +it that exactly, but it's unsatisfactory." + +"You have lost your illusions." + +"And before that occurred you had lost yours." + +"Do I betray it, then?" He laughed, not at all bitterly, yet not with +cheerfulness. + +"And do you think that you have such acuteness, then, and I--" Nellie +Hayden paused, raised her eyebrows a little coldly, and let the cockatoo +bite her finger. + +"I did not mean to be egotistical. The fact is I live my life alone, and +I was interested for the moment to know how I appeared to others. You +and I have been tolerably candid with each other since we met, for the +first time, three days ago; I knew you would not hesitate to say what +was in your mind, and I asked out of honest curiosity. One fancies one +hides one's self, and yet--you see!" + +"Do you find it pleasant, then, to be candid and free with some one?... +Why with me?" She looked him frankly in the eyes. + +"Well, to be more candid. You and I know the world very well, I fancy. +You were educated in Europe, travelled, enjoyed--and suffered." The girl +did not even blink, but went on looking at him steadily. "We have both +had our hour with the world; have learned many sides of the game. We +haven't come out of it without scars of one kind or another. Knowledge +of the kind is expensive." + +"You wanted to say all that to me the first evening we met, didn't you?" +There was a smile of gentle amusement on her face. + +"I did. From the moment I saw you I knew that we could say many things +to each other 'without pre liminaries.' To be able to do that is a great +deal." + +"It is a relief to say things, isn't it?" + +"It is better than writing them, though that is pleasant, after its +kind." + +"I have never tried writing--as we talk. There's a good deal of vanity +at the bottom of it though, I believe." + +"Of course. But vanity is a kind of virtue, too." He leaned over towards +her, dropping his arms on his knees and holding her look. "I am very +glad that I met you. I intended only staying here over night, but--" + +"But I interested you in a way--you see, I am vain enough to think that. +Well, you also interested me, and I urged my aunt to press you to stay. +It has been very pleasant, and when you go it will be very humdrum +again; our conversation, mustering, rounding-up, bullocks, and rabbits. +That, of course, is engrossing in a way, but not for long at a time." + +He did not stir, but went on looking at her. "Yes, I believe it has been +pleasant for you, else it had not been so pleasant for me. Honestly, I +don't believe I shall ever get you out of my mind." + +"That is either slightly rude or badly expressed," she said. "Do you +wish, then, to get me out of your mind?" + +"No, no----You are very keen. I wish to remember you always. But what I +felt at the moment was this. There are memories which are always passive +and delightful. We have no wish to live the scenes of which they are +over again, the reflection is enough. There are others which cause us to +wish the scenes back again, with a kind of hunger; and yet they won't or +can't come back. I wondered of what class this memory would be." + +The girl flushed ever so slightly, and her fingers clasped a little +nervously, but she was calm. Her voice was even; it had, indeed, a +little thrilling ring of energy. "You are wonderfully daring," she +replied, "to say that to me. To a school-girl it might mean so much: to +me--!" She shook her head at him reprovingly. + +He was not in the least piqued. "I was absolutely honest in that. I said +nothing but what I felt. I would give very much to feel confident one +way or the other--forgive me, for what seems incredible egotism. If I +were five years younger I should have said instantly that the memory +would be one--" + +"Which would disturb you, make you restless, cause you to neglect your +work, fill you with regret; and yet all too late--isn't that it?" She +laughed lightly and gave a lump of sugar to the cockatoo. + +"You read me accurately. But why touch your words with satire?" + +"I believe I read you better than you read me. I didn't mean to be +satirical. Don't you know that what often seems irony directed towards +others is in reality dealt out to ourselves? Such irony as was in my +voice was for myself." + +"And why for yourself?" he asked quietly, his eyes full of interest. He +was cutting the end of a fresh cigar. "Was it"--he was about to strike +a match, but paused suddenly--"was it because you had thought the same +thing?" + +She looked for a moment as though she would read him through and +through; as though, in spite of all their candour, there was some +lingering uncertainty as to his perfect straightforwardness; then, as +if satisfied, she said at last: "Yes, but with a difference. I have +no doubt which memory it will be. You will not wish to be again on the +plains of Nindobar." + +"And you," he said musingly, "you will not wish me here?" There was no +real vanity in the question. He was wondering how little we can be sure +of what we shall feel to-morrow from what we feel to-day. Besides, he +knew that a wise woman is wiser than a wise man. + +"I really don't think I shall care particularly. Probably, if we met +again here, there would be some jar to our comradeship--I may call it +that, I suppose?" + +"Which is equivalent to saying that good-bye in most cases, and always +in cases such as ours, is a little tragical, because we can never meet +quite the same again." + +She bowed her head, but did not reply. Presently she glanced up at him +kindly. "What would you give to have back the past you had before you +lost your illusions, before you had--trouble?" + +"I do not want it back. I am not really disillusionised. I think that +we should not make our own personal experience a law unto the world. I +believe in the world in spite--of trouble. You might have said trouble +with a woman--I should not have minded." He was smoking now, and the +clouds twisted about his face so that only his eyes looked through +earnestly. "A woman always makes laws from her personal experience. She +has not the faculty of generalisation--I fancy that's the word to use." + +She rose now with a little shaking motion, one hand at her belt, and +rested a shoulder against a pillar of the veranda. He rose also at once, +and said, touching her hand respectfully with his finger tips: "We may +be sorry one day that we did not believe in ourselves more." + +"Oh, no," she said, turning and smiling at him, "I think not. You will +be in England hard at work, I here hard at living; our interests will +lie far apart. I am certain about it all. We might have been what my +cousin calls 'trusty pals'--no more." + +"I wish to God I felt sure of that." + +She held out her hand to him. "I believe you are honest in this. I +expect both of us have played hide-and-seek with sentiment in our time; +but it would be useless for us to masquerade with each other: we are of +the world, very worldly." + +"Quite useless--here comes your cousin! I hope I don't look as agitated +as I feel." + +"You look perfectly cool, and I know I do. What an art this living is! +My cousin comes about the boarhunt to-morrow." + +"Shall you join us?" + +"Of course. I can handle a rifle. Besides, it is your last day here." + +"Who can tell what to-morrow may bring forth?" he said. + + ........................ + +The next day the boar-hunt occurred. They rode several miles to a little +lake and a scrub of brigalow, and, dismounting, soon had exciting sport. +Nellie was a capital shot, and, without loss of any womanliness, was a +thorough sportsman. To-day, however, there was something on her mind, +and she was not as alert and successful as usual. Sherman kept with +her as much as possible--the more so because he saw that her cousins, +believing she was quite well able to take care of herself, gave her to +her own resources. Presently, however, following an animal, he left her +a distance behind. + +On the edge of a little billabong she came upon a truculent boar. It +turned on her, but she fired, and it fell. Seeing another ahead, she +pushed on quickly to secure it, too. As she went she half-cocked her +rifle. Had her mind been absolutely intent on the sport, she had full +cocked it. All at once she heard the thud of feet behind her. She turned +swiftly, and saw the boar she had shot bearing upon her, its long yellow +tusks standing up like daggers. A sweeping thrust from one of them +leaves little chance of life. + +She dropped upon a knee, swung her rifle to her shoulder, and pulled the +trigger. The rifle did not go off. For an instant she did not grasp the +trouble. With singular presence of mind, however, she neither lowered +her rifle nor took her eye from the beast; she remained immovable. It +was all a matter of seconds. Evidently cowed, the animal, when within a +few feet of her, swerved to the right, then made as though to come down +on her again. But, meanwhile, she had discovered her mistake, and cocked +her rifle. She swiftly trained it on the boar, and fired. It was hit, +but did not fall; and came on. Then another shot rang out from behind +her, and the boar fell so near her that its tusk caught her dress. + +Jack Sherman had saved her. + +She was very white when she faced him. She could not speak. That night, +however, she spoke very gratefully and almost tenderly. + +To something that he said gently to her then about a memory, she +replied: "Tell me now as candidly as if to your own soul, did you feel +at the critical moment that life would be horrible and empty without +me?" + +"I thought only of saving you," he said honestly. + +"Then I was quite right; you will never have any regret," she said. + +"I wonder, ah, I wonder!" he added sorrowfully. But the girl was sure. + +The regret was hers; though he never knew that. It is a lonely life on +the dry plains of Nindobar. + + + + +DERELICT + +He was very drunk; and because of that Victoria Lindley, barmaid at +O'Fallen's, was angry--not at him but at O'Fallen, who had given him the +liquor. + +She knew more about him than any one else. The first time she saw him he +was not sober. She had left the bar-room empty; and when she came back +he was there with others who had dropped in, evidently attracted by +his unusual appearance--he wore an eyeglass--and he had been saying +something whimsically audacious to Dicky Merritt, who, slapping him on +the shoulder, had asked him to have a swizzle. + +Dicky Merritt had a ripe sense of humour, and he was the first to grin. +This was followed by loud laughs from others, and these laughs went out +where the dust lay a foot thick and soft like precipitated velvet, and +hurrying over the street, waked the Postmaster and roused the Little +Milliner, who at once came to their doors. Catching sight of each other, +they nodded, and blushed, and nodded again; and then the Postmaster, +neglecting the business of the country, went upon his own business into +the private sitting-room of the Little Milliner; for those wandering +laughs from O'Fallen's had done the work set for them by the high +powers. + +Over in the hot bar-room the man with the eye-glass was being frankly +"intr'juced" to Dicky Merritt and Company, Limited, by Victoria Lindley, +who, as hostess of this saloon, was, in his eyes, on a footing of +acquaintance. To her he raised his hat with accentuated form, and +murmured his name--"Mr. Jones--Mr. Jones." Forthwith, that there might +be no possible unpleasantness--for even such hostesses have their duties +of tact--she politely introduced him as Mr. Jones. + +He had been a man of innumerable occupations--nothing long: caretaker of +tanks, rabbit-trapper, boundary-rider, cook at a shearers' camp, and, in +due time, he became book-keeper at O'Fallen's. That was due to Vic. Mr. +Jones wrote a very fine hand--not in the least like a business man--when +he was moderately sober, and he also had an exceedingly caustic wit +when he chose to use it. He used it once upon O'Fallen, who was a rough, +mannerless creature, with a good enough heart, but easily irritated by +the man with the eye-glass, whose superior intellect and manner, even +when drunk, were too noticeable. He would never have employed him were +it not for Vic, who was worth very much money to him in the course of +the year. She was the most important person within a radius of a hundred +and fifty miles, not excepting Rembrandt, the owner of Bomba Station, +which was twenty miles square, nor the parson at Magari, ninety miles +south, by the Ring-Tail Billabong. For both Rembrandt and the parson +had, and showed, a respect for her, which might appear startling were it +seen in Berkeley Square or the Strand. + +When, therefore, O'Fallen came raging into the barroom one morning, with +the gentle remark that "he'd roast the tongue of her fancy gent if he +didn't get up and git," he did a foolish thing. It was the first time +that he had insulted Victoria, and it was the last. She came out white +and quiet from behind the bar-counter, and, as he retreated from her +into a corner, said: "There is not a man who drinks over this bar, or +puts his horse into your shed, who wouldn't give you the lie to that and +thrash you as well--you coward!" Her words came on low and steady: "Mr. +Jones will go now, of course, but I shall go also." + +This awed O'Fallen. To lose Vic was to lose the reputation of his house. +He instantly repented, but she turned her shoulder on him, and went +into the little hot office, where the book-keeper was, leaving him +gesticulating as he swore at himself in the glass behind the bar. When +she entered the room she found Mr. Jones sitting rigid on his stool, +looking at the open ledger before him. She spoke his name. He nodded +ever so slightly, but still looked hard at the book. She knew his +history. Once he had told it to her. It happened one day when he had +resigned his position as boundary-rider, in which he was practically +useless. He had been drinking, and, as he felt for the string of his +eye-glass, his fingers caught another thin black cord which protruded +slightly from his vest. He drew it out by mistake, and a small gold +cross shone for a moment against the faded black coat. His fingers +felt for it to lift it to his eye as though it were his eye-glass, but +dropped it suddenly. He turned pale for a minute, then caught it as +suddenly again, and thrust it into his waistcoat. But Vic had seen, and +she had very calm, intelligent eyes, and a vast deal of common sense, +though she had only come from out Tibbooburra way. She kept her eyes on +him kindly, knowing that he would speak in time. They were alone, for +most of the people of Wadgery were away at a picnic. There is always +one moment when a man who has a secret, good or bad, fatal or otherwise, +feels that he must tell it or die. And Mr. Jones told Vic, and she +said what she could, though she knew that a grasp of her firm hands was +better than any words; and she was equally sure in her own mind that +word and grasp would be of no avail in the end. + +She saw that the beginning of the end had come as she looked at him +staring at the ledger, yet exactly why she could not tell. She knew that +he had been making a fight since he had been book-keeper, and that +now he felt that he had lost. She guessed also that he had heard what +O'Fallen said to her, and what she had replied. + +"You ought not to have offended him," she tried to say severely. + +"It had to come," he said with a dry, crackling laugh, and he fastened +his eye-glass in his eye. "I wasn't made for this. I could only do one +thing, and--" He laughed that peculiar laugh again, got down from the +stool, and held out his hand to her. + +"What do you intend?" she said. "I'm going, of course. Good-bye!" "But +not at once?" she said very kindly. + +"Perhaps not just at once," he answered with a strange smile. + +She did not know what to say or do; there are puzzling moments even for +a wise woman, and there is nothing wiser than that. + +He turned at the door. "God bless you!" he said. Then, as if caught in +an act to be atoned for, he hurried out into the street. From the door +she watched him till the curtains of dust rose up about him and hid him +from sight. When he came back to Wadgery months after he was a terrible +wreck; so much so that Vic could hardly look at him at first; and she +wished that she had left O'Fallen's as she threatened, and so have no +need to furnish any man swizzles. She knew he would never pull himself +together now. It was very weak of him, and horrible, but then... When +that thirst gets into the blood, and there's something behind the man's +life too--as Dicky Merritt said, "It's a case for the little black +angels." + +Vic would not give him liquor. He got it, however, from other sources. +He was too far gone to feel any shame now. His sensibilities were all +blunted. One day he babbled over the bar-counter to O'Fallen, desiring +greatly that they should be reconciled. To that end he put down the last +shilling he had for a swizzle, and was so outrageously offended when +O'Fallen refused to take it, that the silver was immediately swept into +the till; and very soon, with his eye-glass to his eye, Mr. Jones was +drunk. + +That was the occasion mentioned in the first sentence of this history, +when Vic was very angry. + +The bar-room was full. Men were wondering why it was that the Postmaster +and the Little Milliner, who went to Magari ten days before, to get +married by the parson there, had not returned. While they talked and +speculated, the weekly coach from Magari came up slowly to the door, +and, strange to say, without a blast from the driver's horn. Dicky +Merritt and Company rushed out to ask news of the two truants, and were +met with a warning wave of the driver's hand, and a "Sh-h! sh--!" as +he motioned towards the inside of the coach. There they found the +Postmaster and the Little Milliner mere skeletons, and just alive. They +were being cared for by a bushman, who had found them in the plains, +delirious and nearly naked. They had got lost, there being no regular +road over the plains, and their horse, which they had not tethered +properly, had gone large. They had been days without food and water when +they were found near the coach-track. + +They were carried into O'Fallen's big sitting-room. Dicky brought the +doctor, who said that they both would die, and soon. Hours passed. The +sufferers at last became sane and conscious, as though they could not +go without something being done. The Postmaster lifted a hand to his +pocket. Dicky Merritt took out of it a paper. It was the marriage +licence. The Little Milliner's eyes were painful to see; she was not +dying happy. The Postmaster, too, moved his head from side to side in +trouble. He reached over and took her hand. She drew it back, shuddering +a little. "The ring! The ring!" she whispered. + +"It is lost," he said. + +Vic, who was at the woman's head, understood. She stooped, said +something in her ear, then in that of the Postmaster, and left the room. +When she came back, two minutes later, Mr. Jones was with her. What she +had done to him to sober him no one ever knew. But he had a book in his +hand, and on the dingy black of his waistcoat there shone a little gold +cross. He came to where the two lay. Vic drew from her finger a ring. +What then occurred was never forgotten by any who saw it; and you could +feel the stillness, it was so great, after a high, sing-song voice said: +"Those whom God hath joined let no man put asunder." + +The two lying cheek by cheek knew now that they could die in peace. + +The sing-song voice rose again in the ceremony of blessing, but suddenly +it quavered and broke, the man rose, dropping the prayer-book to the +floor, and ran quickly out of the room and into the dust of the street, +and on, on into the plains. + +"In the name of God, who is he?" said Dicky Merritt to Victoria Lindley. + +"He was the Reverend Jones Leverton, of Harfordon-Thames," was her +reply. + +"Once a priest, always a priest," added Dicky. "He'll never come back," +said the girl, tears dropping from her eyes. + +And she was right. + + + + +OLD ROSES + +It was a barren country, and Wadgery was generally shrivelled with heat, +but he always had roses in his garden, on his window-sill, or in his +button-hole. Growing flowers under difficulties was his recreation. That +was why he was called Old Roses. It was not otherwise inapt, for there +was something antique about him, though he wasn't old; a flavour, an +old-fashioned repose and self-possession. He was Inspector of Tanks +for this God-forsaken country. Apart from his duties he kept mostly to +himself, though when not travelling he always went down to O'Fallen's +Hotel once a day for a glass of whisky and water--whisky kept especially +for him; and as he drank this slowly he talked to Victoria Lindley the +barmaid, or to any chance visitors whom he knew. He never drank with any +one, nor asked any one to drink; and, strange to say, no one resented +this. As Vic said: "He was different." Dicky Merritt, the solicitor, who +was hail-fellow with squatter, homestead lessee, cockatoo-farmer, and +shearer, called him "a lively old buffer." It was he, indeed, who +gave him the name of Old Roses. Dicky sometimes went over to Long Neck +Billabong, where Old Roses lived, for a reel, as he put it, and he +always carried away a deep impression of the Inspector's qualities. + +"Had his day," said Dicky in O'Fallen's sitting-room one night, "in +marble halls, or I'm a Jack. Run neck and neck with almighty swells +once. Might live here for a thousand years and he'd still be the +nonesuch of the back-blocks. I'd patent him--file my caveat for him +to-morrow, if I could, bully Old Roses!" + +Victoria Lindley, the barmaid, lifted her chin slightly from her hands, +as she leaned through the opening between the bar and the sitting-room, +and said: "Mr. Merritt, Old Roses is a gentleman; and a gentleman is a +gentleman till he--" + +"Till he humps his bluey into the Never Never Land, Vic? But what do +you know about gentlemen, anyway? You were born only five miles from the +jumping-off place, my dear." + +"Oh," was the quiet reply, "a woman--the commonest woman--knows a +gentleman by instinct. It isn't what they do, it's what they don't do; +and Old Roses doesn't do lots of things." + +"Right you are, Victoria, right you are again! You do Tibbooburra +credit. Old Roses has the root of the matter in him--and there you have +it." + +Dicky had a profound admiration for Vic. She had brains, was perfectly +fearless, no man had ever taken a liberty with her, and every one in the +Wadgery country who visited O'Fallen's had a wholesome respect for her +opinion. + +About this time news came that the Governor, Lord Malice, would pass +through Wadgery on his tour up the back-blocks. A great function was +necessary. It was arranged. Then came the question of the address of +welcome to be delivered at the banquet. Dicky Merritt and the local +doctor were named for the task, but they both declared they'd only "make +rot of it," and suggested Old Roses. + +They went to lay the thing before him. They found him in his garden. He +greeted them, smiling in his quiet, enigmatical way, and listened. While +Dicky spoke, a flush slowly passed over him, and then immediately left +him pale; but he stood perfectly still, his hand leaning against a +sandal tree, and the coldness of his face warmed up again slowly. His +head having been bent attentively as he listened, they did not see +anything unusual. + +After a moment of inscrutable deliberation, he answered that he would +do as they wished. Dicky hinted that he would require some information +about Lord Malice's past career and his family's history, but he assured +them that he did not need it; and his eyes idled ironically with Dicky's +face. + +When the two had gone, Old Roses sat in his room, a handful of letters, +a photograph, and a couple of decorations spread out before him, his +fingers resting on them, his look engaged with a far horizon. + +The Governor came. He was met outside the township by the citizens and +escorted in--a dusty and numerous cavalcade. They passed the Inspector's +house. The garden was blooming, and on the roof a flag was flying. +Struck by the singular character of the place Lord Malice asked who +lived there, and proposed stopping for a moment to make the acquaintance +of its owner; adding, with some slight sarcasm, that if the officers of +the Government were too busy to pay their respects to their Governor, +their Governor must pay his respects to them. But Old Roses was not in +the garden nor in the house, and they left without seeing him. He +was sitting under a willow at the billabong, reading over and over to +himself the address to be delivered before the Governor in the evening. +As he read his face had a wintry and inhospitable look. + +The night came. Old Roses entered the dining-room quietly with the +crowd, far in the Governor's wake. According to his request, he was +given a seat in a distant corner, where he was quite inconspicuous. Most +of the men present were in evening dress. He wore a plain tweed suit, +but carried a handsome rose in his button-hole. It was impossible to put +him at a disadvantage. He looked distinguished as he was. He appeared to +be much interested in Lord Malice. The early proceedings were cordial, +for the Governor and his suite made themselves agreeable, and talk +flowed amiably. After a time there was a rattle of knives and forks, +and the Chairman rose. Then, after a chorus of "hear, hears," there +was general silence. The doorways of the room were filled by the +women-servants of the hotel. Chief among them was Vic, who kept her eyes +fixed on Old Roses. She knew that he was to read the address and speak, +and she was more interested in him and in his success than in Lord +Malice and his suite. Her admiration of him was great. He had always +treated her as though she had been born a lady, and it had done her +good. + +"And I call upon Mr. Adam Sherwood to speak to the health of His +Excellency, Lord Malice." + +In his modest corner Old Roses stretched to his feet. The Governor +glanced over carelessly. He only saw a figure in grey, with a rose in +his button-hole. The Chairman whispered that it was the owner of the +house and garden which had interested His Excellency that afternoon. His +Excellency looked a little closer, but saw only a rim of iron-grey hair +above the paper held before Old Roses' face. + +Then a voice came from behind the paper: "Your Excellency--" + +At the first words the Governor started, and his eyes flashed +searchingly, curiously at the paper that walled the face, and at the +iron-grey hair. The voice rose distinct and clear, with modulated +emphasis. It had a peculiarly penetrating quality. A few in the +room--and particularly Vic--were struck by something in the voice: that +it resembled another voice. She soon found the trail. Her eyes also +fastened on the paper. Then she moved and went to another door. Here she +could see behind the paper at an angle. Her eyes ran from the screened +face to that of the Governor. His Excellency had dropped the lower part +of his face in his hand, and he was listening intently. Vic noticed +that his eyes were painfully grave and concerned. She also noticed other +things. + +The address was strange. It had been submitted to the Committee, and +though it struck them as out-of the-wayish, it had been approved. +It seemed different when read as Old Roses was reading it. The words +sounded inclement as they were chiselled out by the speaker's voice. +Dicky Merritt afterwards declared that many phrases were interpolated by +Old Roses at the moment. + +The speaker referred intimately and with peculiar knowledge to the +family history of Lord Malice, to certain more or less private matters +which did not concern the public, to the antiquity of the name, and the +high duty devolving upon one who bore the Earldom of Malice. He dwelt +upon the personal character of His Excellency's antecedents, and praised +their honourable services to the country. He referred to the death of +Lord Malice's eldest brother in Burmah, but he did it strangely. Then, +with acute incisiveness, he drew a picture of what a person in so +exalted a position as a Governor should be and should not be. His voice +assuredly at this point had a touch of scorn. The aides-de-camp were +nervous, the Chairman apprehensive, the Committee ill at ease. But the +Governor now was perfectly still, though, as Vic Lindley thought, rather +pinched and old-looking. His fingers toyed with a wine-glass, but his +eyes never wavered from that paper and the grey hair. + +Presently the voice of the speaker changed. + +"But," said he, "in Lord Malice we have--the perfect Governor; a man of +blameless and enviable life, and possessed abundantly of discreetness, +judgment, administrative ability and power; the absolute type of English +nobility and British character." + +He dropped the paper from before his face, and his eyes met those of the +Governor, and stayed. Lord Malice let go a long choking breath, +which sounded like immeasurable relief. During the rest of the +speech--delivered in a fine-tempered voice--he sat as in a dream, his +eyes intently upon the other, who now seemed to recite rather than read. +He thrilled all by the pleasant resonance of his tones, and sent the +blood aching delightfully through Victoria Lindley's veins. + +When he sat down there was immense applause. The Governor rose in reply. +He spoke in a low voice, but any one listening outside would have said +that Old Roses was still speaking. By this resemblance the girl, Vic, +had trailed to others. It was now apparent to many, but Dicky said +afterwards that it was simply a case of birth and breeding--men used to +walking red carpet grew alike, just as stud-owners and rabbit-catchers +did. + +The last words of the Governor's reply were delivered in a convincing +tone as his eyes hung on Old Roses' face. + +"And, as I am indebted to you, gentlemen, for the feelings of loyalty to +the Throne which prompted this reception and the address just delivered, +so I am indebted to Mr.--Adam Sherwood for his admirable words and the +unusual sincerity and eloquence of his speech; and to both you and him +for most notable kindness." + +Immediately after the Governor's speech Old Roses stole out; but as he +passed through the door where Vic stood, his hand brushed against hers. +Feeling its touch, he grasped it eagerly for an instant as though he +were glad of the friendliness in her eyes. + +It was just before dawn of the morning that the Governor knocked at the +door of the house by Long Neck Billabong. The door opened at once, and +he entered without a word. + +He and Old Roses stood face to face. His countenance was drawn and worn, +the other's cold and calm. "Tom, Tom," Lord Malice said, "we thought you +were dead--" + +"That is, Edward, having left me to my fate in Burmah--you were only +half a mile away with a column of stout soldiers and hillmen--you waited +till my death was reported, and seemed assured, and then came on to +England: to take the title, just vacant by our father's death, and to +marry my intended wife, who, God knows, appeared to have little care +which brother it was! You got both. I was long a prisoner. When I got +free, I learned all; I bided my time. I was waiting till you had a +child. Twelve years have gone: you have no child. But I shall spare you +awhile longer. If your wife should die, or you should yet have a child, +I shall return." + +The Governor lifted his head wearily from the table where he now sat. +"Tom," he said in a low, heavy voice, "I was always something of a +scoundrel, but I've repented of that thing every day of my life since. +It has been knives--knives all the way. I am glad--I can't tell you how +glad--that you are alive." + +He stretched out his hand with a motion of great relief. "I was afraid +you were going to speak to-night--to tell all, even though I was your +brother. You spared me for the sake--" + +"For the sake of the family name," the other interjected stonily. + +"For the sake of our name. But I would have taken my punishment, in +thankfulness, because you are alive." + +"Taken it like a man, your Excellency," was the low rejoinder. He +laughed bitterly. + +"You will not wipe the thing out, Tom? You will not wipe it out, and +come back, and take your own--now?" said the other anxiously. + +The other dried the perspiration from his forehead. "I will come back in +my own time; and it can never be wiped out. For you shook all my faith +in my old world. That's the worst thing that can happen a man. I only +believe in the very common people now--those who are not put upon their +honour. One doesn't expect it of them, and, unlikely as it is, one isn't +often deceived. I think we'd better talk no more about it." + +"You mean I had better go." + +"I think so. I am going to marry soon." The other started nervously. + +"You needn't be so shocked. I will come back one day, but not till your +wife dies, or you have a child, as I said." + +The Governor rose to his feet, and went to the door. "Whom do you intend +marrying?" he asked in a voice far from vice-regal, only humbled and +disturbed. The reply was instant and keen: "A bar-maid." + +The other's hand dropped from the door. But Old Roses, passing over, +opened it, and, waiting for the other to pass through, said: "I do not +doubt but there will be issue. Good-day, my lord!" + +The Governor passed out from the pale light of the lamp into the grey +and moist morning. He turned at a point where the house would be lost +to view, and saw the other still standing there. The voice of Old Roses +kept ringing in his ears sardonically. He knew that his punishment must +go on and on; and it did. + +Old Roses married Victoria Lindley from "out Tibbooburra way," and there +was comely issue, and that issue is now at Eton; for Esau came into his +birthright, as he said he would, at his own time. But he and his wife +have a way of being indifferent to the gay, astonished world; and, +uncommon as it may seem, he has not tired of her. + + + + +MY WIFE'S LOVERS + +There were three of them in 1886, the big drought year: old Eversofar, +Billy Marshall, and Bingong. I never was very jealous of them, not even +when Billy gave undoubted ground for divorce by kissing her boldly in +the front garden, with Eversofar and Bingong looking on--to say nothing +of myself. So far as public opinion went it could not matter, because +we were all living at Tilbar Station in the Tibbooburra country, and the +nearest neighbour to us was Mulholland of Nimgi, a hundred miles away. +Billy was the son of my manager, John Marshall, and, like his father, +had an excellent reputation as a bushman, and, like his mother, was +very good-looking. He was very much indeed about my house, suggesting +improvements in household arrangements; making remarks on my wife's +personal appearance--with corresponding disparagement of myself; riding +with my wife across the plains; shooting kangaroos with her by night; +and secretly instructing her in the mysteries of a rabbit-trap, +with which, he was sure, he could make "dead loads of metal" (he was +proficient in the argot of the back-blocks); and with this he would buy +her a beautiful diamond ring, and a horse that had won the Melbourne +Cup, and an air-gun! Once when she was taken ill, and I was away in the +South, he used to sit by her bedside, fanning her hour after hour, being +scarcely willing to sleep at night; and was always on hand, smoothing +her pillow, and issuing a bulletin to Eversofar and Bingong the first +thing in the morning. I have no doubt that Eversofar and Bingong cared +for her just as much as he did; but, from first to last, they never +had his privileges, and were always subordinate to him in showing her +devotion. He was sound and frank with them. He told Eversofar that, of +course, she only was kind to him, and let him have a hut all to +himself, because he was old and had had a bad time out on the farthest +back-station (that was why he was called Eversofar), and had once +carried Bingong with a broken leg, on his back, for twenty miles. As +for Bingong, he was only a black fellow, aged fifteen, and height +inconsiderable. So, of the three, Billy had his own way, and even +shamelessly attempted to lord it over me. + +Most husbands would consider my position painful, particularly when I +say that my wife accepted the attention of all three lovers with calm +pleasure, and that of Billy with a shocking indifference to my feelings. +She never tried to explain away any circumstance, no matter how awkward +it might look if put down in black and white. Billy never quailed before +my look; he faced me down with his ingenuous smile; he patted me on the +arms approvingly; or, with apparent malice, asked me questions difficult +to answer, when I came back from a journey to Brisbane--for a man +naturally finds it hard to lay bare how he spent all his time in town. +Because he did it so suavely and naively, one could not be resentful. It +might seem that matters had reached a climax, when, one day, Mulholland +came over, and, seeing my wife and her lovers together watering the +garden and teaching cockatoos, said to me that Billy had the advantage +of me on my own ground. It may not be to my credit that I only grinned, +and forbore even looking foolish. Yet I was very fond of my wife all +the time. We stood pretty high on the Charwon Downs, and though it was +terribly hot at times, it was healthy enough; and she never lost her +prettiness, though, maybe, she lacked bloom. + +I think I never saw her look better than she did that day when +Mulholland was with me. She had on the lightest, softest kind of stuff, +with sleeves reaching only a little below her elbow--her hands and arms +never got sunburnt in the hottest weather--her face smiled out from +under the coolest-looking hat imaginable, and her hair, though gathered, +had a happy trick of always lying very loose and free about the head, +saving her from any primness otherwise possible, she was so neat. +Mulholland and I were sitting in the veranda. I glanced up at the +thermometer, and it registered a hundred in the shade! Mechanically I +pushed the lime-juice towards Mulholland, and pointed to the water-bag. +There was nothing else to do except grumble at the drought. Yet there +my wife was, a picture of coolness and delight; the intense heat seemed +only to make her the more refreshing to the eye. Water was not abundant, +but we still felt justified in trying to keep her bushes and flowers +alive; and she stood there holding the hose and throwing the water in +the cheerfulest shower upon the beds. Billy stood with his hands on his +hips watching her, very hot, very self-contained. He was shining with +perspiration; and he looked the better of it. Eversofar was camped +beneath a sandal-tree teaching a cockatoo, also hot and panting, but +laughing low through his white beard; and Bingong, black, hatless--less +everything but a pair of trousers which only reached to his knees--was +dividing his time between the cockatoo and my wife. + +Presently Bingong sighted an iguana and caught it, and the three +gathered about it in the shade of the sandal. After a time the interest +in the iguana seemed to have shifted to something else; and they were +all speaking very earnestly. At last I saw Billy and my wife only +talking. Billy was excited, and apparently indignant. I could not hear +what they were saying, but I saw he was pale, and his compatriots in +worship rather frightened; for he suddenly got into a lofty rage. It was +undoubtedly a quarrel. Mulholland saw, too, and said to me: "This looks +as if there would be a chance for you yet." He laughed. So did I. + +Soon I saw by my wife's face that she was saying something sarcastical. +Then Billy drew himself up very proudly, and waving his hand in a grand +way, said loudly, so that we could hear: "It's as true as gospel; and +you'll be sorry for this-like anything and anything!" Then he stalked +away from her, raising his hat proudly, but immediately turned, and +beckoning to Eversofar and Bingong added: "Come on with me to barracks, +you two." + +They started away towards him, looking sheepishly at my wife as they did +so; but Billy finding occasion to give counter-orders, said: "But you +needn't come until you put the cockatoos away, and stuck the iguana in a +barrel, and put the hose up for--for her." + +He watched them obey his orders, his head in the air the while, and when +they had finished, and were come towards him, he again took off his hat, +and they all left her standing alone in the garden. + +Then she laughed a little oddly to herself, and stood picking to pieces +the wet leaves of a geranium, looking after the three. After a little +she came slowly over to us. "Well," said I, feigning great irony, +"all loves must have their day, both old and new. You see how they've +deserted you. Yet you smile at it!" + +"Indeed, my lord and master," she said, "it is not a thing to laugh at. +It's very serious." + +"And what has broken the charm of your companionship?" I asked. + +"The mere matter of the fabled Bunyip. He claimed that he had seen it, +and I doubted his word. Had it been you it would not have mattered. You +would have turned the other cheek, you are so tame. But he has fire and +soul, and so we quarrelled." + +"And your other lovers turned tail," I maliciously, said. + +"Which only shows how superior he is," was her reply. "If you had been +in the case they would never have left me." + +"Oh, oh!" blurted Mulholland, "I am better out of this; for I little +care to be called as a witness in divorce." He rose from his chair, but +I pushed him back, and he did not leave till "the cool of the evening." + +The next morning, at breakfast-time, a rouseabout brought us a piece of +paper which had been nailed to the sandal-tree. On it was written: + +"We have gone for the Bunyip. We travel on foot! Farewell and Farewell!" + +We had scarcely read it, when John Marshall and his wife came in +agitation, and said that Billy's bed had not been slept in during the +night. From the rouseabout we found that Eversofar and Bingong were +also gone. They had not taken horses, doubtless because Billy thought +it would hardly be valiant and adventurous enough, and because neither +Bingong nor Eversofar owned one, and it might look criminal to go off +with mine. We suspected that they had headed for the great Debil-devil +Waterhole, where, it was said, the Bunyip appeared: that mysterious +animal, or devil, or thing, which nobody has ever seen, but many have +pretended to see. Now, this must be said of Billy, that he never had the +feeling of fear--he was never even afraid of me. He had often said he +had seen a Bunyip, and that he'd bring one home some day, but no one +took him seriously. It showed what great influence he had over his +companions, that he could induce them to go with him; for Bingong, being +a native, must naturally have a constitutional fear of the Debil-debil, +as the Bunyip is often called. The Debil-debil Waterhole was a long way +off, and through a terrible country--quartz plains, ragged scrub, and +little or no water all the way. Then, had they taken plenty of food with +them? So far as we could see, they had taken some, but we could not tell +how much. + +My wife smiled at the business at first; then became worried as the day +wore on, and she could see the danger and hardship of wandering about +this forsaken country without a horse and with uncertain water. The day +passed. They did not return. We determined on a search the next morning. +At daybreak, Marshall and I and the rouseabout started on good horses, +each going at different angles, but agreeing to meet at the Debil debil +Waterhole, and to wait there for each other. If any one of us did not +come after a certain time, we were to conclude that he had found the +adventurers and was making his way back with them. After a day of +painful travel and little water, Marshall and I arrived, almost within +an hour of each other. We could see no sign of anybody having been at +the lagoon. We waited twelve hours, and were about to go, leaving a mark +behind us to show we had been there, when we saw the rouseabout and +his exhausted horse coming slowly through the bluebush to us. He had +suffered much for want of water. + +We all started back again at different angles, our final rendezvous +being arranged for the station homestead, the rouseabout taking a direct +line, and making for the Little Black Billabong on the way. I saw no +sign of the adventurers. I sickened with the heat, and my eyes became +inflamed. I was glad enough when, at last, I drew rein in the home +paddock. I couldn't see any distance, though I was not far from the +house. But when I got into the garden I saw that others had just +arrived. It was the rouseabout with my wife's lovers. He had found Billy +nursing Eversofar in the shade of a stunted brigalow, while Bingong was +away hunting for water. Billy himself had pushed his cause as bravely as +possible, and had in fact visited the Little Black Billabong, where--he +always maintains--he had seen the great Bunyip. But after watching +one night, they tried to push on to the Debil-debil Waterhole. Old +Eversofar, being weak and old, gave in, and Billy became a little +delirious--he has denied it, but Bingong says it is so; yet he pulled +himself together as became the leader of an expedition, and did what he +could for Eversofar until the rouseabout came with food and water. Then +he broke down and cried--he denies this also. They tied the sick man on +the horse and trudged back to the station in a bad plight. + +As I came near the group I heard my wife say to Billy, who looked sadly +haggard and ill, that she was sure he would have got the Bunyip if it +hadn't been for the terrible drought; and at that, regardless of my +presence, he took her by the arms and kissed her, and then she kissed +him several times. + +Perhaps I ought to have mentioned before that Billy was just nine years +old. + + + + +THE STRANGERS' HUT + +I had come a long journey across country with Glenn, the squatter, +and now we were entering the homestead paddock of his sheep-station, +Winnanbar. Afar to the left was a stone building, solitary in a waste of +saltbush and dead-finish scrub. I asked Glenn what it was. + +He answered, smilingly: "The Strangers' Hut. Sundowners and that lot +sleep there; there's always some flour and tea in a hammock, under the +roof, and there they are with a pub of their own. It's a fashion we have +in Australia." + +"It seems all right, Glenn," I said with admiration. "It's surer than +Elijah's ravens." + +"It saves us from their prowling about the barracks, and camping on the +front veranda." + +"How many do you have of a week?" + +"That depends. Sundowners are as uncertain as they are unknown +quantities. After shearing-time they're thickest; in the dead of summer +fewest. This is the dead of summer," and, for the hundredth time in our +travel, Glenn shook his head sadly. + +Sadness was ill-suited to his burly form and bronzed face, but it was +there. He had some trouble, I thought, deeper than drought. It was too +introspective to have its origin solely in the fact that sheep were +dying by thousands, that the stock-routes were as dry of water as the +hard sky above us, and that it was a toss-up whether many families in +the West should not presently abandon their stations, driven out by a +water-famine--and worse. + +After a short silence Glenn stood up in the trap, and, following the +circle of the horizon with his hand, said: "There's not an honest blade +of grass in all this wretched West. This whole business is gambling with +God." + +"It is hard on women and children that they must live here," I remarked, +with my eyes on the Strangers' Hut. + +"It's harder for men without them," he mournfully replied; and at +that moment I began to doubt whether Glenn, whom I had heard to be a +bachelor, was not tired of that calm but chilly state. He followed up +this speech immediately by this: "Look at that drinking-tank!" + +The thing was not pleasant in the eye. Sheep were dying and dead by +thousands round it, and the crows were feasting horribly. We became +silent again. + +The Strangers' Hut, and its unique and, to me, awesome hospitality, was +still in my mind. It remained with me until, impelled by curiosity, I +wandered away towards it in the glow and silence of the evening. The +walk was no brief matter, but at length I stood near the lonely public, +where no name of guest is ever asked, and no bill ever paid. And then I +fell to musing on how many life-histories these grey walls had sheltered +for a fitful hour, how many stumbling wayfarers had eaten and drunken in +this Hotel of Refuge. I dropped my glances on the ground; a bird, newly +dead, lay at my feet, killed by the heat. + +At that moment I heard a child's crying. I started forward, then +faltered. Why, I could not tell, save that the crying seemed so a part +of the landscape that it might have come out of the sickly sunset, out +of the yellow sky, out of the aching earth about me. To follow it might +be like pursuing dreams. The crying ceased. + +Thus for a moment, and then I walked round to the door of the hut. At +the sound of slight moaning I paused again. Then I crossed the threshold +resolutely. + +A woman with a child in her arms sat on a rude couch. Her lips were +clinging to the infant's forehead. At the sound of my footsteps she +raised her head. + +"Ah!" she said, and, trembling, rose to her feet. She was fair-haired +and strong, if sad, of face. Perhaps she never had been beautiful, but +in health her face must have been persistent in its charm. Even now it +was something noble. + +With that patronage of compassion which we use towards those who are +unfortunate and humble, I was about to say to her, "My poor woman!" but +there was something in her manner so above her rude surroundings that I +was impelled to this instead: "Madam, you are ill. Can I be of service +to you?" + +Then I doffed my hat. I had not done so before, and I blushed now as +I did it, for I saw that she had compelled me. She sank back upon the +couch again as though the effort to achieve my courtesy had unnerved +her, and she murmured simply and painfully: "Thank you very much: I have +travelled far." + +"May I ask how far?" + +"From Mount o' Eden, two hundred miles and more, I think"; and her eyes +sought the child's face, while her cheek grew paler. She had lighted +a tiny fire on the hearthstone and had put the kettle on the wood. Her +eyes were upon it now with the covetousness of thirst and hunger. I +kneeled, and put in the tin of water left behind by some other pilgrim, +a handful of tea from the same source--the outcast and suffering giving +to their kind. I poured out for her soon a little of the tea. Then I +asked for her burden. She gave it to my arms--a wan, wise-faced child. + +"Madam," I said, "I am only a visitor here, but, if you feel able, and +will come with me to the homestead, you shall, I know, find welcome +and kindness, or, if you will wait, there are horses, and you shall be +brought--yes, indeed," I added, as she shook her head in sad negation, +"you will be welcome." + +I was sure that, whatever ill chances had befallen the mother of this +child, she was one of those who are found in the sight of the Perfect +Justice sworn for by the angels. I knew also that Glenn would see that +she should be cordially sheltered and brought back to health; for men +like Glenn, I said to myself, are kinder in their thought of suffering +women than women themselves-are kinder, juster, and less prone to think +evil. + +She raised her head, and answered: "I think that I could walk; but this, +you see, is the only hospitality that I can accept, save, it may be, +some bread and a little meat, that the child suffer no more, until I +reach Winnanbar, which, I fear, is still far away." + +"This," I replied, "is Winnanbar; the homestead is over there, beyond +the hill." + +"This is--Winnanbar?" she whisperingly said, "this--is--Winnanbar! I +did not think--I was-so near."... A thankful look came to her face. She +rose, and took the child again and pressed it to her breast, and her +eyes brooded upon it. "Now she is beautiful," I thought, and waited for +her to speak. + +"Sir--" she said at last, and paused. In the silence a footstep sounded +without, and then a form appeared in the doorway. It was Glenn. + +"I followed you," he said to me; "and--!" He saw the woman, and a low +cry broke from her. + +"Agnes! Agnes!" he cried, with something of sternness and a little +shame. + +"I have come--to you--again-Robert," she brokenly, but not abjectly, +said. + +He came close to her and looked into her face, then into the face of the +child, with a sharp questioning. She did not flinch, but answered +his scrutiny clearly and proudly. Then, after a moment, she turned a +disappointed look upon me, as though to say that I, a stranger, had read +her aright at once, while this man held her afar in the cold courts of +his judgment ere he gave her any welcome or said a word of pity. + +She sank back on the bench, and drew a hand with sorrowful slowness +across her brow. He saw a ring upon her finger. He took her hand and +said: "You are married, Agnes?" + +"My husband is dead, and the sister of this poor one also," she replied; +and she fondled the child and raised her eyes to her brother's. + +His face now showed compassion. He stooped and kissed her cheek. And it +seemed to me at that moment that she could not be gladder than I. + +"Agnes," he said, "can you forgive me?" + +"He was only a stock-rider," she murmured, as if to herself, "but he +was well-born. I loved him. You were angry. I went away with him in the +night ... far away to the north. God was good--" Here she brushed her +lips tenderly across the curls of the child. "Then the drought came and +sickness fell and... death... and I was alone with my baby--" + +His lips trembled and his hand was hurting my arm, though he knew it +not. + +"Where could I go?" she continued. + +Glenn answered pleadingly now: "To your unworthy brother, God bless you +and forgive me, dear!--though even here at Winnanbar there is drought +and famine and the cattle die." + +"But my little one shall live!" she cried joyfully. That night Glenn of +Winnanbar was a happy man, for rain fell on the land, and he held his +sister's child in his arms. + + + + +THE PLANTER'S WIFE + + +I + +She was the daughter of a ruined squatter, whose family had been pursued +with bad luck; he was a planter, named Houghton. She was not an uncommon +woman; he was not an unusual man. They were not happy, they might never +be; he was almost sure they would not be; she had long ceased to think +they could be. She had told him when she married him that she did not +love him. He had been willing to wait for her love, believing that by +patience and devotion he could win it. They were both sorry for each +other now. They accepted things as they were, but they knew there was +danger in the situation. She loved some one else, and he knew it, but he +had never spoken to her of it--he was of too good stuff for that. He +was big and burly, and something awkward in his ways. She was pretty, +clear-minded, kind, and very grave. There were days when they were both +bitter at heart. On one such day they sat at luncheon, eating little, +and looking much out of the door across the rice fields and banana +plantations to the Hebron Mountains. The wife's eyes fixed on the hills +and stayed. A road ran down the hill towards a platform of rock which +swept smooth and straight to the sheer side of the mountain called White +Bluff. At first glance it seemed that the road ended at the cliff--a +mighty slide to destruction. Instead, however, of coming straight to the +cliff it veered suddenly, and ran round the mountain side, coming down +at a steep but fairly safe incline. The platform or cliff was fenced off +by a low barricade of fallen trees, scarcely noticeable from the valley +below. The wife's eyes had often wandered to the spot with a strange +fascination, as now. Her husband looked at her meditatively. He nodded +slightly, as though to himself. She looked up. Their understanding of +each other's thoughts was singular. + +"Tom," she said, "I will ride the chestnut, Bowline, to that fence some +day. It will be a big steeplechase." He winced, but answered slowly. +"You have meant to say that for a long time past. I am glad it has been +said at last." + +She was struck by the perfect quietness of his tone. Her eyes sought his +face and rested for a moment, half bewildered, half pitying. + +"Yes, it has been in my mind often--often," she said. "It's a horrible +thought," he gravely replied; "but it is better to be frank. Still, +you'll never do it, Alice--you'll never dare to do it." + +"Dare, dare," she answered, springing to her feet, and a shuddering sigh +broke from her. "The thing itself is easy enough, Tom." + +"And why haven't you done it?" he asked in a hard voice, but still +calmly. + +She leaned one hand upon the table, the other lay at her cheek, and her +head bent forward at him. "Because," she answered, "because I have tried +to be thoughtful for you." + +"Oh, as to that," he said--"as to that!" and he shrugged his shoulders +slightly. + +"You don't care a straw," she said sharply, "you never did." + +He looked up suddenly at her, a great bitterness in his face, and +laughed strangely, as he answered: "Care! Good God! Care!... What's the +use of caring? It's been all a mistake; all wrong." + +"That is no news," she said wearily. "You discovered that long ago." + +He looked out of the door across the warm fields again; he lifted his +eyes to that mountain road; he looked down at her. "I haven't any hope +left now, Alice. Let's be plain with each other. We've always been +plain, but let us be plainer still. There are those rice fields out +there, that banana plantation, and the sugar-cane stretching back as far +as the valley goes--it's all mine, all mine. I worked hard for it. I +had only one wish with it all, one hope through it all, and it was, +that when I brought you here as my wife, you would come to love me--some +time. Well, I've waited, and waited. It hasn't come. We're as far apart +to-day as we were the day I married you. Farther, for I had hope then, +but I've no hope now, none at all." + +They both turned towards the intemperate sunlight and the great hill. +The hollowness of life as they lived it came home to them with an aching +force. Yet she lifted her fan from the table and fanned herself gently +with it, and he mechanically lit a cigar. Servants passed in and out +removing the things from the table. Presently they were left alone. The +heavy breath of the palm trees floated in upon them; the fruit of the +passion-flower hung temptingly at the window; they could hear the sound +of a torrent just behind the house. The day was droning luxuriously, +yet the eyes of both, as by some weird influence, were fastened upon the +hill; and presently they saw, at the highest point where the road was +visible, a horseman. He came slowly down until he reached the spot where +the road was barricaded from the platform of the cliff. Here he paused. +He sat long, looking, as it appeared, down into the valley. The husband +rose and took down a field-glass from a shelf; he levelled it at the +figure. + +"Strange, strange," he said to himself; "he seems familiar, and yet--" + +She rose and reached out her hand for the glass. He gave it to her. She +raised it to her eyes, but, at that moment, the horseman swerved into +the road again, and was lost to view. Suddenly Houghton started; an +enigmatical smile passed across his face. + +"Alice," said he, "did you mean what you said about the steeplechase--I +mean about the ride down the White Bluff road?" + +"I meant all I said," was her bitter reply. + +"You think life is a mistake?" he rejoined. + +"I think we have made a mistake," was her answer; "a deadly mistake, and +it lasts all our lives." + +He walked to the door, trained the glass again on the hill, then +afterwards turned round, and said: + +"If ever you think of riding the White Bluff road--straight for the +cliff itself and over--tell me, and I'll ride it with you. If it's all +wrong as it is, it's all wrong for both, and, maybe, the worst of what +comes after is better than the worst of what is here." + +They had been frank with each other in the past, but never so frank as +this. He was determined that they should be still more frank; and so was +she. "Alice," he said-- + +"Wait a minute," she interjected. "I have something to say, Tom. I never +told you--indeed, I thought I never should tell you; but now I think +it's best to do so. I loved a man once--with all my soul." + +"You love him still," was the reply; and he screwed and unscrewed the +field-glass in his hand, looking bluntly at her the while. She nodded, +returning his gaze most earnestly and choking back a sob. + +"Well, it's a pity, it's a pity," he replied. "We oughtn't to live +together as it is. It's all wrong; it's wicked--I can see that now." + +"You are not angry with me?" she answered in surprise. + +"You can't help it, I suppose," he answered drearily. + +"Do you really mean," she breathlessly said, "that we might as well die +together, since we can't live together and be happy?" + +"There's nothing in life that gives me a pleasant taste in the mouth, so +what's the good? Mind you, my girl, I think it a terrible pity that you +should have the thought to die; and if you could be happy living, I'd +die myself to save you. But can you? That's the question--can you be +happy, even if I went and you stayed?" + +"I don't think so," she said thoughtfully, and without excitement. + +"No, I don't think so." + +"The man's name was Cayley--Cayley," he said to her bluntly. + +"How did you know?" she asked, astonished. "You never saw him." + +"Oh, yes, I've seen him," was the reply--"seen him often. I knew him +once." + +"I do not understand you," she rejoined. + +"I knew it all along," he continued, "and I've waited for you to tell +me." + +"How did you know?" + +"Cayley told me." + +"When did he tell you?" + +"The morning that I married you." His voice was thick with misery. + +She became white and dazed. "Before--or after?" she asked. He paused a +moment, looking steadily at her, and answered, "Before." + +She drew back as though she had been struck. "Good God!" she cried. "Why +did he not--" she paused. + +"Why did he not marry you himself?" he rejoined. + +"You must ask him that yourself, if you do not know." + +"And yet you married me, knowing all--that he loved me," she gasped. + +"I would have married you then, knowing a thousand times that." + +She cowered, but presently advanced to him. "You have sinned as much as +I," she said. "Do you dare pay the penalty?" + +"Do I dare ride with you to the cliff--and beyond?" Her lips framed a +reply, but no sound came. + +"But we will wait till to-morrow," he said absently. + +"Why not to-day?" she painfully asked. + +"We will wait till to-morrow," he urged, and his eyes followed the trail +of a horseman on the hill. + +"Why not while we have courage?" she persisted, as though the suspense +hurt her. + +"But we will wait till to-morrow, Alice," he again repeated. + +"Very well," she answered, with the indifference of despair. + +He stood in the doorway and watched a horseman descending into valley. + +"Strange things may chance before to-morrow," he said to himself, and he +mechanically lighted another cigar. She idled with her fan. + + +II + +He did not leave the house that afternoon. He kept his post on the +veranda, watching the valley. With an iron kind of calmness he was +facing a strange event. It was full of the element of chance, and he +had been taking chances all his life. With the chances of fortune he had +won; with the chances of love and happiness he had lost. He knew that +the horseman on the mountain-side was Cayley; he knew that Cayley would +not be near his home without a purpose. Besides, Cayley had said he +would come--he had said it in half banter, half threat. Houghton had had +too many experiences backward and forward in the world, to be afflicted +with littleness of mind. He had never looked to get an immense amount of +happiness out of life, but he thought that love and marriage would give +him a possible approach to content. He had chanced it, and he had lost. +At first he had taken it with a dreadful bitterness; now he regarded it +with a quiet, unimpassioned despair. He regarded his wife, himself, and +Cayley, as an impartial judge would view the extraordinary claims +of three desperate litigants. He thought it all over as he sat there +smoking. When the servants came to him to ask him questions or his +men ventured upon matters of business, he answered them directly, +decisively, and went on thinking. His wife had come to take coffee with +him at the usual hour of the afternoon. There was no special strain of +manner or of speech. The voices were a little lower, the tones a +little more decided, their eyes did not meet; that was all. When +coffee-drinking was over the wife retired to her room. Still Houghton +smoked on. At length he saw the horseman entering into the grove of +palms before the door. He rose deliberately from his seat and walked +down the pathway. + +"Good day to you, Houghton," the horseman said; "we meet again, you +see." + +"I see." + +"You are not overjoyed." + +"There's no reason why I should be glad. Why have you come?" + +"You remember our last meeting five years ago. You were on your way to +be married. Marriage is a beautiful thing, Houghton, when everything +is right and square, and there's love both sides. Well, everything was +right and square with you and the woman you were going to marry; but +there was not love both sides." + +While they had been talking thus, Houghton had, of purpose, led his +companion far into the shade of the palms. He now wheeled upon Cayley, +and said sternly: "I warn you to speak with less insolence; we had +better talk simply." + +Cayley was perfectly cool. "We will talk simply. As I said, you had +marriage without love. The woman loved another man. That other man loved +the woman--that good woman. In youthful days at college he had married, +neither wisely nor well, a beggar-maid without those virtues usually +credited to beggar-maidens who marry gentlemen. Well, Houghton, the +beggar-maid was supposed to have died. She hadn't died; she had shammed. +Meanwhile, between her death and her resurrection, the man came to love +that good woman. And so, lines got crossed; things went wrong. Houghton, +I loved Alice before she was your wife. I should have married her but +for the beggar-maid." + +"You left her without telling her why." + +"I told her that things must end, and I went away." + +"Like a coward," rejoined Houghton. "You should have told her all." + +"What difference has it made?" asked Cayley gloomily. + +"My happiness and hers. If you had told her all, there had been an end +of mystery. Mystery is dear to a woman's heart. She was not different in +that respect from others. You took the surest way to be remembered." + +Cayley's fingers played with his horse's mane; his eyes ran over the +ground debatingly; then he lifted them suddenly, and said: "Houghton, +you are remarkably frank with me; what do you mean by it?" + +"I'll tell you if you will answer me this question: Why have you come +here?" + +The eyes of both men crossed like swords, played with each other for +a moment, and then fixed to absolute determination. Cayley answered +doggedly: "I came to see your wife, because I'm not likely ever to see +her or you again. I wanted one look of her before I went away. There, +I'm open with you." + +"It is well to be open with me," Houghton replied. He drew Cayley aside +to an opening in the trees, where the mountain and the White Bluff road +could be seen, and pointed. "That would make a wonderful leap," he said, +"from the top of the hill down to the cliff edge--and over!" + +"A dreadful steeplechase," said Cayley. + +Houghton lowered his voice. "Two people have agreed to take that fence." + +Cayley frowned. "What two people?" + +"My wife and I." + +"Why?" + +"Because there has been a mistake, and to live is misery." + +"Has it come to that?" Cayley asked huskily. "Is there no way--no better +way? Are you sure that Death mends things?" Presently he put his hand +upon Houghton's arm, as if with a sudden, keen resolve. "Houghton," he +said, "you are a man--I have become a villain. A woman sent me once on +the high road to the devil; then an angel came in and made a man of me +again; but I lost the angel, and another man found her, and I took the +highway with the devil again. I was born a gentleman--that you know. Now +I am..." He hesitated. A sardonic smile crept across his face. + +"Yes, you are--?" interposed Houghton. + +"I am--a man who will give you your wife's love." + +"I do not understand," Houghton responded. Cayley drew Houghton back +from where they stood and away from the horse. + +"Look at that horse," he said. "Did you ever see a better?" + +"Never," answered Houghton, running him over with his eye, "never." + +"You notice the two white feet and the star on the forehead. Now, +listen. Firefoot, here!" + +"My God!" said Houghton, turning upon him with staring eyes, "you are--" + +"Whose horse is that?" interjected Cayley. Firefoot laid his head upon +Cayley's shoulder. + +Houghton looked at them both for a moment. "It is the horse of Hyland +the bushranger," he said. "All Queensland knows Firefoot." Then he +dazedly added: "Are you Hyland?" + +"A price is set on my head," the bushranger answered with a grim smile. + +Houghton stood silent for a moment, breathing hard. Then he rejoined: +"You are bold to come here openly." + +"If I couldn't come here openly I would not come at all," answered the +other. "After what I have told you," he added, "will you take me in and +let me speak with your wife?" + +Houghton's face turned black, and he was about to answer angrily, but +Cayley said: "On my honour--I will play a fair game," he said. + +For an instant their eyes were fixed on each other; then, with a gesture +for Cayley to follow, Houghton went towards the house. + +Five, minutes later Houghton said to his wife: "Alice, a stranger has +come." + +"Who is it?" she asked breathlessly, for she read importance in his +tone. + +"It is the horseman we saw on the hillside." His eyes passed over her +face pityingly. "I will go and bring him." + +She caught his arm. "Who is it? Is it any one I know?" + +"It is some one you know," he answered, and left the room. Bewildered, +anticipating, yet dreading to recognise her thoughts, she sat down and +waited in a painful stillness. + +Presently the door opened, and Cayley entered. She started to her feet +with a stifled, bitter cry: "Oh, Harry!" + +He hurried to her with arms outstretched, for she swayed; but she +straightway recovered herself, and, leaning against a chair, steadied to +his look. + +"Why have you come here?" she whispered. "To say good-bye for always," +was his reply. + +"And why--for always?" She was very white and quiet. + +"Because we are not likely ever to meet again." + +"Where are you going?" she anxiously asked. "God knows!" + +Strange sensations were working in her. What would be the end of this? +Her husband, knowing all, had permitted this man to come to her alone. +She had loved him for years; though he had deserted her years ago, she +loved him still--did she love him still? + +"Will you not sit down?" she said with mechanical courtesy. + +A stranger would not have thought from their manner that there were +lives at stake. They both sat, he playing with the leaves of an orchid, +she opening and shutting her fan absently. But she was so cold she could +hardly speak. Her heart seemed to stand still. + +"How has the world used you since we met last?" she tried to say +neutrally. + +"Better, I fear, than I have used it," he answered quietly. + +"I do not quite see. How could you ill-use the world?" There was faint +irony in her voice now. A change seemed to have come upon her. + +"By ill-using any one person we ill-use society--the world"--he +meaningly replied. + +"Whom have you ill-used?" She did not look at him. + +"Many--you chiefly." + +"How have you--most-ill-used me?" + +"By letting you think well of me--you have done so, have you not?" + +She did not speak, but lowered her head, and caught her breath +slightly. There was a silence. Then she said: "There was no reason why I +should--But you must not say these things to me. My husband--" + +"Your husband knows all." + +"But that does not alter it," she urged firmly. "Though he may be +willing you should speak of these things, I am not." + +"Your husband is a good fellow," he rejoined. "I am not." + +"You are not?" she asked wearily. + +"No. What do you think was the reason that, years ago, I said we could +never be married, and that we must forget each other?" + +"I cannot tell. I supposed it was some duty of which I could not know. +There are secret and sacred duties which we sometimes do not tell, even +to our nearest and dearest... but I said we should not speak of these +things, and we must not." She rose to her feet. "My husband is somewhere +near. I will call him. There are so many things that men can talk +of-pleasant and agreeable things--" + +He had risen with her, and as her hand was stretched out to ring, stayed +it. "No, never mind your husband just now. I think he knows what I am +going to say to you." + +"But, oh, you must not--must not!" she urged. + +"Pardon me, but I must," was his reply. + +"As I said, you thought I was a good fellow. Well, I am not; not at all. +I will tell you why I left you. I was--already married." + +He let the bare unrelieved fact face her, and shock her. + +"You were--already married--when--you loved me," she said, her face +showing misery and shame. + +He smiled a little bitterly when he saw the effect of his words, but +said clearly: "Yes. You see I was a villain." + +She shuddered a little, and then said simply: "Your face was not the +face of a bad man. Are you telling me the truth?" + +He nodded. + +"Then you were wicked with me," she said at last, with a great sigh, +looking him straight in the eyes. "But you--you loved me?" she said with +injured pride and a piteous appeal in her voice. "Ah, I know you loved +me!" + +"I will tell you when you know all," he answered evenly. + +"Is there more to tell?" she asked heavily, and shrinking from him now. + +"Much more. Please, come here." He went towards the open window of the +room, and she followed. He pointed out to where his horse stood in the +palms. + +"That is my horse," he said. He whistled to the horse, which pricked +up its ears and trotted over to the window. "The name of my horse," he +said, "maybe familiar to you. He is called Firefoot." + +"Firefoot!" she answered dazedly, "that is the name of Hyland's +horse--Hyland the bushranger." + +"This is Hyland's horse," he said, and he patted the animal's neck +gently as it thrust its head within the window. + +"But you said it was your horse," she rejoined slowly, as though the +thing perplexed her sorely. + +"It is Hyland's horse; it is my horse," he urged without looking at her. +His courage well-nigh failed him. Villain as he was, he loved her, and +he saw the foundations of her love for him crumbling away before him. In +all his criminal adventures he had cherished this one thing. + +She suddenly gave a cry of shame and agony, a low trembling cry, as +though her heart-strings were being dragged out. She drew back from +him--back to the middle of the room. + +He came towards her, reaching out his arms. "Forgive me," he said. + +"Oh, no, never!" she cried with horror. + +The cry had been heard outside, and Houghton entered the room, to find +his wife, all her strength gone, turning a face of horror upon Cayley. +She stretched out her arms to her husband with a pitiful cry. "Tom," she +said, "Tom, take me away." + +He took her gently in his arms. + +Cayley stood with his hand upon his horse's neck. "Houghton," he said +in a low voice, "I have been telling your wife what I was, and who I am. +She is shocked. I had better go." + +The woman's head had dropped on her husband's shoulder. Houghton waited +to see if she would look up. But she did not. + +"Well, good-bye to you both," Cayley said, stepped through the window, +and vaulted on his horse's back. "I'm going to see if the devil's as +black as he's painted." Then, setting spurs to his horse, he galloped +away through the palms to the gate. + + ...................... + +A year later Hyland the bushranger was shot in a struggle with the +mounted police sent to capture him. + +The planter's wife read of it in England, whither she had gone on a +visit. + +"It is better so," she said to herself, calmly. "And he wished it, I am +sure." + +For now she knew the whole truth, and she did not love her husband +less--but more. + + + + +BARBARA GOLDING + +The last time John Osgood saw Barbara Golding was on a certain summer +afternoon at the lonely Post, Telegraph, and Customs Station known as +Rahway, on the Queensland coast. It was at Rahway also that he first +and last saw Mr. Louis Bachelor. He had had excellent opportunities +for knowing Barbara Golding; for many years she had been governess (and +something more) to his sisters Janet, Agnes and Lorna. She had been +engaged in Sydney as governess simply, but Wandenong cattle station +was far up country, and she gradually came to perform the functions +of milliner and dressmaker, encouraged thereto by the family for her +unerring taste and skill. Her salary, however, had been proportionately +increased, and it did not decline when her office as governess became +practically a sinecure as her pupils passed beyond the sphere of the +schoolroom. Perhaps George Osgood, father of John Osgood, and owner of +Wandenong, did not make an allowance to Barbara Golding for her services +as counsellor and confidant of his family; but neither did he subtract +anything from her earnings in those infrequent years when she journeyed +alone to Sydney on those mysterious visits which so mightily puzzled +the good people of Wandenong. The boldest and most off-hand of them, +however, could never discover what Barbara Golding did not choose to +tell. She was slight, almost frail in form, and very gentle of manner; +but she also possessed that rare species of courtesy which, never +declining to fastidiousness nor lapsing into familiarity, checked all +curious intrusion, was it ever so insinuating; and the milliner and +dressmaker was not less self-poised and compelling of respect than the +governess and confidant. + +In some particulars the case of Louis Bachelor was similar. Besides +being the Post, Telegraph, and Customs Officer, and Justice of the +Peace at Rahway, he was available and valuable to the Government as a +meteorologist. The Administration recognised this after a few years +of voluntary and earnest labour on Louis Bachelor's part. It was not, +however, his predictions concerning floods or droughts that roused +this official appreciation, but the fulfilment of those predictions. +At length a yearly honorarium was sent to him, and then again, after +a dignified delay, there was forwarded to him a suggestion from the +Cabinet that he should come to Brisbane and take a more important +position. It was when this patronage was declined that the Premier +(dropping for a moment into that bushman's jargon which came naturally +to him) said, irritably, that Louis Bachelor was a "old fossil who +didn't know when he'd got his dover in the dough," which, being +interpreted into the slang of the old world, means, his knife into the +official loaf. But the fossil went on as before, known by name to +the merest handful of people in the colony, though they all profited, +directly or indirectly, by his scientific services. He was as unknown +to the dwellers at Wandenong as they were to him, or he again to the +citizens of the moon. + +It was the custom for Janet and Agnes Osgood to say that Barbara Golding +had a history. On every occasion the sentiment was uttered with that +fresh conviction in tone which made it appear to be born again. It +seemed to have especially pregnant force one evening after Janet had +been consulting Barbara on the mysteries of the garment in which she was +to be married to Druce Stephens, part owner of Booldal Station. "Aggie," +remarked the coming bride, "Barbara's face flushed up ever so pink when +I said to her that she seemed to know exactly what a trousseau ought +to be. I wonder! She is well-bred enough to have been anybody; and the +Bishop of Adelaide recommended her, you know." + +Soon after this Druce Stephens arrived at Wandenong and occupied the +attention of Janet until suppertime, when he startled the company by +the tale of his adventures on the previous evening with Roadmaster, +the mysterious bushranger, whose name was now in every man's mouth; who +apparently worked with no confederates--a perilous proceeding, though it +reduced the chances of betrayal. Druce was about to camp on the plains +for the night, in preference to riding on to a miserable bush-tavern +a few miles away, when he was suddenly accosted in the scrub by a +gallant-looking fellow on horseback, who, from behind his mask, asked +him to give up what money he had about him, together with his watch and +ring. The request was emphasised by the presence of a revolver held +at an easy but suggestive angle. The disadvantage to the squatter was +obvious. He merely asked that he should be permitted to keep the ring, +as it had many associations, remarking at the same time that he would +be pleased to give an equivalent for it if the bushranger would come to +Wandenong. At the mention of Wandenong the highwayman asked his name. +On being told, he handed back the money, the watch, and the ring, +and politely requested a cigar, saying that the Osgoods merited +consideration at his hands, and that their friends were safe from +molestation. Then he added, with some grim humour, that if Druce had no +objection to spending an hour with Roadmaster over a fire and a billy of +tea, he would be glad of his company; for bushranging, according to his +system, was but dull work. The young squatter consented, and together +they sat for two hours, the highwayman, however, never removing his +mask. They talked of many things, and at last Druce ventured to ask +his companion about the death of Blood Finchley, the owner of Tarawan +sheep-run. At this Roadmaster became weary, and rose to leave; but as if +on second thought, he said that Finchley's companion, whom he allowed to +go unrobbed and untouched, was both a coward and a liar; that the slain +man had fired thrice needlessly, and had wounded him in the neck (the +scar of which he showed) before he drew trigger. Druce then told him +that besides a posse of police, a number of squatters and bushmen had +banded to hunt him down, and advised him to make for the coast if he +could, and leave the country. At this Roadmaster laughed, and said that +his fancy was not sea-ward yet, though that might come; and then, with a +courteous wave of his hand, he jumped on his horse and rode away. + +The Osgoods speculated curiously and futilely on Roadmaster's identity, +as indeed the whole colony had done. And here it may be said that people +of any observation (though, of necessity, they were few, since Rahway +attracted only busy sugar-planters and their workmen) were used to speak +of Louis Bachelor as one who must certainly have a history. The person +most likely to have the power of inquisition into his affairs was his +faithful aboriginal servant, Gongi. But records and history were only +understood by Gongi when they were restricted to the number of heads +taken in tribal battle. At the same time he was a devoted slave to the +man who, at the risk of his own life, had rescued him from the murderous +spears of his aboriginal foes. That was a kind of record within Gongi's +comprehension, from the contemplation of which he turned to speak of +Louis Bachelor as "That fellow budgery marmi b'longin' to me," which, in +civilised language, means "my good master." Gongi often dilated on this +rescue, and he would, for purposes of illustration, take down from his +master's wall an artillery officer's sabre and show how his assailants +had been dispersed. + +From the presence of this sword it was not unreasonably assumed that +Louis Bachelor had at some time been in the army. He was not, however, +communicative on this point, though he shrewdly commented on European +wars and rumours of wars when they occurred. He also held strenuous +opinions of the conduct of Government and the suppression of public +evils, based obviously upon military views of things.. For bushrangers +he would have a modern Tyburn, but this and other tragic suggestions +lacked conviction when confronted with his verdicts given as Justice of +the Peace. He pronounced judgments in a grand and airy fashion, but +as if he were speaking by a card, the Don Quixote whose mercy would be +vaster than his wrath. This was the impression he gave, to, John Osgood +on the day when the young squatter introduced himself to Rahway, where +he had come on a mission to its one official. The young man's father +had a taste for many things; astronomy was his latest, and he had bought +from the Government a telescope which, excellent in its day, had been +superseded by others of later official purchase. He had brought it to +Wandenong, had built a home for it, and had got it into trouble. He +had then sent to Brisbane for assistance, and the astronomer of +the Government had referred him to the postmaster at Rahway, +"Prognosticator" of the meteorological column in The Courier, who +would be instructed to give Mr. Osgood every help, especially as the +occultation of Venus was near. Men do not send letters by post in a new +country when personal communication is possible, and John Osgood was +asked by his father to go to Rahway. When John wished for the name +of this rare official, the astronomer's letter was handed over with a +sarcastic request that the name might be deciphered; but the son was not +more of an antiquary than his father, and he had to leave without it. He +rode to the coast, and there took a passing steamer to Rahway. From the +sea Rahway looked a tropical paradise. The bright green palisades of +mangrove on the right crowded down to the water's edge; on the left was +the luxuriance of a tropical jungle; in the centre was an are of opal +shore fringed with cocoa-palms, and beyond the sea a handful of white +dwellings. Behind was a sweeping monotony of verdure stretching back +into the great valley of the Popri, and over all the heavy languor of +the South. + +But the beauty was a delusion. When John Osgood's small boat swept up +the sands on the white crest of a league-long roller, how different +was the scene! He saw a group of dilapidated huts, a tavern called The +Angel's Rest, a blackfellow's hut, and the bareness of three Government +offices, all built on piles, that the white ants should not humble them +suddenly to the dust; a fever-making mangrove swamp, black at the base +as the filthiest moat, and tenanted by reptiles; feeble palms, and a +sickly breath creeping from the jungle to mingle with the heavy scent of +the last consignment of augar from the Popri valley. It brought him to +a melancholy standstill, disturbed at last by Gongi touching him on +the arm and pointing towards the post-office. His language to Gongi was +strong; he called the place by names that were not polite; and even on +the threshold of the official domain said that the Devil would have his +last big muster there. But from that instant his glibness declined. The +squatters are the aristocracy of Australia, and rural postmasters are +not always considered eligible for a dinner-party at Government House; +but when Louis Bachelor came forward to meet his visitor the young +fellow's fingers quickly caught his hat from his head, and an off-hand +greeting became a respectful salute. + +At first the young man was awed by the presence of the grizzled +gentleman, and he struggled with his language to bring it up to the +classic level of the old meteorologist's speech. Before they had spoken +a dozen words John Osgood said to himself: "What a quaint team he and +the Maid of Honour would make! It's the same kind of thing in both, with +the difference of sex and circumstance." The nature of his visitor's +business pleased the old man, and infused his courtesy with warmth. Yes, +he would go to Wandenong with pleasure; the Government had communicated +with him about it; a substitute had been offered; he was quite willing +to take his first leave in four years; astronomy was a great subject, he +had a very good and obedient telescope of his own, though not nearly so +large as that at Wandenong; he would telegraph at once to Brisbane for +the substitute to be sent on the following day, and would be ready to +start in twenty-four hours. After visiting Wandenong he would go to +Brisbane for some scientific necessaries--and so on through smooth +parentheses of talk. Under all the bluntness of the Bush young Osgood +had a refinement which now found expression in an attempt to make +himself agreeable--not a difficult task, since, thanks to his father's +tastes and a year or two at college, he had a smattering of physical +science. He soon won his way to the old man's heart, and to his +laboratory, which had been developed through years of patience and +ingenious toil in this desolate spot. + +Left alone that evening in Louis Bachelor's sitting-room, John Osgood's +eyes were caught by a portrait on the wall, the likeness of a beautiful +girl. Something about the face puzzled him. Where had he seen it? More +than a little of an artist, he began to reproduce the head on paper. He +put it in different poses; he added to it; he took away from it; he gave +it a child's face, preserving the one striking expression; he made it +that of a woman--of an elderly, grave woman. Why, what was this? Barbara +Golding! He would not spoil the development of the drama, of which he +now held the fluttering prologue, by any blunt treatment; he would +touch this and that nerve gently to see what past connection there was +between: + + "These dim blown birds beneath an alien sky." + +He mooned along in this fashion, a fashion in which his bushmen +friends would not have known him, until his host entered. Then, in that +auspicious moment when his own pipe and his companion's cigarette were +being lighted, he said: "I've been amusing myself with drawing since you +left, sir, and I've produced this," handing over the paper. + +Louis Bachelor took the sketch, and, walking to the window for better +light, said: "Believe me, I have a profound respect for the artistic +talent. I myself once had--ah!" He sharply paused as he saw the +pencilled head, and stood looking fixedly at it. Presently he turned +slowly, came to the portrait on the wall, and compared it with that in +his hand. Then, with a troubled face, he said: "You have much talent, +but it is--it is too old--much too old--and very sorrowful." + +"I intended the face to show age and sorrow, Mr. Bachelor. Would not the +original of that have both?" + +"She had sorrow--she had sorrow, but," and he looked sadly at the sketch +again, "it is too old for her. Her face was very young--always very +young." + +"But has she not sorrow now, sir?" the other persisted gently. + +The grey head was shaken sadly, and the unsteady voice meditatively +murmured: "Such beauty, such presence! I was but five-and-thirty then." +There was a slight pause, and then, with his hand touching the young +man's shoulder, Louis Bachelor continued: "You are young; you have a +good heart; I know men. You have the sympathy of the artist--why should +I not speak to you? I have been silent about it so long. You have +brought the past back, I know not how, so vividly! I dream here, I work +here; men come with merchandise and go again; they only bind my tongue; +I am not of them: but you are different, as it seems to me, and young. +God gave me a happy youth. My eyes were bright as yours, my heart as +fond. You love--is it not so? Ah, you smile and blush like an honest +man. Well, so much the more I can speak now. God gave me then strength +and honour and love--blessed be His name! And then He visited me with +sorrow, and, if I still mourn, I have peace, too, and a busy life." Here +he looked at the sketch again. + +"Then I was a soldier. She was my world. Ah, true, love is a great +thing--a great thing! She had a brother. They two with their mother were +alone in the world, and we were to be married. One day at Gibraltar I +received a letter from her saying that our marriage could not be; that +she was going away from England; that those lines were her farewell; and +that she commended me to the love of Heaven. Such a letter it was--so +saintly, so unhappy, so mysterious! When I could get leave I went to +England. She--they--had gone, and none knew whither; or, if any of her +friends knew, none would speak. I searched for her everywhere. At last I +came to Australia, and I am here, no longer searching, but waiting, for +there is that above us!" His lips moved as if in prayer. "And this is +all I have left of her, except memory," he said, tenderly touching the +portrait. + +Warmly, yet with discreet sympathy, the young man rejoined: "Sir, I +respect, and I hope I understand, your confidence." Then, a little +nervously: "Might I ask her name?" + +The reply was spoken to the portrait: "Barbara--Barbara Golding." + +With Louis Bachelor the young squatter approached Wandenong homestead in +some excitement. He had said no word to his companion about that Barbara +Golding who played such a gracious part in the home of the Osgoods. He +had arranged the movement of the story to his fancy, but would it occur +in all as he hoped? With an amiability that was almost malicious in its +adroit suggestiveness, though, to be sure, it was honest, he had induced +the soldier to talk of his past. His words naturally, and always, +radiated to the sun, whose image was now hidden, but for whose memory no +superscription on monument or cenotaph was needed. Now it was a scrap +of song, then a tale, and again a verse, by which the old soldier was +delicately worked upon, until at last, as they entered the paddocks of +Wandenong, stars and telescopes and even Governments had been forgotten +in the personal literature of sentiment. + +Yet John Osgood was not quite at his ease. Now that it was at hand, he +rather shrank from the meeting of these ancient loves. Apart from all +else, he knew that no woman's nerves are to be trusted. He hoped fortune +would so favour him that he could arrange for the meeting of the two +alone, or, at least, in his presence only. He had so far fostered this +possibility by arriving at the station at nightfall. What next? He +turned and looked at the soldier, a figure out of Hogarth, which even +dust and travel left unspoiled. It was certain that the two should meet +where John Osgood, squatter and romancer, should be prompter, orchestra, +and audience, and he alone. Vain lad! + +When they drew rein the young man took his companion at once to his +own detached quarters known as the Barracks, and then proceeded to the +house. After greetings with his family he sought Barbara Golding, who +was in the schoolroom, piously employed, Agnes said, in putting the +final touches to Janet's trousseau. He went across the square to the +schoolroom, and, looking through the window, saw that she was quite +alone. A few moments later he stood at the schoolroom door with Louis +Bachelor. With his hand on the latch he hesitated. Was it not fairer +to give some warning to either? Too late! He opened the door and they +entered. She was sewing, and a book lay open beside her, a faded, but +stately little figure whose very garments had an air. She rose, seeing +at first only John Osgood, who greeted her and then said: "Miss Golding, +I have brought you an old friend." + +Then he stepped back and the two were face to face. Barbara Golding's +cheeks became pale, but she did not stir; the soldier, with an +exclamation of surprise half joyful, half pathetic, took a step forward, +and then became motionless also. Their eyes met and stayed intent. This +was not quite what the young man had expected. At length the soldier +bowed low, and the woman responded gravely. At this point Osgood +withdrew to stand guard at the door. + +Barbara Golding's eyes were dim with tears. The soldier gently said, "I +received--" and then paused. She raised her eyes to his. "I received a +letter from you five-and-twenty years ago." + +"Yes, five-and-twenty years ago." + +"I hope you cannot guess what pain it gave me." + +"Yes," she answered faintly, "I can conceive it, from the pain it gave +to me." + +There was a pause, and then he stepped forward and, holding out his +hand, said: "Will you permit me?" He kissed her fingers courteously, and +she blushed. "I have waited," he added, "for God to bring this to pass." +She shook her head sadly, and her eyes sought his beseechingly, as +though he should spare her; but perhaps he could not see that. + +"You spoke of a great obstacle then; has it been removed?" + +"It is still between us," she murmured. + +"Is it likely ever to vanish?" + +"I--I do not know." + +"You can not tell me what it is?" + +"Oh, you will not ask me," she pleaded. + +He was silent a moment, then spoke. "Might I dare to hope, Barbara, that +you still regard me with--" he hesitated. + +The fires of a modest valour fluttered in her cheeks, and she pieced out +his sentence: "With all my life's esteem." But she was a woman, and she +added: "But I am not young now, and I am very poor." + +"Barbara," he said; "I am not rich and I am old; but you, you have not +changed; you are beautiful, as you always were." + +The moment was crucial. He stepped towards her, but her eyes held him +back. He hoped that she would speak, but she only smiled sadly. He +waited, but, in the waiting, hope faded, and he only said, at last, in a +voice of new resolve grown out of dead expectancy: "Your brother--is he +well?" + +"I hope so," she somewhat painfully replied. "Is he in Australia?" + +"Yes. I have not seen him for years, but he is here." As if a thought +had suddenly come to him, he stepped nearer, and made as if he would +speak; but the words halted on his lips, and he turned away again. She +glided to his side and touched his arm. "I am glad that you trust me," +she faltered. + +"There is no more that need be said," he answered. And now, woman-like, +denying, she pitied, too. "If I ever can, shall--shall I send for you to +tell you all?" she murmured. + +"You remember I told you that the world had but one place for me, and +that was by your side; that where you are, Barbara--" + +"Hush, oh hush!" she interrupted gently. "Yes, I remember everything." + +"There is no power can alter what is come of Heaven," he said, smiling +faintly. + +She looked with limpid eyes upon him as he bowed over her hand, and she +spoke with a sweet calm: "God be with you, Louis." + +Strange as it may seem, John Osgood did not tell his sisters and his +family of this romance which he had brought to the vivid close of a +first act. He felt the more so because Louis Bachelor had said no word +about it, but had only pressed his hand again and again--that he was +somehow put upon his honour, and he thought it a fine thing to stand on +a platform of unspoken compact with this gentleman of a social school +unfamiliar to him; from which it may be seen that cattle-breeding and +bullock-driving need not make a man a boor. What his sisters guessed +when they found that Barbara Golding and the visitor were old friends is +another matter; but they could not pierce their brother's reserve on the +point. + +No one at Wandenong saw the parting between the two when Louis Bachelor, +his task with the telescope ended, left again for the coast; but indeed +it might have been seen by all men, so outwardly formal was it, even as +their brief conversations had been since they met again. But is it not +known by those who look closely upon the world that there is nothing so +tragic as the formal? + +John Osgood accompanied his friend to the sea, but the name of Barbara +Golding was not mentioned, nor was any reference made to her until the +moment of parting. Then the elder man said: "Sir, your consideration +and delicacy of feeling have moved me, and touched her. We have not been +blind to your singular kindness of heart and courtesy, and--God bless +you, my friend!" + +On his way back to Wandenong, Osgood heard exciting news of Roadmaster. +The word had been passed among the squatters who had united to avenge +Finchley's death that the bushranger was to be shot on sight, that he +should not be left to the uncertainty of the law. The latest exploit of +the daring freebooter had been to stop on the plains two members of a +Royal Commission of Inquiry. He had relieved them of such money as was +in their pockets, and then had caused them to write sumptuous cheques on +their banks, payable to bearer. These he had cashed in the very teeth +of the law, and actually paused in the street to read a description of +himself posted on a telegraph-pole. "Inaccurate, quite inaccurate," he +said to a by-stander as he drew his riding-whip slowly along it, and +then, mounting his horse, rode leisurely away into the plains. Had he +been followed it would have been seen that he directed his course to +that point in the horizon where Wandenong lay, and held to it. + +It would not perhaps have been pleasant to Agnes Osgood had she known +that, as she hummed a song under a she-oak, a mile away from the +homestead, a man was watching her from a clump of scrub near by; a man +who, however gentlemanly his bearing, had a face where the devil of +despair had set his foot, and who carried in his pocket more than one +weapon of inhospitable suggestion. But the man intended no harm to her, +for, while she sang, something seemed to smooth away the active evil of +his countenance, and to dispel a threatening alertness that marked the +whole personality. + +Three hours later this same man crouched by the drawing-room window +of the Wandenong homestead and looked in, listening to the same voice, +until Barbara Golding entered the room and took a seat near the piano, +with her face turned full towards him. Then he forgot the music and +looked long at the face, and at last rose, and stole silently to where +his horse was tied in the scrub. He mounted, and turning towards the +house muttered: "A little more of this, and good-bye to my nerves! But +it's pleasant to have the taste of it in my mouth for a minute. How +would it look in Roadmaster's biography, that a girl just out of school +brought the rain to his eyes?" He laughed a little bitterly, and then +went on: "Poor Barbara! She mustn't know while I'm alive. Stretch out, +my nag; we've a long road to travel to-night." + +This was Edward Golding, the brother whom Barbara thought was still in +prison at Sydney under another name, serving a term of ten years for +manslaughter. If she had read the papers more carefully she would have +known that he had been released two years before his time was up. It +was eight years since she had seen him. Twice since then she had gone to +visit him, but he would not see her. Bad as he had been, his desire was +still strong that the family name should not be publicly reviled. At +his trial his real name had not been made known; and at his request his +sister sent him no letters. Going into gaol a reckless man he came out +a constitutional criminal; with the natural instinct for crime greater +than the instinct for morality. He turned bushranger for one day, to get +money to take him out of the country; but having once entered the lists +he left them no more, and, playing at deadly joust with the law, soon +became known as Roadmaster, the most noted bushranger since the days of +Captain Starlight. + +It was forgery on the name of his father's oldest friend that had driven +him from England. He had the choice of leaving his native land for ever +or going to prison, and he chose the former. The sorrow of the crime +killed his mother. From Adelaide, where he and Barbara had made their +new home, he wandered to the far interior and afterwards to Sydney; +then came his imprisonment on a charge of manslaughter, and now he was +free-but what a freedom! + +With the name of Roadmaster often heard at Wandenong, Barbara Golding's +heart had no warning instinct of who the bushranger was. She thought +only and continuously of the day when her brother should be released, +to begin the race of life again with her. She had yet to learn in what +manner they come to the finish who make a false start. + +Louis Bachelor, again in his place Rahway, tried to drive away his +guesses at the truth by his beloved science. When sleep would not come +at night he rose and worked in his laboratory; and the sailors of many +a passing vessel saw the light of his lamp in the dim hours before dawn, +and spoke of fever in the port of Rahway. Nor did they speak without +reason; fever was preparing a victim for the sacrifice at Rahway, and +Louis Bachelor was fed with its poison till he grew haggard and weak. + +One night he was sending his weather prognostications to Brisbane, when +a stranger entered from the shore. The old man did not at first look up, +and the other leisurely studied him as the sounder clicked its message. +When the key was closed the new-comer said: "Can you send a message to +Brisbane for me?" + +"It is after hours; I cannot," was the reply. "But you were just sending +one." + +"That was official," and the elder man passed his hand wearily along his +forehead. He was very pale. The other drew the telegraph-forms towards +him and wrote on one, saying as he did so: "My business is important;" +then handing over what he had written, and, smiling ironically, added: +"Perhaps you will consider that official." + +Louis Bachelor took the paper and read as follows: "To the Colonial +Secretary, Brisbane. I am here tonight; to-morrow find me. Roadmaster." +He read it twice before he fully comprehended it. Then he said, as if +awakening from a dream: "You are--" + +"I am Roadmaster," said the other. + +But now the soldier and official in the other were awake. He drew +himself up, and appeared to measure his visitor as a swordsman would his +enemy. "What is your object in coming here?" he asked. + +"For you to send that message if you choose. That you may arrest me +peaceably if you wish; or there are men at The Angel's Rest and +a Chinaman or two here who might care for active service against +Roadmaster." He laughed carelessly. + +"Am I to understand that you give yourself up to me?" + +"Yes, to you, Louis Bachelor, Justice of the Peace, to do what you will +with for this night," was the reply. The soldier's hands trembled, +but it was from imminent illness, not from fear or excitement. He came +slowly towards the bushranger who, smiling, said as he advanced: "Yes, +arrest me!" + +Louis Bachelor raised his hand, as though to lay it on the shoulder of +the other; but something in the eyes of the highwayman stayed his hand. + +"Proceed, Captain Louis Bachelor," said Roadmaster in a changed tone. + +The hand fell to the old man's side. "Who are you?" he faintly +exclaimed. "I know you yet I cannot quite remember." + +More and more the voice and manner of the outlaw altered as he replied +with mocking bitterness: "I was Edward Golding, gentleman; I became +Edward Golding, forger; I am Roadmaster, convicted of manslaughter, and +bushranger." + +The old man's state was painful to see. "You--you--that, Edward!" he +uttered brokenly. + +"All that. Will you arrest me now?" + +"I--cannot." + +The bushranger threw aside all bravado and irony, and said: "I knew you +could not. Why did I come? Listen--but first, will you shelter me here +to-night?" + +The soldier's honourable soul rose up against this thing, but he said +slowly at last: "If it is to save you from peril, yes." + +Roadmaster laughed a little and rejoined: "By God, sir, you're a man! +But it isn't likely that I'd accept it of you, is it? You've had it +rough enough, without my putting a rock in your swag that would spoil +you for the rest of the tramp. You see, I've even forgotten how to talk +like a gentleman. And now, sir, I want to show you, for Barbara's sake, +my dirty logbook." + +Here he told the tale of his early sin and all that came of it. When he +had finished the story he spoke of Barbara again. "She didn't want to +disgrace you, you understand," he said. "You were at Wandenong; I know +that, never mind how. She'd marry you if I were out of the way. Well, +I'm going to be out of the way. I'm going to leave this country, and +she's to think I'm dead, you see." + +At this point Louis Bachelor swayed, and would have fallen, but that the +bushranger's arms were thrown round him and helped him to a chair. "I'm +afraid that I am ill," he said; "call Gongi. Ah!" He had fainted. + +The bushranger carried him to a bed, and summoned Gongi and the woman +from the tavern, and in another hour was riding away through the valley +of the Popri. Before thirty-six hours had passed a note was delivered to +a station-hand at Wandenong addressed to Barbara Golding, and signed by +the woman from The Angel's Rest. Within another two days Barbara Golding +was at the bedside of Captain Louis Bachelor, battling with an enemy +that is so often stronger than love and always kinder than shame. + +In his wanderings the sick man was ever with his youth and early +manhood, and again and again he uttered Barbara's name in caressing or +entreaty; though it was the Barbara of far-off days that he invoked; +the present one he did not know. But the night in which the crisis, +the fortunate crisis, of the fever occurred, he talked of a great +flood coming from the North, and in his half-delirium bade them send to +headquarters, and mournfully muttered of drowned plantations and human +peril. Was this instinct and knowledge working through the disordered +fancies of fever? Or was it mere coincidence that the next day a great +storm and flood did sweep through the valley of the Popri, putting life +in danger and submerging plantations? + +It was on this day that Roadmaster found himself at bay in the mangrove +swamp not far from the port of Rahway, where he had expected to find a +schooner to take him to the New Hebrides. It had been arranged for by +a well-paid colleague in crime; but the storm had delayed the schooner, +and the avenging squatters and bushmen were closing in on him at last. +There was flood behind him in the valley, a foodless swamp on the left +of him, open shore and jungle on the right, the swollen sea before him; +and the only avenue of escape closed by Blood Finchley's friends. He had +been eluding his pursuers for days with little food and worse than no +sleep. He knew that he had played his last card and lost; but he had one +thing yet to do, that which even the vilest do, if they can, before +they pay the final penalty--to creep back for a moment into their honest +past, however dim and far away. With incredible skill he had passed +under the very rifles of his hunters, and now stood almost within the +stream of light which came from the window of the sick man's room, where +his sister was. There was to be no more hiding, no more strategy. He +told Gongi and another that he was Roadmaster, and bade them say to his +pursuers, should they appear, that he would come to them upon the shore +when his visit to Louis Bachelor, whom he had known in other days, was +over, indicating the place at some distance from the house where they +would find him. + +He entered the house. The noise of the opening door brought his sister +to the room. + +At last she said: "Oh, Edward, you are free at last!" + +"Yes, I am free at last," he quietly replied. + +"I have always prayed for you, Edward, and for this." + +"I know that, Barbara; but prayer cannot do anything, can it? You see, +though I was born a gentleman, I had a bad strain in me. I wonder +if, somewhere, generations back, there was a pirate or a gipsy in our +family." He had been going to say highwayman, but paused in time. "I +always intended to be good and always ended by being bad. I wanted to be +of the angels and play with the devils also. I liked saints--you are a +saint, Barbara--but I loved all sinners too. I hope when--when I die, +that the little bit of good that's in me will go where you are. For the +rest of me, it must be as it may." + +"Don't speak like that, Edward, please, dear. Yes, you have been wicked, +but you have been punished, oh, those long, long years!" + +"I've lost a great slice of life by both the stolen waters and the rod, +but I'm going to reform now, Barbara." + +"You are going to reform? Oh, I knew you would! God has answered my +prayer." Her eyes lighted. + +He did not speak at once, for his ears, keener than hers, were listening +to a confused sound of voices coming from the shore. At length he spoke +firmly: "Yes, I'm going to reform, but it's on one condition." + +Her eyes mutely asked a question, and he replied: "That you marry him," +pointing to the inner room, "if he lives." + +"He will live, but I--I cannot tell him, Edward," she sadly said. + +"He knows." + +"He knows! Did you dare to tell him?" It was the lover, not the sister, +who spoke then. + +"Yes. And he knows also that I'm going to reform--that I'm going away." + +Her face was hid in her hand. "And I kept it from him five-and-twenty +years!... Where are you going, Edward?" + +"To the Farewell Islands," he slowly replied. + +And she, thinking he meant some island group in the Pacific, tearfully +inquired: "Are they far away?" + +"Yes, very far away, my girl." + +"But you will write to me or come to see me again--you will come to see +me again, sometimes, Edward?" + +He paused. He knew not at first what to reply, but at length he said, +with a strangely determined flash of his dark eyes: "Yes, Barbara, +I will come to see you again--if I can." He stooped and kissed her. +"Goodbye, Barbara." + +"But, Edward, must you go to-night?" + +"Yes, I must go now. They are waiting for me. Good-bye." + +She would have stayed him but he put her gently back, and she said +plaintively: "God keep you, Edward. Remember you said that you would +come again to me." + +"I shall remember," he said quietly, and he was gone. Standing in the +light from the window of the sick man's room he wrote a line in Latin +on a slip of paper, begging of Louis Bachelor the mercy of silence, and +gave it to Gongi, who whispered that he was surrounded. This he knew; he +had not studied sounds in prison through the best years of his life +for nothing. He asked Gongi to give the note to his master when he was +better, and when it could be done unseen of any one. Then he turned and +walked coolly towards the shore. + +A few minutes later he lay upon a heap of magnolia branches breathing +his life away. At the same moment of time that a rough but kindly hand +closed the eyes of the bushranger, the woman from The Angel's Rest and +Louis Bachelor saw the pale face of Roadmaster peer through the bedroom +window at Barbara Golding sitting in a chair asleep; and she started and +said through her half-wakefulness, looking at the window: "Where are you +going, Edward?" + + + + +THE LONE CORVETTE + + "And God shall turn upon them violently, and toss them like a ball + into a large country."--ISAIH. + +"Poor Ted, poor Ted! I'd give my commission to see him once again." + +"I believe you would, Debney." + +"I knew him to the last button of his nature, and any one who knew him +well could never think hardly of him. There were five of us brothers, +and we all worshipped him. He could run rings round us in everything, at +school, with sports, in the business of life, in love." + +Debney's voice fell with the last few words, and there was a sorrowful +sort of smile on his face. His look was fastened on the Farilone +Islands, which lay like a black, half-closed eyelid across the disc of +the huge yellow sun, as it sank in the sky straight out from the Golden +Gate. The long wash of the Pacific was in their ears at their left, +behind them was the Presidio, from which they had come after a visit to +the officers, and before them was the warm, inviting distance of waters, +which lead, as all men know, to the Lotos Isles. + +Debney sighed and shook his head. "He was, by nature, the ablest man I +ever knew. Everything in the world interested him." + +"There lay the trouble, perhaps." + +"Nowhere else. All his will was with the wholesome thing, but his brain, +his imagination were always hunting. He was the true adventurer at the +start. That was it, Mostyn." + +"He found the forbidden thing more interesting than--the other?" + +"Quite so. Unless a thing was really interesting, stood out, as it were, +he had no use for it--nor for man nor woman." + +"Lady Folingsby, for instance." + +"Do you know, Mostyn, that even to-day, whenever she meets me, I can see +one question in her eyes: 'Where is he?' Always, always that. He found +life and people so interesting that he couldn't help but be interesting +himself. Whatever he was, I never knew a woman speak ill of him.... Once +a year there comes to me a letter from an artist girl in Paris, written +in language that gets into my eyes. There is always the one refrain: 'He +will return some day. Say to him that I do not forget.'" + +"Whatever his faults, he was too big to be anything but kind to a woman, +was Ted." + +"I remember the day when his resignation was so promptly accepted by +the Admiralty. He walked up to the Admiral--Farquhar it was, on the +Bolingbroke--and said: 'Admiral, if I'd been in your place I'd have +done the same. I ought to resign, and I have. Yet if I had to do it over +again, I'd be the same. I don't repent. I'm out of the Navy now, and it +doesn't make any difference what I say, so I'll have my preachment out. +If I were Admiral Farquhar, and you were Edward Debney, ex-commander, +I'd say: "Debney, you're a damned good fellow and a damned bad +officer."' + +"The Admiral liked Edward, in spite of all, better than any man in the +Squadron, for Ted's brains were worth those of any half-dozen officers +he had. He simply choked, and then, before the whole ship, dropped both +hands on his shoulders, and said: 'Debney, you're a damned good fellow +and a damned bad officer, and I wish to God you were a damned bad fellow +and a damned good officer--for then there were no need to part.' At that +they parted. But as Edward was leaving, the Admiral came forward again, +and said: 'Where are you going, Debney?' 'I'm going nowhere, sir,' Ted +answered. 'I'm being tossed into strange waters--a lone corvette of no +squadron.' He stopped, smiled, and then said--it was so like him, for, +with all his wildness, he had the tastes of a student: 'You remember +that passage in Isaiah, sir, "And God shall turn upon them violently, +and toss them like a ball into a large country"?' + +"There wasn't a man but had a kind thought for him as he left, and +there was rain in the eyes of more than one A.B. Well, from that day he +disappeared, and no one has seen him since. God knows where he is; but +I was thinking, as I looked out there to the setting sun, that his wild +spirit would naturally turn to the South, for civilised places had no +charm for him." + +"I never knew quite why he had to leave the Navy." + +"He opened fire on a French frigate off Tahiti which was boring holes in +an opium smuggler." + +Mostyn laughed. "Of course; and how like Ted it was--an instinct to side +with the weakest." + +"Yes, coupled with the fact that the Frenchman's act was mere brutality, +and had not sufficient motive or justification. So Ted pitched into +him." + +"Did the smuggler fly the British flag?" + +"No, the American; and it was only the intervention of the United States +which prevented serious international trouble. Out of the affair came +Ted a shipwreck." + +"Have you never got on his track?" + +"Once I thought I had at Singapore, but nothing came of it. No doubt +he changed his name. He never asked for, never got, the legacy my poor +father left him." + +"What was it made you think you had come across him at Singapore?" + +"Oh, certain significant things." + +"What was he doing?" + +Debney looked at his old friend for a moment debatingly, then said +quietly: "Slave-dealing, and doing it successfully, under the noses of +men-of-war of all nations." + +"But you decided it was not he after all?" + +"I doubted. If Ted came to that, he would do it in a very big way. It +would appeal to him on some grand scale, with real danger and, say, a +few scores of thousands of pounds at stake--not unless." + +Mostyn lit a cigar, and, thrusting his hands into his pockets, regarded +the scene before him with genial meditation--the creamy wash of the +sea at their feet, the surface of the water like corrugated silver +stretching to the farther sky, with that long lane of golden light +crossing it to the sun, Alcatras, Angel Island, Saucilito, the rocky +fortresses, and the men-of-war in the harbour, on one of which flew the +British ensign--the Cormorant, commanded by Debney. + +"Poor Ted!" said Mostyn at last; "he might have been anything." + +"Let us get back to the Cormorant," responded Debney sadly. "And see, +old chap, when you get back to England, I wish you'd visit my mother +for me, for I shall not see her for another year, and she's always +anxious--always since Ted left." + +Mostyn grasped the other's hand, and said: "It's the second thing I'll +do on landing, my boy." + +Then they talked of other things, but as they turned at the Presidio for +a last look at the Golden Gate, Mostyn said musingly: "I wonder how many +millions' worth of smuggled opium have come in that open door?" + +Debney shrugged a shoulder. "Try Nob Hill, Fifth Avenue, and the Champs +Elysees. What does a poor man-o'-war's-man know of such things?" + +An hour later they were aboard the Cormorant dining with a number of men +asked to come and say good-bye to Mostyn, who was starting for England +the second day following, after a pleasant cruise with Debney. + +Meanwhile, from far beyond that yellow lane of light running out from +Golden Gate, there came a vessel, sailing straight for harbour. She was +an old-fashioned cruiser, carrying guns, and when she passed another +vessel she hoisted the British flag. She looked like a half-obsolete +corvette, spruced up, made modern by every possible device, and all +her appointments were shapely and in order. She was clearly a British +man-of-war, as shown in her trim-dressed sailors, her good handful +of marines; but her second and third lieutenants seemed little like +Englishmen. There was gun-drill and cutlass-drill every day, and, what +was also singular, there was boat-drill twice a day, so that the crew +of this man-of-war, as they saw Golden Gate ahead of them, were perhaps +more expert at boat-drill than any that sailed. They could lower and +raise a boat with a wonderful expertness in a bad sea, and they rowed +with clock-like precision and machine-like force. + +Their general discipline did credit to the British Navy. But they were +not given to understand that by their Commander, Captain Shewell, who +had an eye like a spot of steel and a tongue like aloes or honey as the +mood was on him. It was clear that he took his position seriously, for +he was as rigid and exact in etiquette as an admiral of the old school, +and his eye was as keen for his officers as for his men; and that might +have seemed strange too, if one had seen him two years before commanding +a schooner with a roving commission in the South Seas. Then he was more +genial of eye and less professional of face. Here he could never be +mistaken for anything else than the commander of a man-of-war--it was in +his legs, in the shoulder he set to the wind, in the tone of his orders, +in his austere urbanity to his officers. Yet there was something else +in his eye, in his face, which all this professionalism could not hide, +even when he was most professional--some elusive, subterranean force or +purpose. + +This was most noticeable when he was shut away from the others in his +cabin. Then his whole body seemed to change. The eye became softer, and +yet full of a sort of genial devilry, the body had a careless alertness +and elasticity, the whole man had the athletic grace of a wild animal, +and his face had a hearty sort of humour, which the slightly-lifting +lip, in its insolent disdain, could not greatly modify. He certainly +seemed well pleased with himself, and more than once, as he sat alone, +he laughed outright, and once he said aloud, as his fingers ran up and +down a schedule--not a man-o'-war's schedule--laughing softly: + +"Poor old Farquhar, if he could see me now!" Then, to himself: "Well, as +I told him, I was violently tossed like a ball into the large country; +and I've had a lot of adventure and sport. But here's something more the +biggest game ever played between nations by a private person--with +fifty thousand pounds as the end thereof, if all goes well with my lone +corvette." + +The next evening, just before dusk, after having idled about out of +sight of the signal station nearly all day, Captain Shewell entered +Golden Gate with the Hornet-of no squadron. But the officers at the +signal station did not know that, and simply telegraphed to the harbour, +in reply to the signals from the corvette, that a British man-of-war +was coming. She came leisurely up the bay, with Captain Shewell on the +bridge. He gave a low whistle as he saw the Cormorant in the distance. +He knew the harbour well, and saw that the Cormorant had gone to a new +anchorage, not the same as British men-of-war took formerly. He drew +away to the old anchorage--he need not be supposed to know that a change +was expected; besides--and this was important to Captain Shewell--the +old anchorage was near the docks; and it was clear, save for one little +life-boat and a schooner which was making out as he came up. + +As the Hornet came to anchor the Cormorant saluted her, and she replied +instantly. Customs officers who were watching the craft from the shore +or from their boats put down their marine glasses contentedly when they +saw and heard the salutes. But two went out to the Hornet, were +received graciously by Captain Shewell, who, over a glass of wine in his +cabin-appropriately hung with pictures of Nelson and Collingwood--said +that he was proceeding to Alaska to rescue a crew shipwrecked which had +taken refuge on a barren island, and that he was leaving the next day as +soon as he could get some coal; though he feared it would be difficult +coaling up that night. He did not need a great deal, he said--which was, +indeed, the case--but he did need some, and for the Hornet's safety he +must have it. After this, with cheerful compliments, and the perfunctory +declaration on his part that there was nothing dutiable on board, the +officers left him, greatly pleased with his courtesy, saluted by the +sailors standing at the gangway as they left the ship's side. The +officers did not notice that one of these sailors winked an eye at +another, and that both then grinned, and were promptly ordered aft by +the second lieutenant. + +As soon as it was very dark two or three boats pushed out from the +Hornet, and rowed swiftly to shore, passing a Customs boat as they went, +which was saluted by the officers in command. After this, boats kept +passing backward and forward for a long time between the Hornet and the +shore, which was natural, seeing that a first night in port is a sort of +holiday for officers and men. If these sailors had been watched closely, +however, it would have been seen that they visited but few saloons on +shore, and drank little, and then evidently as a blind. Close watching +would also have discovered the fact that there were a few people on +shore who were glad to see the safe arrival of the Hornet, and who, +about one o'clock in the morning, almost fell on the neck of Captain +Shewell as they bade him good bye. Then, for the rest of the night, coal +was carried out to the Hornet in boats and barges. + +By daybreak her coal was aboard, then came cleaning up, and preparations +to depart. Captain Shewell's eye was now much on the Cormorant. He had +escaped one danger, he had landed half a million dollars' worth of opium +in the night, under the very nose of the law, and while Customs boats +were patrolling the bay; there was another danger--the inquisitiveness +of the Cormorant. It was etiquette for him to call upon the captain of +the Cormorant, and he ought to have done so the evening before, but he +had not dared to run the risk, nor could he venture this morning. +And yet if the Cormorant discovered that the Hornet was not a British +man-of-war, but a bold and splendid imposture, made possible by a daring +ex-officer of the British Navy, she might open fire, and he could make +but a sorry fight, for he was equipped for show rather than for +deadly action. He had got this ex-British man-of-war two years before, +purchased in Brazil by two adventurous spirits in San Francisco, had +selected his crew carefully, many of them deserters from the British +Navy, drilled them, and at last made this bold venture under the teeth +of a fortress, and at the mouth of a warship's guns. + +Just as he was lifting anchor to get away, he saw a boat shoot out from +the side of the Cormorant. Captain Debney, indignant at the lack of +etiquette, and a little suspicious also now--for there was no Hornet in +the Pacific Squadron, though there was a Hornet, he knew, in the China +Squadron--was coming to visit the discourteous commander. + +He was received with the usual formalities, and was greeted at once +by Captain Shewell. As the eyes of the two men met both started, but +Captain Debney was most shaken. He turned white, and put out his hand +to the bulwark to steady himself. But Captain Shewell held the hand that +had been put out; shook it, pressed it. He tried to urge Captain Debney +forward, but the other drew back to the gangway. + +"Pull yourself together, Dick, or there'll be a mess," said Shewell +softly. + +"My God, how could you do it?" replied his brother aghast. + +Meanwhile the anchor had been raised, and the Hornet was moving towards +the harbour mouth. "You have ruined us both," said Richard Debney. +"Neither, Dick! I'll save your bacon." He made a sign, the gangway was +closed, he gave the word for full steam ahead, and the Hornet began to +race through the water before Captain Debney guessed his purpose. + +"What do you mean to do?" he asked sternly, as he saw his own gig +falling astern. + +"To make it hard for you to blow me to pieces. You've got to do it, of +course, if you can, but I must get a start." + +"How far do you intend carrying me?" + +"To the Farilones, perhaps." + +Richard Debney's face had a sick look. "Take me to your cabin," he +whispered. + +What was said behind the closed door no man in this world knows, and it +is well not to listen too closely to those who part, knowing that they +will never meet again. They had been children in the one mother's arms; +there was nothing in common between them now except that ancient love. + +Nearing the Farilones, Captain Debney was put off in an open boat. +Standing there alone, he was once more a naval officer, and he called +out sternly: "Sir, I hope to sink you and your smuggling craft within +four-and-twenty hours!" + +Captain Shewell spoke no word, but saluted deliberately, and watched +his brother's boat recede, till it was a speck upon the sea, as it moved +towards Golden Gate. + +"Good old Dick!" he said at last, as he turned away toward the bridge. +"And he'll do it, if he can!" + +But he never did, for as the Cormorant cleared the harbour that evening +there came an accident to her machinery, and with two days' start the +Hornet was on her way to be sold again to a South American Republic. + +And Edward Debney, once her captain? What does it matter? + + + + +A SABLE SPARTAN + +Lady Tynemouth was interested; his Excellency was amused. The interest +was real, the amusement was not ironical. Blithelygo, seeing that he +had at least excited the attention of the luncheon party, said +half-apologetically: "Of course my experience is small, but in +many parts of the world I have been surprised to see how uniform +revolutionises the savage. Put him into Convention, that is clothes, +give him Responsibility, that is a chance to exercise vanity and +power, and you make him a Britisher--a good citizen to all intents and +purposes." + +Blithelygo was a clever fellow in his way. He had a decided instinct +for military matters, and for good cigars and pretty women. Yet he would +rather give up both than an idea which had got firmly fixed in his mind. +He was very deferential in his remarks, but at the same time he was +quite willing to go into a minority which might not include pretty +Miss Angel who sat beside him, if he was not met by conclusive good +arguments. + +In the slight pause which followed his rather long speech, his +Excellency passed the champagne cup, and Lady Tynemouth said: "But I +suppose it depends somewhat on the race, doesn't it, Mr. Travers? I +am afraid mere uniforming would scarcely work successfully--among the +Bengalese, for instance." + +"A wretched crew," said Major Warham; "awful liars, awful scoundrels, +need kicking every morning." + +"Of course," said Blithelygo, "there must be some consideration of race. +But look at the Indian Mutiny. Though there was revolt, look at those +who 'fought with us faithful and few'; look at the fidelity of the +majority of the native servants. Look at the native mounted police in +Australia; at the Sikhs in the Settlements and the Native States; at the +Indian scouts of the United States and Canada; and look at these very +Indian troops at your door, your Excellency! I think my principle holds +good; give uniform, give responsibility--under European surveillance of +course--get British civilisation." + +His Excellency's eyes had been wandering out of the window, over the +white wall and into the town where Arabia, India, Africa, the Islands of +the South and Palestine were blended in a quivering, radiant panorama. +Then they rose until they fell upon Jebel Shamsan, in its intoxicating +red and opal far away, and upon the frowning and mighty rampart that +makes Aden one of the most impregnable stations of the Empire. The +amusement in his eyes had died away; and as he dipped his fingers in the +water at his side and motioned for a quickening of the punkahs, he said: +"There is force in what you say. It would be an unpleasant look-out for +us here and in many parts of the world if we could not place reliance +on the effect of uniform; but"--and the amused look came again to his +eyes--"we somehow get dulled to the virtues of Indian troops and Somauli +policemen. We can't get perspective, you see." + +Blithelygo good-naturedly joined in the laugh that went round the table; +for nearly all there had personal experience of "uniformed savages." +As the ladies rose Miss Angel said naively to Blithelygo: "You ought to +spend a month in Aden, Mr. Blithelygo. Don't go by the next boat, then +you can study uniforms here." + +We settled down to our cigars. Major Warham was an officer from Bombay. +He had lived in India for twenty years: long enough to be cynical of +justice at the Horse Guards or at the India Office: to become in fact +bitter against London, S.W., altogether. It was he that proposed a walk +through the town. + +The city lay sleepy and listless beneath a proud and distant sky +of changeless blue. Idly sat the Arabs on the benches outside the +low-roofed coffee-houses; lazily worked the makers of ornaments in the +bazaars; yawningly pounded the tinkers; greedily ate the children; the +city was cloyed with ease. Warham, Blithelygo and myself sat in the +evening sun surrounded by gold-and-scarlet bedizened gentry of the +desert, and drank strong coffee and smoked until we too were satisfied, +if not surfeited; animals like the rest. Silence fell on us. This was a +new life to two of us; to Warham it was familiar, therefore comfortable +and soporific. I leaned back and languidly scanned the scene; eyes +halfshut, senses half-awake. An Arab sheikh passed swiftly with his +curtained harem; and then went filing by in orderly and bright array +a number of Mahommedans, the first of them bearing on a cushion of red +velvet, and covered with a cloth of scarlet and gold, a dead child to +burial. Down from the colossal tanks built in the mountain gorges +that were old when Mahomet was young, there came donkeys bearing great +leathern bottles such as the Israelites carried in their forty years' +sojourning. A long line of swaying camels passed dustily to the desert +that burns even into this city of Aden, built on a volcano; groups +of Somaulis, lithe and brawny, moved chattering here and there; and +a handful of wandering horsemen, with spears and snowy garments, were +being swallowed up in the mountain defiles. + +The day had been long, the coffee and cigarettes had been heavy, and +we dozed away in the sensuous atmosphere. Then there came, as if in a +dream, a harsh and far-off murmur of voices. It grew from a murmur to a +sharp cry, and from a sharp cry to a roar of rage. In a moment we were +on our feet, and dashing away toward the sound. + +The sight that greeted us was a strange one, and horribly picturesque. +In front of a low-roofed house of stone was a crowd of Mahommedans +fierce with anger and loud in imprecation. Knives were flashing; murder +was afoot. There stood, with his back to the door of the house, a +Somauli policeman, defending himself against this raging little mob. Not +defending himself alone. Within the house he had thrust a wretched Jew, +who had defiled a Mahommedan mosque; and he was here protecting him +against these nervous champions of the faith. + +Once, twice, thrice, they reached him; but he fought on with his +unwounded arm. We were unarmed and helpless; no Somaulis were near. +Death glittered in these white blades. But must this Spartan die? + +Now there was another cry, a British cheer, a gleam of blue and red, +a glint of steel rounding the corner at our left, and the Mahommedans +broke away, with a parting lunge at the Somauli. British soldiers took +the place of the bloodthirsty mob. + +Danger over, the Somauli sank down on the threshold, fainting from loss +of blood. As we looked at him gashed all over, but not mortally wounded, +Blithelygo said with glowing triumph: "British, British, you see!" + +At that moment the door of the house opened, and out crawled to the feet +of the officer in command the miserable Israelite with his red hemmed +skirt and greasy face. For this cowardly creature the Somauli policeman +had perilled his life. Sublime! How could we help thinking of the talk +at his Excellency's table? + +Suddenly the Somauli started up and looked round anxiously. His eyes +fell on the Jew. His countenance grew peaceful. He sank back again into +the arms of the surgeon and said, pointing to the son of Abraham: "He +owe me for a donkey." + +Major Warham looking at Blithelygo said with a chilled kind of lustre to +his voice: "British, so British, don't you know!" + + + + +A VULGAR FRACTION + +Sometimes when, like Mirza, I retire to my little Hill of Bagdad for +meditation, there comes before me the bright picture of Hawaii with +its coral-bulwarked islands and the memory of an idle sojourn on their +shores. I remember the rainbow-coloured harbour of Honolulu Hilo, the +simply joyous Arcadie at the foot of Mauna Loa, and Mauna Kea which +lifted violet shoulders to the morning, the groves of cocoa-palms and +tamarinds, the waterfalls dropping over sheer precipices a thousand feet +into the ocean, the green embrasures where the mango, the guava, and the +lovi lovi grow, and where the hibiscus lifts red hands to the light. +I call to mind the luau where Kalakua, the King, presided over the +dispensation of stewed puppy, lifted to one's lips by brown but fair +fingers, of live shrimps, of poi and taro and balls of boiled sea-weed +stuffed with Heaven knows what; and to crown all, or to drown all, the +insinuating liquor kava, followed when the festival was done by the +sensuous but fascinating hula hula, danced by maidens of varying +loveliness. Of these Van Blaricom, the American, said, "they'd capture +Chicago in a week with that racket," and he showed Blithelygo his +calculations as to profits. + +The moments that we enjoyed the most, however, were those that came when +feast and serenade were over, when Hawaii Ponoi, the National Anthem, +was sung, and we lay upon the sands and watched the long white coverlet +of foam folding towards the shore, and saw visions and dreamed dreams. +But at times we also breathed a prayer--a prayer that somebody or +something would come and carry off Van Blaricom, whose satire, born and +nurtured in Chicago, was ever turned against Hawaii and all that therein +was. + +There are times when I think I had a taste of Paradise in Hawaii--but a +Paradise not without a Satanic intruder in the shape of that person from +Illinois. Nothing escaped his scorn. One day we saw from Diamond Head +three water-spouts careering to the south, a splendid procession of +the powers of the air. He straightway said to Kalakua, that "a Michigan +cyclone had more git-up-and-git about it than them three black cats with +their tails in the water." He spent hours in thinking out rudely caustic +things to repeat about this little kingdom. He said that the Government +was a Corliss-engine running a sewing machine. He used to ask the +Commander of the Forces when the Household Cavalry were going into +summer camp--they were twelve. The only thing that appeared to impress +him seriously was Molokai, the desolate island where the lepers made +their cheerless prison-home. But the reason for his gravity appeared +when he said to Blithelygo and myself: "There'd be a fortune in that +menagerie if it was anchored in Lake Michigan." On that occasion he was +answered in strong terms. It was the only time I ever heard Blithelygo +use profanity. But the American merely dusted his patent leather shoes +with a gay silk kerchief, adjusted his clothes on his five-foot frame as +he stood up; and said: "Say you ought to hear my partner in Chicago when +he lets out. He's an artist!" + +This Man from the West was evidently foreordained to play a part in the +destinies of Blithelygo and myself, for during two years of travel he +continuously crossed our path. His only becoming quality was his ample +extravagance. Perhaps it was the bountiful impetus he gave to the +commerce of Honolulu, and the fact that he talked of buying up a portion +of one of the Islands for sugar-planting, that induced the King to be +gracious to him. However that might be, when Blithelygo and I joined his +Majesty at Hilo to visit the extinct volcano of Kilauea, there was the +American coolly puffing his cigar and quizzically feeling the limbs and +prodding the ribs of the one individual soldier who composed the King's +body-guard. He was not interested in our arrival further than to give us +a nod. In a pause that followed our greetings, he said to his Majesty, +while jerking his thumb towards the soldier: "King, how many of 'em have +you got in your army?" + +His Majesty blandly but with dignity turned to his aide-de-camp and +raised his eyebrows inquiringly. The aide-de-camp answered: "Sixty." + +"Then we've got 1/60th of the standing army with us, eh?" drawled Van +Blaricom. + +The aide-de-camp bowed affirmatively. The King was scanning Mauna Loa. +The American winked at us. The King did not see the wink, but he had +caught a tone in the voice of the invader, which brought, as I +thought, a slight flush to his swarthy cheek. The soldier-his name was +Lilikalu--looked from his King to the critic of his King's kingdom and +standing army, and there was a glow beneath his long eyelashes which +suggested that three-quarters of a century of civilisation had not quite +drawn the old savage spirit from the descendants of Lailai, the Hawaiian +Eve. + +During the journey up the Forty-Mile Track to Kilauea, the American +enveloped 1/60th of his Majesty's standing army with his Michigan +Avenue and peanut-stand wit, and not always, it was observed, out of +the hearing of the King, who nevertheless preserved a marked +unconsciousness. Majesty was at a premium with two of us on that +journey. Only once was the Chicagonian's wit not stupid as well as +offensive. It chanced thus. The afternoon in which we reached the +volcano was suffocatingly hot, and the King's bodyguard had discarded +all clothing--brief when complete--save what would not count in any +handicap. He was therefore at peace, while the rest of us, Royalty +included, were inwardly thinking that after this the orthodox future +of the wicked would have no terrors. At a moment when the body-guard +appeared to be most ostentatious in his freedom from clothing the +American said to his Majesty: "King, do you know what 1/60th of your +standing army is?" The reply was a low and frigid: "No." + +"It's a vulgar fraction." + + ..................... + +There were seven of us walking on the crater of the volcano: great banks +of sulphur on the right, dark glaciers of lava on the left, high walls +of scoria and volcanic crust enveloping us all about. We were four +thousand feet above the level of the sea. We were standing at the door +of the House of Pele, the Goddess of Fire. We knocked, but she would not +open. The flames were gone from her hearthstone, her smoke was gorging +the throat of the suffering earth. + +"Say, she was awful sick while she was about it," said the American as +he stumbled over the belched masses of lava. + +That was one day. But two days after we stood at Pele threshold again. +Now red scoria and pumice and sulphur boiled and rolled where the hard +lava had frayed our boots. Within thirty-six hours Kilauea has sprung +from its flameless sleep into sulphurous life and red roaring grandeur. +Though Pele came but slowly, she came; and a lake of fire beat at the +lofty sides of the volcanic cup. The ruby spray flashed up to the sky, +and geysers of flame hurled long lances at the moon. + +"King," said the American, "why don't you turn it into an axe-factory?" + +At last the time came when we must leave this scene of marvel and +terror, and we retired reluctantly. There were two ways by which we +might return to the bridle path that led down the mountain. The American +desired to take the one by which we had not come; the rest of us, tired +out, preferred to go as we came--the shortest way. A compromise was made +by his Majesty sending 1/60th of the standing army with the American, +who gaily said he would join us, "horse, foot and cavalry," in the +bridle-path. We reached the meeting-point first, but as we looked +back we saw with horror that two streams of fire were flowing down the +mountain side. We were to the left of them both, and safe; but between +them, and approaching us, were Van Blaricom and the native soldier. The +two men saw their danger, and pushed swiftly down the mountainside and +towards us, but more swiftly still these narrow snake-like streams came +on. + +Presently the streams veered towards each other and joined. The two men +were on an island with a shore of fire. There was one hope--the shore +was narrow yet. But in running the American fell, spraining his ankle +badly. We were speechless, but the King's lips parted with a moan, as he +said: "Lilikalu can jump the stream, but the other--!" + +They were now at the margin of that gleaming shore, the American +wringing his hands. It was clear to him that unless a miracle happened +he would see his beloved Chicago no more; for the stream behind them was +rapidly widening. + +I think I see that 1/60th of his Majesty's infantry as he looked +down upon the slight and cowering form of the American. His moment of +vengeance had come. A second passed, marked by the splashing roar of +the waves in the hill above us, and then the soldier-naked, all save the +boots he wore-seized the other in his arms, stepped back a few paces, +and then ran forward and leaped across the barrier of flame. Not quite +across! One foot and ankle sank into the molten masses, with a shiver of +agony, he let the American fall on the safe ground. An instant later and +he lay at our feet, helpless and maimed for many a day; and the standing +army of the King was deprived of 1/60th of its strength. + + + + +HOW PANGO WANGO WAS ANNEXED + +Blithelygo and I were at Levuka, Fiji, languidly waiting for some +"trader" or mail-steamer to carry us away anywhere. Just when we were +bored beyond endurance and when cigars were running low, a Fijian came +to us and said: "That fellow, white fellow, all a-same a-you, long +a-shore. Pleni sail. Pleni Melican flag." + +We went to the beach, and there was Jude Van Blaricom, our American. We +had left him in New Zealand at the Pink Terraces, bidding him an eternal +farewell. We wished it so. But we had met him afterwards at Norfolk +Island, and again at Sydney, and we knew now that we should never cease +to meet him during our sojourn on this earth. + +An hour later we were on board his yacht, Wilderness, being introduced +to MacGregor, the captain, to Mr. Dagmar Caramel, C.M.G., his guest, +and to some freshly made American cocktails. Then we were shown over the +Wilderness. She looked as if she had been in the hands of a Universal +Provider. Evidently the American had no intention of roughing it. His +toilet requisites were a dream. From the dazzling completeness of the +snug saloon we were taken aft to see two coops filled with fowls. "Say," +said the American, "how's that for fresh meat?" Though a little ashamed +of it, we then and there accepted the Chicagonian's invitation to take +a cruise with him in the South Pacific. For days the cruise was pleasant +enough, and then things began to drag. Fortunately there came a new +interest in the daily routine. One day Van Blaricom was seen standing +with the cook before the fowl coops deeply interested; and soon after +he had triumphantly arranged what he called "The Coliseum." This was +an enclosure of canvas chiefly, where we had cock-fights daily. The +gladiators were always ready for the arena. One was called U. S., after +General U. S. Grant, and the other Bob Lee, after General Robert Lee. + +"Go it, U. S. Lift your skewers, you bobtail. Give it to him, you've +got him in Andersonville, U. S." Thus, day by day, were the warriors +encouraged by Van Blaricom. + +There is nothing very elegant or interesting in the record so far, but +it all has to do with the annexation of Pango Wango, and, as Blithelygo +long afterwards remarked, it shows how nations sometimes acquire +territory. Yes, this Coliseum of ours had as much to do with the +annexation as had the American's toilet requisites his hair-oil and +perfume bottles. In the South Pacific, a thousand miles from land, Van +Blaricom was redolent of new-mown hay and heliotrope. + +It was tropically hot. We were in the very middle of the hurricane +season. The air had no nerve. Even the gladiators were relaxing their +ardour; and soon the arena was cleared altogether, for we were in the +midst of a hurricane. It was a desperate time, but just when it seemed +most desperate the wheel of doom turned backward and we were saved. The +hurricane found us fretful with life by reason of the heat, it left us +thankful for being let to live at all; though the Wilderness appeared +little better than a drifting wreck. Our commissariat was gone, or +almost gone, we hadn't any masts or sails to speak of, and the cook +informed us that we had but a few gallons of fresh water left; yet, +strange to say, the gladiators remained to us. When the peril was over +it surprised me to remember that Van Blaricom had been comparatively +cool through it all; for I had still before me a certain scene at the +volcano of Kilauea. I was to be still more surprised. + +We were by no means out of danger. MacGregor did not know where we were; +the fresh water was vanishing rapidly, and our patch of sail was hardly +enough to warrant a breeze taking any interest in it. We had been saved +from immediate destruction, but it certainly seemed like exchanging +Tophet for a slow fire. When the heat was greatest and the spiritual +gloom thickest the American threw out the sand-bags, as it were, and +hope mounted again. + +"Say, MacGregor," he said, "run up the American flag. There's luck in +the old bandana." + +This being done, he added: "Bring along the cigars; we'll have out U. S. +and Bob Lee in the saloon." + +Our Coliseum was again open to the public at two shillings a head. +That had been the price from the beginning. The American was very +business-like in the matter, but this admission fee was our only +contribution to the expenses of that cruise. Sport could only allay, it +could not banish our sufferings. We became as haggard and woe-begone a +lot as ever ate provisions impregnated with salt; we turned wistfully +from claret to a teaspoonful of water, and had tongues like pieces of +blotting-paper. One morning we were sitting at breakfast when we heard +a cock-crow, then another and another. MacGregor sprang to his feet +crying: "Land!" In a moment we were on deck. There was no land to be +seen, but MacGregor maintained that a cock was a better look-out than a +human being any time, and in this case he was right. In a few hours we +did sight land. + +Slowly we came nearer to the island. MacGregor was not at all sure where +it was, but guessed it might be one of the Solomon Islands. When within +a few miles of it Blithelygo unfeelingly remarked that its population +might be cannibalistic. MacGregor said it was very likely; but we'd have +to be fattened first, and that would give us time to turn round. The +American said that the Stars and Stripes and the Coliseum had brought us +luck so far, and he'd take the risk if we would. + +The shore was crowded with natives, and as we entered the bay we saw +hundreds take to the water in what seemed fearfully like war-canoes. We +were all armed with revolvers, and we had half a dozen rifles handy. As +the islanders approached we could see that they also were armed; and a +brawny race they looked, and particularly bloodthirsty. In the largest +canoe stood a splendid-looking fellow, evidently a chief. On the shore +near a large palm-thatched house a great group was gathered, and the +American, levelling his glass, said: "Say, it's a she-queen or something +over there." + +At that moment the canoes drew alongside, and while MacGregor adjured us +to show no fear, he beckoned the chief to come aboard. An instant, and +a score of savages, armed with spears and nulla-nullas were on deck. +MacGregor made signs that we were hungry, Blithelygo that we were +thirsty, and the American, smoking all the while, offered the chief +a cigar. The cigar was refused, but the headman ordered a couple of +natives ashore, and in five minutes we had wild bananas and fish to eat, +and water to drink. But that five minutes of waiting were filled with +awkward incidents. Blithelygo, meaning to be hospitable, had brought up +a tumbler of claret for the headman. With violent language, MacGregor +stopped its presentation; upon which the poison of suspicion evidently +entered the mind of the savage, and he grasped his spear threateningly. +Van Blaricom, who wore a long gold watch-chain, now took it off and +offered it to the chief, motioning him to put it round his neck. The +hand was loosened on the spear, and the Chicagonian stepped forward +and put the chain over the head of the native. As he did so the chief +suddenly thrust his nose forward and sniffed violently at the American. + +What little things decide the fate of nations and men! This was a race +whose salutation was not nose-rubbing, but smelling, and the American +had not in our worst straits failed to keep his hair sleek with +hair-oil, verbena scented, and to perfume himself daily with new-mown +hay or heliotrope. Thus was he of goodly savour to the chief, and the +eyes of the savage grew bright. At that moment the food and drink came. +During the repast the chief chuckled in his own strange way, and, when +we slackened in our eating, he still motioned to us to go on. + +Van Blaricom, who had been smiling, suddenly looked grave. "By the great +horn-spoons," he said, "they have begun already! They're fattening us!" + +MacGregor nodded affirmatively, and then Van Blaricom's eyes wandered +wildly from the chief to that group on the shore where he thought he +had seen the "she-queen." At that moment the headman came forward again, +again sniffed at him, and again chuckled, and all the natives as they +looked on us chuckled also. It was most unpleasant. Suddenly I saw the +American start. He got up, turned to us, and said: "I've got an idea. +MacGregor, get U. S. and Bob Lee." Then he quietly disappeared, the eyes +of the savages suspiciously following him. In a moment he came back, +bearing in his arms a mirror, a bottle of hair-oil, a couple of bottles +of perfume, a comb and brush, some variegated bath towels, and an +American flag. First he let the chief sniff at the bottles, and then, +pointing to the group on the shore, motioned to be taken over. In a few +moments he and MacGregor were being conveyed towards the shore in the +gathering dusk. + +Four hours passed. It was midnight. There was noise of drums and +shouting on the shore, which did not relieve our suspense. Suddenly +there was a commotion in the canoes that still remained near the +Wilderness. The headman appeared before us, and beckoned to Blithelygo +and myself to come. The beckoning was friendly, and we hoped that +affairs had taken a more promising turn. + +In a space surrounded with palms and ti-trees a great fire was burning. +There was a monotonous roll of the savage tom-tom and a noise of +shouting and laughter. Yes, we were safe, and the American had done it. +The Coliseum was open, MacGregor was ring-master, and U. S. and Bob +Lee were at work. This show, with other influences, had conquered Pango +Wango. The American flag was hoisted on a staff, and on a mighty stump +there sat Van Blaricom, almost innocent of garments, I grieve to say, +with one whom we came to know as Totimalu, Queen of Pango Wango, a +half circle of savages behind them. Van Blaricom and MacGregor had been +naturalised by having their shoulders lanced with a spear-point, and +then rubbed against the lanced shoulders of the chiefs. The taking of +Pango Wango had not been, I fear, a moral victory. Van Blaricom was +smoking a cigar, and was writing on a piece of paper, using the back +of a Pango Wango man as a desk. The Queen's garments were chiefly +variegated bath-towels, and she was rubbing her beaming countenance and +ample bosom with hair-oil and essence of new-mown hay. + +Van Blaricom nodded to us nonchalantly, saying: "It's all right--she's +Totimalu, the Queen. Sign here, Queen," and he motioned for the obese +beauty to hold the pencil. She did so, and then he stood up, and, while +the cock-fight still went on, he read, with a fine Chicago fluency, what +proved to be a proclamation. As will be seen, it was full of ellipses +and was fragmentary in its character, though completely effective in +fact: + + Know all men by these Presents, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. + Seeing that all men are born free and equal (vide United States + Constitution), et cetera. We, Jude Van Blaricom, of the city of + Chicago, with and by the consent of Queen Totimalu, do, in the name + of George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, and the State + of Illinois, and by the Grace of Heaven, et cetera, et cetera, et + cetera, hereby annex the Kingdom of Pango Wango to be of the + territory of the American Union, to have and to hold from this day + forth (vide Constitution of the United States), et cetera. + + Signed, JUDE VAN BLARICOM, TOTIMALU X (her mark). + +"Beat the drums, you niggers!" he cried, and patted Totimalu's shoulder. +"Come and join the royal party, gentlemen, and pay your respects. Shake! +That's right." + +Thus was Pango Wango annexed. + + + + +AN AMIABLE REVENGE + +Whenever any one says to me that civilisation is a failure, I refer +him to certain records of Tonga, and tell him the story of an amiable +revenge. He is invariably convinced that savages can learn easily the +forms of convention and the arts of government--and other things. The +Tongans once had a rough and coarsely effective means for preserving +order and morality, but the whole scheme was too absurdly simple. Now, +with a Constitution and a Sacred Majesty, and two Houses of Parliament, +and a native Magistracy, they show that they are capable of becoming +European in its most pregnant meaning. As the machinery has increased +the grist for the mill has grown. There was a time when a breach of +the Seventh Commandment was punished in Tonga with death, and it +was therefore rarely committed. It is no rarity now--so does law and +civilisation provide opportunities for proving their existence. + +On landing at Nukalofa, the capital of Tonga, some years ago, I +naturally directed my steps towards the residence of the British consul. +The route lay along an arc of emerald and opal shore, the swaying +cocoa-palms overhead, and native huts and missionary conventicles hidden +away in coverts of ti-trees, hibiscus bushes, and limes; the sensuous, +perfume-ladened air pervading all. I had seen the British flag from the +coral-bulwarked harbour, but could not find it now. Leaving the indolent +village behind, I passed the Palace, where I beheld the sacred majesty +of Tonga on the veranda sleepily flapping the flies from his aged +calves, and I could not find that flag. Had I passed it? Was it yet to +come? I leaned against a bread-fruit tree and thought upon it. The shore +was deserted. Nobody had taken any notice of me; even the German steamer +Lubeck had not brought a handful of the population to the Quay. + +I was about to make up my mind to go back to the Lubeck and sulk, when a +native issued from the grove at my left and blandly gazed upon me as he +passed. He wore a flesh-coloured vala about the loins, a red pandanus +flower in his ear, and a lia-lia of hibiscus blossoms about his neck. +That was all. Evidently he was not interested in me, for he walked on. I +choked back my feelings of hurt pride, and asked him in an off-hand kind +of way, and in a sort of pigeon English, if he could tell me where the +British consul lived. The stalwart subject of King George Tabou looked +at me gravely for an instant, then turned and motioned down the road. +I walked on beside him, improperly offended by his dignified airs, +his coolness of body and manner, and what I considered the insolent +plumpness and form of his chest and limbs. + +He was a harmony in brown and red. Even his hair was brown. I had to +admit to myself that in point of comeliness I could not stand the same +scrutiny in the same amount of costume. Perhaps that made me a little +imperious, a little superior in manner. Reducing my English to his +comprehension as I measured it--he bowed when I asked him if he +understood--I explained to him many things necessary for the good of his +country. Remembering where I was, I expressed myself in terms that were +gentle though austere regarding the King, and reproved the supineness +and stupidity of the Crown Prince. Lamenting the departed puissance of +the sons of Tongatabu, I warmed to my subject, telling this savage +who looked at me with so neutral a countenance how much I deplored the +decadence of his race. I bade him think of the time when the Tongans, +in token of magnanimous amity, rubbed noses with the white man, and of +where those noses were now--between the fingers of the Caucasian. He +appeared becomingly attentive, and did me the honour before I began my +peroration to change the pandanus flower from the ear next to me to the +other. + +I had just rounded off my last sentence when he pointed to a house, +half-native, half-European, in front of which was a staff bearing the +British flag. With the generosity which marks the Englishman away +from home I felt in my pockets and found a sixpence. I handed it to my +companion; and with a "Talofa" the only Tongan I knew--I passed into +the garden of the consulate. The consul himself came to the door when +I knocked on the lintel. After glancing at my card he shook me by the +hand, and then paused. His eyes were intently directed along the road +by which I had come. I looked back, and there stood the stalwart Tongan +where I had left him, gazing at the sixpence I had placed in his hand. +There was a kind of stupefaction in his attitude. Presently the consul +said somewhat tartly: "Ah, you've been to the Palace--the Crown Prince +has brought you over!" + +It was not without a thrill of nervousness that I saw my royal guide +flip the sixpence into his mouth--he had no pocket--and walk back +towards the royal abode. + +I told the consul just how it was. In turn he told his daughter, the +daughter told the native servants, and in three minutes the place was +echoing with languid but appreciative laughter. Natives came to the door +to look at me, and after wide-eyed smiling at me for a minute gave place +to others. Though I too smiled, my thoughts were gloomy; for now it +seemed impossible to go to the Palace and present myself to King George +and the Heir-Apparent. But the consul, and, still more, the consul's +daughter, insisted; pooh-poohing my hesitation. At this distance from +the scene and after years of meditation I am convinced that their +efforts to induce me to go were merely an unnatural craving for +sensation. + +I went--we three went. Even a bare-legged King has in his own house +an advantage over the European stranger. I was heated, partly from +self-repression, partly from Scotch tweed. King George was quite, +quite cool, and unencumbered, save for a trifling calico jacket, a pink +lava-lava, and the august fly-flapper. But what heated me most, I think, +was the presence of the Crown Prince, who, on my presentation, looked +at me as though he had never seen me before. He was courteous, however, +directing a tappa cloth to be spread for me. The things I intended to +say to King George for the good of himself and his kingdom, which I had +thought out on the steamer Lubeck and rehearsed to my guide a few hours +before, would not be tempted forth. There was silence; for the consul +did not seem "to be on in the scene," and presently the King of Holy +Tonga nodded and fell asleep. Then the Crown Prince came forward, and +beckoned me to go with him. He led me to a room which was composed of +mats and bamboo pillars chiefly. At first I thought there were about ten +pillars to support the roof, but my impression before I left was that +there were about ten thousand. For which multiplication there were good +reasons. + +Again a beautiful tappa cloth was spread for me, and then ten maidens +entered, and, sitting in a semi-circle, began to chew a root called +kava, which, when sufficiently masticated, they returned into a +calabash, water being poured on the result. Meanwhile, the Prince, +dreamily and ever so gently, was rolling some kind of weed between his +fingers. About the time the maidens had finished, the Crown Prince's +cigarette was ready. A small calabash of the Result was handed to me, +and the cigarette accompanied it. The Crown Prince sat directly opposite +me, lit his own cigarette, and handed the matches. I distinctly remember +the first half-dozen puffs of that cigarette, the first taste of kava +it had the flavour of soft soap and Dover's powder. I have smoked +French-Canadian tobacco, I have puffed Mexican hair-lifters, but Heaven +had preserved me till that hour from the cigarettes of a Crown Prince +of Tonga. As I said, the pillars multiplied; the mats seemed rising from +the floor; the maidens grew into a leering army of Amazons; but through +it all the face of the Crown Prince never ceased to smile upon me +gently. + +There were some incidents of that festival which I may have forgotten, +for the consul said afterwards that I was with his Royal Highness about +an hour and a half. The last thing I remember about the visit was the +voice of the successor to the throne of Holy Tonga asking me blandly in +perfect English: "Will you permit me to show you the way to the consul's +house?" + +To my own credit I respectfully declined. + + + + +THE BLIND BEGGAR AND THE LITTLE RED PEG + +As Sherry and I left the theatre in Mexico City one night, we met a +blind beggar tapping his way home. Sherry stopped him. "Good evening," +he said over the blind man's shoulder. + +"Good evening, senor," was the reply. "You are late." + +"Si, senor," and the blind man pushed a hand down in his coat pocket. + +"He's got his fist on the rhino," said Sherry to me in English. "He's +not quite sure whether we're footpads or not--poor devil." + +"How much has he got?" asked I. + +"Perhaps four or five dollars. Good business, eh? Got it in big money +mostly, too--had it changed at some cafe." + +The blind man was nervous, seemed not to understand us. He made as if +to move on. Sherry and I, to reassure him, put a few reals into his +hand--not without an object, for I asked Sherry to make him talk on. +A policeman sauntered near with his large lantern--a superior sort of +Dogberry, but very young, as are most of the policemen in Mexico, save +the Rurales, that splendid company of highwaymen whom Diaz bought over +from being bandits to be the guardians of the peace. This one eyed us +meaningly, but Sherry gave him a reassuring nod, and our talk went +on, while the blind man was fingering the money we had just given him. +Presently Sherry said to him: "I'm Bingham Sherry," adding some other +particulars--"and you're all right. I've a friend here who wants to talk +with you. Come along; we'll take you home--confound the garlic, what a +breath he's got!" + +For a moment the blind man seemed to hesitate, then he raised his head +quickly, as if looking into Sherry's face; a light came over it, and +he said, repeating Sherry's name: "Si, senor; si, si, senor. I know you +now. You sit in the right-hand corner of the little back-room at the +Cafe Manrique, where you come to drink chocolate. Is it not?" + +"That's where I sit," said Sherry. "And now, be gad, I believe I +remember you. Are you Becodar?" + +"Si, senor." + +"Well, I'm damned!" Then, turning tome: "Lots of these fellows look so +much alike that I didn't recognise this one. He's a character. Had a +queer history. I'll get him to tell it." + +We walked on, one on either side, Sherry using his hat to wave away +the smell of garlic. Presently he said "Where've you been to-night, +Becodar?" + +"I have paid my respects to the Maison Dore, to the Cafe de la +Concordia, to the Cafe Iturbide, senor." + +"And how did paying your respects pay you, Becodar?" + +"The noble courtesy of these cafes, and the great consideration of the +hidalgos there assembled rendered to me five pesos and a trifle, senor." + +"The poor ye have always with you. He that giveth to the poor lendeth +to the Lord. Becodar has large transactions with Providence, mio amigo," +said Sherry. + +The beggar turned his sightless eyes to us, as though he would +understand these English words. Sherry, seeing, said: "We were saying, +Becodar, that the blessed saints know how to take care of a blind man, +lest, having no boot, he stub his toe against a stone." + +Off came Becodar's hat. He tapped the wall. "Where am I, senor?" he +asked. + +Sherry told him. "Ah!" he said, "the church of Saint Joseph is near." +Then he crossed himself and seemed to hurry his steps. Presently he +stood still. We were beside the church. Against the door, in a niche, +was a figure of the Virgin in stone. He got to his knees and prayed +fast. And yet as he prayed I saw his hand go to his pocket, and it +fumbled and felt the money there. + +"Begad, he's counting it all," said Sherry, "and now he's giving thanks +for the exact amount, adding his distinguished consideration that the +sum is by three reals greater than any day since Lent began. He promises +to bring some flowers to-morrow for the shrine, and he also swears to +go a pilgrimage to a church of Mary at Guadaloupe, and to be a kind +compadre--By Jove, there you are! He's a compadre--a blind compadre!" + +A little while afterwards we were in Becodar's house--a low adobe but of +two rooms with a red light burning over the door, to guard against the +plague. It had a table hanging like a lid from the wall, a stone for +making tortillas, a mortar for grinding red peppers, a crucifix on +the wall, a short sword, a huge pistol, a pair of rusty stirrups, and +several chairs. The chairs seemed to be systematically placed, and it +was quite wonderful to see how the beggar twisted in and out among them +without stumbling. I could not understand this, unless it was that +he wished to practise moving about deftly, that he might be at least +disadvantage in the cafes and public resorts. He never once stirred +them, and I was presently surprised to see that they were all fastened +to the floor. Sherry seemed as astonished as I. From this strangeness +I came to another. Looking up at the walls I saw set in the timber a +number of holes cleanly bored. And in one of the last of these holes was +a peg. Again my eyes shifted. From a nail in one corner of the room +hung a red and white zarape, a bridle, one of those graceless bits which +would wrench the mouth of the wildest horse to agony, and a sombrero. +Something in these things fascinated me. I got up and examined them, +while the blind man was in the other room. Turning them over I saw that +the zarape was pierced with holes-bullet holes. I saw also that it was +stained a deeper red than its own. I turned away, questioning Sherry. He +came and looked, but said nothing, lifting a hand in deprecation. As +we stood so, Becodar appeared again in the doorway, bearing an olla of +pulque and some tortilla sandwiches, made of salad and shreds of meat, +flavoured with garlic. He paused, his face turned towards us, with an +understanding look. His instinct was remarkable. He did not speak, but +came and placed the things he carried near the chairs where we had sat. + +Presently I saw some writing on the adobe wall. The look of it showed +the hand of youth, its bold carelessness, a boy. Some of it I set +down soon afterwards, and it ran in this fashion: "The most good +old compadre! But I'd like another real." Again: "One media for a +banderilla, two reals for the bull-fight, five centavos for the sweet +oranges, and nothing for dulces. I threw a cigar at the toreador. It was +no good, but the toreador was a king. Good-night, compadre the blind, +who begs." Again: "If I knew where it was I'd take a real. Carambo! +No, I wouldn't. I'll ask him. I'll give him the new sword-stick that my +cousin the Rurales gave me. He doesn't need it now he's not a bandit. +I'm stuffed, and my head swims. It's the pulque. Sabe Dios!" Again: +"Compadre, the most miraculous, that goes tapping your stick along the +wall, and jingles the silver in your pocket, whither do you wander? Have +you forgotten that I am going to the cock-fight, and want a real? What +is a cock-fight without a real? Compadre the brave, who stumbles along +and never falls, I am sitting on your doorstep, and I am writing on your +wall--if I had as much money as you I'd go to every bull-fight. I'd keep +a fighting-cock myself." And once again: "If I was blind I'd have money +out of the cafes, but I couldn't see my bulls toss the horses. I'll be +a bandit, and when I'm old, and if Diaz doesn't put me against the wall +and prod holes in me like Gonzales, they'll take me in the Rurales, same +as Gerado." + +"Who is it writes on the wall, Becodar?" asked Sherry of our host, as, +on his knees, he poured out pulque for us. + +The old man turned musingly, and made motions of writing, a pleased look +in his face. "Ah, senor, he who so writes is Bernal--I am his compadre. +He has his mother now, but no father, no father." He smiled. "You have +never seen so bold and enterprising, never so handsome a boy. He can +throw the lasso and use the lariat, and ride--sabe Dios, he can ride! +His cousin Gerado the Rurales taught him. I do well by him as I may, who +have other things to think on. But I do well by him." + +"What became of his father, Becodar? Dead?" asked Sherry. + +The beggar crossed himself. "Altogether, senor. And such a funeral had +he, with the car all draped, and even the mutes with the gold braid on +their black. I will tell you how it was. We were great friends, Bernal's +father and me, and when the boy was born, I said, I will be compadre +to him. ('Godfather, or co-father,' interposed Sherry to me.) I had my +sight then, senors, out of the exalted mercy of the Saints. Ah, those +were great times, when I had my eyes, and no grey hairs, and could wear +my sword, and ride my horses. There was work to do then, with sword +and horses. It was revolution here and rebellion there, and bandits +everywhere. Ah, well, it is no matter; I was speaking of the boy and his +father and myself, the compadre. We were all great friends. But you know +the way of men. One day he and I--Santiago, Bernal's father--had been +drinking mescal. We quarrelled--I know not why. It is not well nor right +for a padre and a compadre to fight--there is trouble in Heaven over +that. But there is a way; and we did it as others have done. We took off +our sombreros, and put our compadreship on the ground under them. That +was all right--it was hid there under the hat. Then we stood up and +fought--such a fight--for half an hour. Then he cut me in the thigh--a +great gash--and I caught him in the neck the same. We both came to the +ground then, the fight was over, and we were, of course, good friends +again. I dragged myself over to him as he lay there, and lifted his head +and sopped the blood at his neck with my scarf. I did not think that he +was hurt so bad. But he said: 'I am gone, my Becodar. I haven't got +five minutes in me. Put on your compadreship quick.' I snatched up the +sombrero and put it on, and his I tucked under his head. So that we were +compadres again. Ah, senor, senor! Soon he drew my cheek down to his and +said: 'Adios, compadre: Bernal is thine now. While your eyes see, and +your foot travels, let him not want a friend. Adios!' That was the end +of him. They had me in Balim for a year, and then I came out to the boy; +and since then for twelve years he has not suffered." + +At this point he offered us the pulque and the sandwiches, and I took +both, eating and enjoying as well as I could. Sherry groaned, but took +the pulque, refusing the sandwiches almost violently. + +"How did you lose your sight, Becodar?" asked Sherry presently. + +Becodar sat perfectly still for a moment, and then said in a low voice: +"I will tell you. I will make the story short. Gentle God, what a thing +it was! I was for Gonzales then--a loyal gentleman, he called me--I, a +gentleman! But that was his way. I was more of a spy for him. Well, +I found out that a revolution was to happen, so I gave the word to +Gonzales, and with the soldiers came to Puebla. The leaders were +captured in a house, brought out, and without trial were set against a +wall. I can remember it so well--so well! The light was streaming from +an open door upon the wall. They were brought out, taken across the road +and stood against a wall. I was standing a distance away, for at the +moment I was sorry, though, to be sure, senor, it was for the cause of +the country then, I thought. As I stood there looking, the light that +streamed from the doorway fell straight upon a man standing against +that wall. It was my brother--Alphonso, my brother. I shrieked and ran +forward, but the rifles spat out at the moment, and the five men fell. +Alphonso--ah, I thank the Virgin every day! he did not know. His zarape +hangs there on the wall, his sombrero, his sword, and his stirrups." + +Sherry shifted nervously in his seat. "There's stuff for you, amigo," he +said to me. "Makes you chilly, doesn't it? Shot his own brother--amounts +to same thing, doesn't it? All right, Becodar, we're both sorry, and +will pray for his departed spirit; go ahead, Becodar." + +The beggar kept pulling at a piece of black ribbon which was tied to +the arm of the chair in which he now sat. "Senors, after that I became a +revolutionist--that was the only way to make it up to my brother, except +by masses--I gave candles for every day in the year. One day they were +all in my house here, sitting just where you sit in those chairs. Our +leader was Castodilian, the bandit with the long yellow hair. We had a +keg of powder which we were going to distribute. All at once Gonzales's +soldiers burst in. There was a fight, we were overpowered, and +Castodilian dropped his cigar--he had kept it in his mouth all the +time--in the powder-keg. It killed most of us. I lost my eyes. Gonzales +forgave me, if I would promise to be a revolutionist no more. What +was there to do? I took the solemn oath at the grave of my mother; and +so--and so, senors." + +Sherry had listened with a quizzical intentness, now and again cocking +his head at some dramatic bit, and when Becodar paused he suddenly +leaned over and thrust a dollar into the ever-waiting hand. Becodar +gave a great sign of pleasure, and fumbled again with the money in his +pocket. Then, after a moment, it shifted to the bit of ribbon that hung +from the chair: "See, senors," he said. "I tied this ribbon to the chair +all those years ago." + +My eyes were on the peg and the holes in the wall. Sherry questioned +him. "Why do you spike the wall with the little red peg, Becodar?" + +"The Little Red Peg, senor? Ah! It is not wonderful you notice that. +There are eight bullet-holes in that zarape"--he pointed to the +wall--"there are eight holes in the wall for the Little Red Peg. Well, +of the eight men who fired on my brother, two are left, as you may see. +The others are all gone, this way or that." Sherry shrugged a shoulder. +"There are two left, eh, Becodar? How will they die, and when?" Becodar +was motionless as a stone for a moment. Then he said softly: "I do not +know quite how or when. But one drinks much mescal, and the other has +a taste for quarrel. He will get in trouble with the Rurales, and +then good-bye to him! Four others on furlough got in trouble with the +Rurales, and that was the end. They were taken at different times for +some fault--by Gerado's company--Gerado, my cousin. Camping at night, +they tried to escape. There is the Law of Fire, senors, as you know. +If a man thinks his guard sleeps, and makes a run for it, they do not +chase--they fire; and if he escapes unhurt, good; he is not troubled. +But the Rurales are fine shots!" + +"You mean," said Sherry, "that the Rurales--your Gerado, for +one--pretended to sleep--to be careless. The fellows made a rush for it +and were dropped? Eh, Becodar, of the Little Red Peg?" + +Becodar shrugged a shoulder gently. "Ah, senor, who can tell? My Gerado +is a sure shot." + +"Egad," said Sherry, "who'd have thought it? It looks like a sweet +little vendetta, doesn't it? A blind beggar, too, with his Gerado to +help the thing along. + +"'With his Gerado!' Sounds like a Gatling, or a bomb, or a diabolical +machine, doesn't it? And yet they talk of this country being +Americanised! You can't Americanise a country with a real history. Well, +Becodar, that's four. What of the other two that left for Kingdom Come?" + +Becodar smiled pensively. He seemed to be enduring a kind of joy, or +else making light of a kind of sorrow. "Ah, those two! They were camping +in a valley; they were escorting a small party of people who had come to +look at ruins--Diaz was President then. Well, a party of Aztecs on the +other side of the river began firing across, not as if doing or meaning +any harm. By-and-bye the shot came rattling through the tent of the +two. One got up, and yelled across to them to stop, but a chance bullet +brought him down, and then by some great mistake a lot of bullets +came through the tent, and the other soldier was killed. It was all a +mistake, of course." + +"Yes," cynically said Sherry. "The Aztecs got rattled, and then the +bullets rattled. And what was done to the Aztecs?" + +"Senor, what could be done? They meant no harm, as you can see." + +"Of course, of course; but you put the Little Red Peg down two holes +just the same, eh, my Becodar--with your Gerado. I smell a great man +in your Gerado, Becodar. Your bandit turned soldier is a notable +gentleman--gentlemen all his tribe.... You see," Sherry added to me, +"the country was infested with bandits--some big names in this land had +bandit for their titles one time or another. Well, along came Diaz, a +great man. He said to the bandits: 'How much do you make a year at your +trade?' They told him. + +"'Then,' said he, 'I'll give you as much a month and clothe you. You'll +furnish your own horses and keep them, and hold the country in order. +Put down the banditti, be my boundary-riders, my gentlemen guards, and +we will all love you and cherish you.' And 'it was so,' as Scripture +says. And this Gerado can serve our good compadre here, and the Little +Red Peg in the wall keeps tally." + +"What shall you do with Bernal the boy when he grows up?" added Sherry +presently. + +"There is the question for my mind, senor," he answered. "He would be +a toreador--already has he served the matador in the ring, though I did +not know it, foolish boy! But I would have him in the Rurales." Here he +fetched out and handed us a bottle of mescal. Sherry lifted his glass. + +"To the day when the Little Red Peg goes no farther!" he said. We drank. + +"To the blind compadre and the boy!" I added, and we drank again. + +A moment afterwards in the silent street I looked back. The door was +shut, and the wee scarlet light was burning over it. I fell to thinking +of the Little Red Peg in the wall. + + + + +A FRIEND OF THE COMMUNE + +"See, madame--there, on the Hill of Pains, the long finger of the +Semaphore! One more prisoner has escaped--one more." + +"One more, Marie. It is the life here that on the Hill, this here below; +and yet the sun is bright, the cockatoos are laughing in the palms, and +you hear my linnet singing." + +"It turns so slowly. Now it points across the Winter Valley. Ah!" + +"Yes, across the Winter Valley, where the deep woods are, and beyond to +the Pascal River." + +"Towards my home. How dim the light is now! I can only see It--like a +long dark finger yonder." + +"No, my dear, there is bright sunshine still; there is no cloud at all: +but It is like a finger; it is quivering now, as though it were not +sure." + +"Thank God, if it be not sure! But the hill is cloudy, as I said." + +"No, Marie. How droll you are! The hill is not cloudy; even at this +distance one can see something glisten beside the grove of pines." + +"I know. It is the White Rock, where King Ovi died." + +"Marie, turn your face to me. Your eyes are full of tears. Your heart is +tender. Your tears are for the prisoner who has escaped--the hunted in +the chase." + +She shuddered a little and added, "Wherever he is, that long dark finger +on the Hill of Pains will find him out--the remorseless Semaphore." + +"No, madame, I am selfish; I weep for myself. Tell me truly, as--as if I +were your own child--was there no cloud, no sudden darkness, out there, +as we looked towards the Hill of Pains." + +"None, dear." + +"Then--then--madame, I suppose it was my tears that blinded me for the +moment." + +"No doubt it was your tears." + +But each said in her heart that it was not tears; each said: "Let not +this thing come, O God!" Presently, with a caress, the elder woman left +the room; but the girl remained to watch that gloomy thing upon the Hill +of Pains. + +As she stood there, with her fingers clasped upon a letter she had drawn +from her pocket, a voice from among the palms outside floated towards +her. + +"He escaped last night; the Semaphore shows that they have got upon +his track. I suppose they'll try to converge upon him before he gets +to Pascal River. Once there he might have a chance of escape; but he'll +need a lot of luck, poor devil!" + +Marie's fingers tightened on the letter. + +Then another voice replied, and it brought a flush to the cheek of the +girl, a hint of trouble to her eyes. It said: "Is Miss Wyndham here +still?" + +"Yes, still here. My wife will be distressed when she leaves us." + +"She will not care to go, I should think. The Hotel du Gouverneur spoils +us for all other places in New Caledonia." + +"You are too kind, monsieur; I fear that those who think as you are not +many. After all, I am little more here than a gaoler--merely a gaoler, +M. Tryon." + +"Yet, the Commandant of a military station and the Governor of a +Colony." + +"The station is a penitentiary; the colony for liberes, ticket-of-leave +men, and outcast Paris; with a sprinkling of gentlemen and officers +dying of boredom. No, my friend, we French are not colonists. We +emigrate, we do not colonise. This is no colony. We do no good here." + +"You forget the nickel mines." + +"Quarries for the convicts and for political prisoners of the lowest +class." + +"The plantations?" + +"Ah, there I crave your pardon. You are a planter, but you are English. +M. Wyndham is a planter and an owner of mines, but he is English. The +man who has done best financially in New Caledonia is an Englishman. +You, and a few others like you, French and English, are the only colony +I have. I do not rule you; you help me to rule." + +"We?" + +"By being on the side of justice and public morality; by dining with me, +though all too seldom; by giving me a quiet hour now and then beneath +your vines and fig-trees; and so making this uniform less burdensome +to carry. No, no, monsieur, I know you are about to say something very +gracious: but no, you shall pay your compliments to the ladies." + +As they journeyed to the morning-room Hugh Tryon said: "Does M. Laflamme +still come to paint Miss Wyndham?" + +"Yes; but it ends to-morrow, and then no more of that. Prisoners are +prisoners, and though Laflamme is agreeable that makes it the more +difficult." + +"Why should he be treated so well, as a first-class prisoner, and others +of the Commune be so degraded here--as Mayer, for instance?" + +"It is but a question of degree. He was an artist and something of a +dramatist; he was not at the Place Vendome at a certain critical moment; +he was not at Montmartre at a particular terrible time; he was not a +high officer like Mayer; he was young, with the face of a patriot. Well, +they sent Mayer to the galleys at Toulon first; then, among the worst +of the prisoners here--he was too bold, too full of speech; he had not +Laflamme's gift of silence, of pathos. Mayer works coarsely, severely +here; Laflamme grows his vegetables, idles about Ducos, swings in his +hammock, and appears at inspections the picture of docility. One day he +sent to me the picture of my wife framed in gold--here it is. Is it not +charming? The size of a franc-piece and so perfect! You know the soft +hearts of women." + +"You mean that Madame Solde--" + +"She persuaded me to let him come here to paint my portrait. He has done +so, and now he paints Marie Wyndham. But--" + +"But?--Yes?" + +"But these things have their dangers." + +"Have their dangers," Hugh Tryon musingly repeated, and then added under +his breath almost, "Escape or--" + +"Or something else," the Governor rather sharply interrupted; and then, +as they were entering the room, gaily continued: "Ah, here we come, +mademoiselle, to pay--" + +"To pay your surplus of compliments, monsieur le Gouverneur. I could not +help but hear something of what you said," responded Marie, and gave her +hand to Tryon. + +"I leave you to mademoiselle's tender mercies, monsieur," said the +Governor. "Au revoir!" + +When he had gone, Hugh said: "You are gay today." + +"Indeed, no, I am sad." + +"Wherefore sad? Is nickel proving a drug? Or sugar a failure? Don't tell +me that your father says sugar is falling." He glanced at the letter, +which she unconsciously held in her hand. + +She saw his look, smoothed the letter a little nervously between her +palms, and put it into her pocket, saying: "No, my father has not +said that sugar is falling--but come here, will you?" and she motioned +towards the open window. When there, she said slowly, "That is what +makes me sad and sorry," and she pointed to the Semaphore upon the Hill +of Pains. + +"You are too tender-hearted," he remarked. "A convict has escaped; he +will be caught perhaps--perhaps not; and things will go on as before." + +"Will go on as before. That is, the 'martinet' worse than the 'knout de +Russe'; the 'poucettes', the 'crapaudine' on neck and ankles and wrists; +all, all as bad as the 'Pater Noster' of the Inquisition, as Mayer +said the other day in the face of Charpentier, the Commandant of the +penitentiary. How pleasant also to think of the Boulevard de Guillotine! +I tell you it is brutal, horrible. Think of what prisoners have to +suffer here, whose only crime is that they were of the Commune; that +they were just a little madder than other Frenchmen." + +"Pardon me if I say that as brutal things were done by the English in +Tasmania." + +"Think of two hundred and sixty strokes of the 'cat.'" + +"You concern yourself too much about these things, I fear." + +"I only think that death would be easier than the life of half of the +convicts here." + +"They themselves would prefer it, perhaps." + +"Tell me, who is the convict that has escaped?" she feverishly asked. +"Is it a political prisoner?" + +"You would not know him. He was one of the Commune who escaped shooting +in the Place de la Concorde. Carbourd, I think, was his name." + +"Carbourd, Carbourd," she repeated, and turned her head away towards the +Semaphore. + +Her earnestness aroused in Tryon a sudden flame of sympathy which had +its origin, as he well knew, in three years of growing love. This love +leaped up now determinedly--perhaps unwisely; but what should a blunt +soul like Hugh Tryon know regarding the best or worst time to seek a +woman's heart? He came close to her now and said: "If you are so kind in +thought for a convict, I dare hope that you would be more kind to me." + +"Be kind to you," she repeated, as if not understanding what he said, +nor the look in his eyes. + +"For I am a prisoner, too." + +"A prisoner?" she rejoined a little tremulously, and coldly. + +"In your hands, Marie." His eyes laid bare his heart. + +"Oh!" she replied, in a half-troubled, half-indignant tone, for she was +out of touch with the occasion of his suit, and every woman has in her +mind the time when she should and when she should not be wooed. "Oh, why +aren't you plain with me? I hate enigmas." + +"Why do I not speak plainly? Because, because, Marie, it is possible for +a man to be a coward in his speech"--he touched her fingers--"when he +loves." She quickly drew her hand from his. "Oh, can't we be friends +without that?" + +There was a sound of footsteps at the window. Both turned, and saw the +political prisoner, Rive Laflamme, followed by a guard. + +"He comes to finish my portrait," she said. "This is the last sitting." + +"Marie, must I go like this? When may I see you again? When will you +answer me? You will not make all the hopes to end here?" + +It was evident that some deep trouble was on the girl. She flushed +hotly, as if she were about to reply hotly also, but she changed +quickly, and said, not unkindly: "When M. Laflamme has gone." And now, +as if repenting of her unreasonable words of a moment before, she added: +"Oh, please don't think me hard. I am sorry that I grieve you. I'm +afraid I am not altogether well, not altogether happy." + +"I will wait till he has gone," the planter replied. At the door he +turned as if to say something, but he only looked steadily, sadly at +her, and then was gone. + +She stood where he had left her, gazing in melancholy abstraction at the +door through which he had passed. There were footsteps without in the +hall-way. The door was opened, and a servant announced M. Laflamme. The +painter-prisoner entered followed by the soldier. Immediately afterward +Mrs. Angers, Marie's elderly companion, sidled in gently. + +Laflamme bowed low, then turned and said coolly to the soldier: "You +may wait outside to-day, Roupet. This is my last morning's work. It +is important, and you splutter and cough. You are too exhausting for a +studio." + +But Roupet answered: "Monsieur, I have my orders." + +"Nonsense. This is the Governor's house. I am perfectly safe here. Give +your orders a change of scene. You would better enjoy the refreshing +coolness of the corridors this morning. You won't? Oh, yes, you will. +Here's a cigarette--there, take the whole bunch--I paid too much for +them, but no matter. Ah, pardon me, mademoiselle. I forgot that you +cannot smoke here, Roupet; but you shall have them all the same, there! +Parbleu! you are a handsome rascal, if you weren't so wheezy! Come, +come, Roupet, make yourself invisible." + +The eyes of the girl were on the soldier. They did the work better; a +warrior has a soft place in his heart for a beautiful woman. He wheeled +suddenly, and disappeared from the room, motioning that he would remain +at the door. + +The painting began, and for half an hour or more was continued without a +word. In the silence the placid Angers had fallen asleep. + +Nodding slightly towards her, Rive Laflamme said in a low voice to +Marie: "Her hearing at its best is not remarkable?" + +"Not remarkable." + +He spoke more softly. "That is good. Well, the portrait is done. It has +been the triumph of my life to paint it. Not that first joy I had when +I won the great prize in Paris equals it. I am glad: and yet--and yet +there was much chance that it would never be finished." + +"Why?" + +"Carbourd is gone." + +"Yes, I know-well?" + +"Well, I should be gone also were it not for this portrait. The chance +came. I was tempted. I determined to finish this. I stayed." + +"Do you think that he will be caught?" + +"Not alive. Carbourd has suffered too much--the galleys, the corde, +the triangle, everything but the guillotine. Carbourd has a wife and +children--ah, yes, you know all about it. You remember that letter she +sent: I can recall every word; can you?" + +The girl paused, and then with a rapt sympathy in her face repeated +slowly: "I am ill, and our children cry for food. The wife calls to her +husband, my darlings say, 'Will father never come home?'" + +Marie's eyes were moist. + +"Mademoiselle, he was no common criminal. He would have died for the +cause grandly. He loved France too wildly. That was his sin." + +"Carbourd is free," she said, as though to herself. + +"He has escaped." His voice was the smallest whisper. "And now my time +has come." + +"When? And where do you go?" + +"To-night, and to join Carbourd, if I can, at the Pascal River. At King +Ovi's Cave, if possible." + +The girl was very pale. She turned and looked at Angers, who still +slept. "And then?" + +"And then, as I have said to you before, to the coast, to board the +Parroquet, which will lie off the island Saint Jerome three days +from now to carry us away into freedom. It is all arranged by our +'Underground Railway.'" + +"And you tell me all this--why?" the girl said falteringly. + +"Because you said that you would not let a hunted fugitive starve; that +you would give us horses, with which we could travel the Brocken Path +across the hills. Here is the plan of the river that you drew; at this +point is the King's Cave which you discovered, and is known only to +yourself." + +"I ought not to have given it to you; but--" + +"Ah, you will not repent of a noble action, of a great good to +me--Marie?" + +"Hush, monsieur. Indeed, you may not speak to me so. You forget. I am +sorry for you; I think you do not deserve this--banishment; you are +unhappy here; and I told you of the King's Cave-that was all." + +"Ah no, that is not all! To be free, that is good; but only that I may +be a man again; that I may love my art--and you; that I may once again +be proud of France." + +"Monsieur, I repeat, you must not speak so. Do not take advantage of my +willingness to serve you." + +"A thousand pardons! but that was in my heart, and I hoped, I hoped--" + +"You must not hope. I can only know you as M. Laflamme, the--" + +"The political convict; ah, yes, I know," he said bitterly: "a convict +over whom the knout is held; who may at any moment be shot down like +a hare: who has but two prayers in all the world: to be free in France +once more, and to be loved by one--" + +She interrupted him: "Your first prayer is natural." + +"Natural?--Do you know what song we sang in the cages of the ship that +carried us into this evil exile here? Do you know what brought tears +to the eyes of the guards?--What made the captain and the sailors turn +their heads away from us, lest we should see that their faces were wet? +What rendered the soldiers who had fought us in the Commune more human +for the moment? It was this: + + "'Adieu, patrie! + L'onde est en furie, + Adieu patrie, + Azur! + Adieu, maison, treille au fruit mer, + + Adieu les fruits d'or du vieux mur! + Adieu, patrie, + Ciel, foret, prairie; + Adieu patrie, + Azur.'" + +"Hush, monsieur!" the girl said with a swift gesture. He looked and saw +that Angers was waking. "If I live," he hurriedly whispered, "I shall be +at the King's Cave to-morrow night. And you--the horses?" + +"You shall have my help and the horses." Then, more loudly: "Au revoir, +monsieur." + +At that moment Madame Solde entered the room. She acknowledged +Laflamme's presence gravely. + +"It is all done, madame," he said, pointing to the portrait. + +Madame Solde bowed coldly, but said: "It is very well done, monsieur." + +"It is my masterpiece," remarked the painter pensively. "Will you +permit me to say adieu, mesdames? I go to join my amiable and attentive +companion, Roupet the guard." + +He bowed himself out. + +Madame Solde drew Marie aside. Angers discreetly left. + +The Governor's wife drew the girl's head back on her shoulder. "Marie," +she said, "M. Tryon does not seem happy; cannot you change that?" + +With quivering lips the girl laid her head on the Frenchwoman's breast, +and said: "Ah, do not ask me now. Madame, I am going home to-day." + +"To-day? But, so soon!--I wished--" + +"I must go to-day." + +"But we had hoped you would stay while M. Tryon--" + +"M. Tryon--will--go with me--perhaps." + +"Ah, my dear Marie!" The woman kissed the girl, and wondered. + +That afternoon Marie was riding across the Winter Valley to her father's +plantation at the Pascal River. Angers was driving ahead. Beside Marie +rode Tryon silent and attentive. Arrived at the homestead, she said +to him in the shadow of the naoulis: "Hugh Tryon, what would you do to +prove the love you say you have for me?" + +"All that a man could do I would do." + +"Can you see the Semaphore from here?" + +"Yes, there it is clear against the sky--look!" + +But the girl did not look. She touched her eyelids with her finger-tips, +as though they were fevered, and then said: "Many have escaped. They are +searching for Carbourd and--" + +"Yes, Marie?" + +"And M. Laflamme--" + +"Laflamme!" he said sharply. Then, noticing how at his brusqueness the +paleness of her face changed to a startled flush for an instant, his +generosity conquered, and he added gently: "Well, I fancied he would +try, but what do you know about that, Marie?" + +"He and Carbourd were friends. They were chained together in the +galleys, they lived--at first--together here. They would risk life to +return to France." + +"Tell me," said he, "what do you know of this? What is it to you?" + +"You wish to know all before you will do what I ask. + +"I will do anything you ask, because you will not ask of me what is +unmanly." + +"M. Laflamme will escape to-night if possible, and join Carbourd on the +Pascal River, at a safe spot that I know." She told him of the Cave. + +"Yes, yes, I understand. You would help him. And I?" + +"You will help me. You will?" + +There was a slight pause, and then he said: "Yes, I will. But think what +this is to an Englishman-to yourself, to be accomplice to the escape of +a French prisoner." + +"I gave a promise to a man whom I think deserves it. He believed he was +a patriot. If you were in that case, and I were a Frenchwoman, I would +do the same for you." + +He smiled rather grimly and said: "If it please you that this man +escape, I shall hope he may, and will help you.... Here comes your +father." + +"I could not let my father know," she said. "He has no sympathy for any +one like that, for any one at all, I think, but me." + +"Don't be down-hearted. If you have set your heart on this, I will try +to bring it about, God knows! Now let us be less gloomy. Conspirators +should smile. That is the cue. Besides, the world is bright. Look at the +glow upon the hills." + +"I suppose the Semaphore is glistening on the Hill of Pains; but I +cannot see it." + +He did not understand her. + + +II + +A few hours after this conversation, Laflamme sought to accomplish +his escape. He had lately borne a letter from the Commandant, which +permitted him to go from point to point outside the peninsula of Ducos, +where the least punished of the political prisoners were kept. He +depended somewhat on this for his escape. Carbourd had been more heroic, +but then Carbourd was desperate. Laflamme believed more in ability than +force. It was ability and money that had won over the captain of the +Parroquet, coupled with the connivance of an old member of the Commune, +who was now a guard. This night there was increased alertness, owing to +the escape of Carbourd; and himself, if not more closely watched, was +at least open to quick suspicion owing to his known friendship for +Carbourd. He strolled about the fortified enclosure, chatting to fellow +prisoners, and waiting for the call which should summon them to the +huts. Through years of studied good-nature he had come to be regarded as +a contented prisoner. He had no enemies save one among the guards. This +man Maillot he had offended by thwarting his continued ill-treatment of +a young lad who had been one of the condemned of the Commune, and whose +hammock, at last, by order of the Commandant, was slung in Laflamme's +hut. For this kindness and interposition the lad was grateful and +devoted. He had been set to labour in the nickel mines; but that came +near to killing him, and again through Laflamme's pleading he had been +made a prisoner of the first class, and so relieved of all heavy tasks. +Not even he suspected the immediate relations of Laflamme and Carbourd; +nor that Laflamme was preparing for escape. + +As Laflamme waited for the summons to huts, a squad of prisoners went +clanking by him, manacled. They had come from road-making. These never +heard from wife nor child, nor held any commerce with the outside world, +nor had any speech with each other, save by a silent gesture--language +which eluded the vigilance of the guards. As the men passed, Laflamme +looked at them steadily. They knew him well. Some of them remembered his +speeches at the Place Vendome. They bore him no ill-will that he did not +suffer as they. He made a swift sign to a prisoner near the rear of the +column. The man smiled, but gave no answering token. This was part of +the unspoken vocabulary, and, in this instance, conveyed the two words: +I escape. + +A couple of hours later Laflamme rose from a hammock in his hut, and +leant over the young lad, who was sleeping. He touched him gently. + +The lad waked: "Yes, yes, monsieur." + +"I am going away, my friend." + +"To escape like Carbourd?" + +"Yes, I hope, like Carbourd." + +"May I not go also, monsieur? I am not afraid." + +"No, lad. If there must be death one is enough. You must stay. +Good-bye." + +"You will see my mother? She is old, and she grieves." + +"Yes, I will see your mother. And more; you shall be free. I will see to +that. Be patient, little comrade. Nay, nay, hush!... No, thanks. Adieu!" +He put his hands on the lad's shoulder and kissed his forehead. + +"I wish I had died at the Barricades. But, yes, I will be brave--be sure +of that." + +"You shall not die--you shall live in France, which is better. Once +more, adieu!" Laflamme passed out. It was raining. He knew that if he +could satisfy the first sentinel he should stand a better chance of +escape, since he had had so much freedom of late; and to be passed by +one would help with others. He went softly, but he was soon challenged. + +"Halt! Who goes there?" + +"Condemned of the Commune--by order." + +"Whose order?" + +"That of the Commandant." + +"Advance order." + +The sentinel knew him. "Ah, Laflamme," he said, and raised the point of +his bayonet. The paper was produced. It did not entitle him to go about +at night, and certainly not beyond the enclosure without a guard--it was +insufficient. In unfolding the paper Laflamme purposely dropped it in +the mud. He hastily picked it up, and, in doing so, smeared it. He wiped +it, leaving the signature comparatively plain--nothing else. "Well," +said the sentinel, "the signature is right. Where do you go?" + +"To Government House." + +"I do not know that I should let you pass. But--well, look out that the +next sentinel doesn't bayonet you. You came on me suddenly." + +The next sentinel was a Kanaka. The previous formula was repeated. The +Kanaka examined the paper long, and then said: "You cannot pass." + +"But the other sentinel passed me. Would you get him into trouble?" + +The Kanaka frowned, hesitated, then said: "That is another matter. Well, +pass." + +Twice more the same formula and arguments were used. At last he heard a +voice in challenge that he knew. It was that of Maillot. This was a +more difficult game. His order was taken with a malicious sneer by the +sentinel. At that instant Laflamme threw his arms swiftly round the +other, clapped a hand on his mouth, and, with a dexterous twist of leg, +threw him backward, till it seemed as if the spine of the soldier must +break. It was impossible to struggle against this trick of wrestling, +which Laflamme had learned from a famous Cornish wrestler, in a summer +spent on the English coast. + +"If you shout or speak I will kill you!" he said to Maillot, and then +dropped him heavily on the ground, where he lay senseless. Laflamme +stooped down and felt his heart. "Alive!" he said, then seized the rifle +and plunged into the woods. The moon at that moment broke through the +clouds, and he saw the Semaphore like a ghost pointing towards Pascal +River. He waved his hand towards his old prison, and sped away. + +But others were thinking of the Semaphore at this moment, others saw it +indistinct, yet melancholy, in the moonlight. The Governor and his wife +saw it, and Madame Solde said: "Alfred, I shall be glad when I shall see +that no more." + +"You have too much feeling." + +"I suppose Marie makes me think more of it to-day. She wept this morning +over all this misery and punishment." + +"You think that. Well, perhaps something more--" + +"What more?" + +"Laflamme." + +"No, no, it is impossible!" + +"Indeed it is as I say. My wife, you are blind. I chanced to see him +with her yesterday. I should have prevented him coming to-day, but I +knew it was his last day with the portrait, and that all should end +here." + +"We have done wrong in this--the poor child! Besides, she has, I fear, +another sorrow coming. It showed itself to me to-day for the first +time." Then she whispered to him, and he started and sighed, and said at +last: + +"But it must be saved. By--! it shall be saved!" And at that moment +Marie Wyndham was standing in the open window of the library of Pascal +House. She had been thinking of her recent visit to the King's Cave, +where she had left food, and of the fact that Carbourd was not there. +She raised her face towards the moon and sighed. She was thinking of +something else. She was not merely sentimental, for she said, as if she +had heard the words of the Governor and Madame Solde: "Oh! if it could +be saved!" + +There was a rustle in the shrubbery near her. She turned towards the +sound. A man came quickly towards her. "I am Carbourd," he said; "I +could not find the way to the Cave. They were after me. They have +tracked me. Tell me quick how to go." + +She swiftly gave him directions, and he darted away. Again there was a +rustle in the leaves, and a man stepped forth. Something glistened in +his hands--a rifle, though she could not see it plainly. It was levelled +at the flying figure of Carbourd. There was a report. Marie started +forward with her hands on her temples and a sharp cry. She started +forward--into absolute darkness. There was a man's footsteps going +swiftly by her. Why was it so dark? She stretched out her hands with a +moan. + +"Oh! mother!--oh! mother! I am blind!" she cried. + +But her mother was sleeping unresponsive beyond the dark-beyond all +dark. It was, perhaps, natural that she should cry to the dead and not +to the living. + +Marie was blind. She had known it was coming, and it had tried her, as +it would have tried any of the race of women. She had, when she needed +it most, put love from her, and would not let her own heart speak, even +to herself. She had sought to help one who loved her, and to fully prove +the other--though the proving, she knew, was not necessary--before the +darkness came. But here it was suddenly sent upon her by the shock of +a rifle shot. It would have sent a shudder to a stronger heart than +hers--that, in reply to her call on her dead mother, there came from the +trees the shrill laugh of the mopoke--the sardonic bird of the South. + +As she stood there, with this tragedy enveloping her, the dull boom of a +cannon came across the valley. "From Ducos," she said. "M. Laflamme has +escaped. God help us all!" And she turned and groped her way into the +room she had left. + +She felt for a chair and sat down. She must think of what she now was. +She wondered if Carbourd was killed. She listened and thought not, since +there was no sound without. But she knew that the house would be roused. +She bowed her head in her hands. Surely she might weep a little for +herself--she who had been so troubled for others. It is strange, but she +thought of her flowers and birds, and wondered how she should tend them; +of her own room which faced the north--the English north that she loved +so well; of her horse, and marvelled if he would know that she could not +see him; and, lastly, of a widening horizon of pain, spread before the +eyes of her soul, in which her father and another moved. + +It seemed to her that she sat there for hours, it was in reality minutes +only. A firm step and the opening of a door roused her. She did not +turn her head--what need? She knew the step. There was almost a touch of +ironical smiling at her lips, as she thought how she must hear and feel +things only, in the future. A voice said: "Marie, are you here?" + +"I am here." + +"I'll strike a match so that you can see I'm not a bushranger. There has +been shooting in the grounds. Did you hear it?" + +"Yes. A soldier firing at Carbourd." + +"You saw him?" + +"Yes. He could not find the Cave. I directed him. Immediately after he +was fired upon." + +"He can't have been hit. There are no signs of him. There, that's +lighter and better, isn't it?" + +"I do not know." + +She had risen, but she did not turn towards him. He came nearer to her. +The enigmatical tone struck him strangely, but he could find nothing +less commonplace to say than: "You don't prefer the exaggerated +gloaming, do you?" + +"No, I do not prefer the gloaming, but why should not one be patient?" + +"Be patient!" he repeated, and came nearer still. "Are you hurt or +angry?" + +"I am hurt, but not angry." + +"What have I done?--or is it I?" + +"It is not you. You are very good. It is nobody but God. I am hurt, +because He is angry, perhaps." + +"Tell me what is the matter. Look at me." He faced her now-faced her +eyes, looking blindly straight before her. + +"Hugh," she said, and she put her hand out slightly, not exactly to him, +but as if to protect him from the blow which she herself must deal: "I +am looking at you now." + +"Yes, yes, but so strangely, and not in my eyes." + +"I cannot look into your eyes, because, Hugh, I am blind." Her hand went +further out towards him. + +He took it silently and pressed it to his bosom as he saw that she spoke +true; and the shadow of the thing fell on him. The hand held to his +breast felt how he was trembling from the shock. + +"Sit down, Hugh," she said, "and I will tell you all; but do not hold my +hand so, or I cannot." + +Sitting there face to face, with deep furrows growing in his +countenance, and a quiet sorrow spreading upon her cheek and forehead, +she told the story how, since her childhood, her sight had played +her false now and then, and within the past month had grown steadily +uncertain. "And now," she said at last, "I am blind. I think I should +like to tell my father--if you please. Then when I have seen him and +poor Angers, if you will come again! There is work to be done. I hoped +it would be finished before this came; but--there, good friend, go; I +will sit here quietly." + +She could not see his face, but she heard him say: "My love, my love," +very softly, as he rose to go; and she smiled sadly to herself. She +folded her hands in her lap, and thought, not bitterly, not listlessly, +but deeply. She wanted to consider all cheerfully now; she tried to do +so. She was musing among those flying perceptions, those nebulous facts +of a new life, experienced for the first time; she was now not herself +as she had been; another woman was born; and she was feeling carefully +along the unfamiliar paths which she must tread. She was not glad that +these words ran through her mind continuously at first: + + "A land of darkness as darkness itself, and of the shadow of + death without any order, and where the light is darkness." + +Her brave nature rose against the moody spirit which sought to take +possession of her, and she cried out in her heart valiantly: "But there +is order, there is order. I shall feel things as they ought to be. I +think I could tell now what was true and what was false in man or woman; +it would be in their presence not in their faces." + +She stopped speaking. She heard footsteps. Her father entered. Hugh +Tryon had done his task gently, but the old planter, selfish and hard as +he was, loved his daughter; and the meeting was bitter for him. The +prop of his pride seemed shaken beyond recovery. But the girl's calm +comforted them all, and poignancy became dull pain. Before parting for +the night Marie said to Hugh: "This is what I wish you to do for me to +bring over two of your horses to Point Assumption on the river. There is +a glen beyond that as you know, and from it runs the steep and dangerous +Brocken Path across the hills. I wish you to wait there until M. +Laflamme and Carbourd come by the river--that is their only chance. If +they get across the hills they can easily reach the sea. I know that two +of your horses have been over the path; they are sure-footed; they would +know it in the night. Is it not so?" + +"It is so. There are not a dozen horses in the colony that could be +trusted on it at night, but mine are safe. I shall do all you wish." + +She put out both her hands and felt for his shoulders, and let them +rest there for a moment, saying: "I ask much, and I can give no reward, +except the gratitude of one who would rather die than break a promise. +It isn't much, but it is all that is worth your having. Good-night. +Good-bye." + +"Good-night. Good-bye," he gently replied; but he said something beneath +his breath that sounded worth the hearing. + +The next morning while her father was gone to consult the chief +army-surgeon at Noumea, Marie strolled with Angers in the grounds. At +length she said: "Angers, take me to the river, and then on down, until +we come to the high banks." With her hand on Angers' arm, and in her +face that passive gentleness which grows so sweetly from sightless eyes +till it covers all the face, they passed slowly towards the river. When +they came to the higher banks covered with dense scrub, Angers paused, +and told Marie where they were. + +"Find me the she-oak tree," the girl said; "there is only one, you +know." + +"Here it is, my dear. There, your hand is on it now." + +"Thank you. Wait here, Angers, I shall be back presently." + +"But oh, my dear--" + +"Please do as I say, Angers, and do not worry." The girl pushed aside +some bushes, and was lost to view. She pressed along vigilantly by a +descending path, until her feet touched rocky ground. She nodded to +herself, then creeping between two bits of jutting rock at her right, +immediately stood at the entrance to a cave, hidden completely from the +river and from the banks above. At the entrance, for which she felt, she +paused and said aloud: "Is there any one here?" Something clicked far +within the cave. It sounded like a rifle. Then stealthy steps were +heard, and a voice said: + +"Ah, mademoiselle!" + +"You are Carbourd?" + +"As you see, mademoiselle." + +"You escaped safely then from the rifle-shot? Where is the soldier?" + +"He fell into the river. He was drowned." + +"You are telling me truth?" + +"Yes, he stumbled in and sank--on my soul!" + +"You did not try to save him?" + +"He lied and got me six months in irons once; he called down on my back +one hundred and fifty lashes, a year ago; he had me kept on bread and +water, and degraded to the fourth class, where I could never hear +from my wife and children--never write to them. I lost one eye in the +quarries because he made me stand too near a lighted fuse--" + +"Poor man, poor man!" she said. "You found the food I left here?" + +"Yes, God bless you! And my wife and children will bless you too, if I +see France again." + +"You know where the boat is?" + +"I know, mademoiselle." + +"When you reach Point Assumption you will find horses there to take you +across the Brocken Path. M. Laflamme knows. I hope that you will both +escape; that you will be happy in France with your wife and children." + +"You will not come here again?" + +"No. If M. Laflamme should not arrive, and you should go alone, leave +one pair of oars; then I shall know. Good-bye." + +"Good-bye, mademoiselle. A thousand times I will pray for you. Ah, mon +Dieu! take care!--you are on the edge of the great tomb." + +She stood perfectly still. At her feet was a dark excavation where was +the skeleton of Ovi the King. This was the hidden burial-place of the +modern Hiawatha of these savage islands, unknown even to the natives +themselves, and kept secret with a half-superstitious reverence by this +girl, who had discovered it a few months before. + +"I had forgotten," she said. "Please take my hand and set me right at +the entrance." + +"Your hand, mademoiselle? Mine is so--! It is not dark." + +"I am blind now." + +"Blind--blind! Oh, the pitiful thing! Since when, mademoiselle?" + +"Since the soldier fired on you-the shock...." + +The convict knelt at her feet. "Ah, mademoiselle, you are a good angel. +I shall die of grief. To think--for such as me!" + +"You will live to love your wife and children. This is the will of God +with me. Am I in the path now? Ah, thank you." + +"But, M. Laflamme--this will be a great sorrow to him." + +Twice she seemed about to speak, but nothing came save good-bye. Then +she crept cautiously away among the bushes and along the narrow path, +the eyes of the convict following her. She had done a deed which, +she understood, the world would blame her for if it knew, would call +culpable or foolishly heroic; but she smiled, because she understood +also that she had done that which her own conscience and heart approved, +and she was content. + +At this time Laflamme was stealing watchfully through the tropical +scrub, where hanging vines tore his hands, and the sickening perfume +of jungle flowers overcame him more than the hard journey which he had +undergone during the past twelve hours. + +Several times he had been within voice of his pursuers, and once a +Kanaka scout passed close to him. He had had nothing to eat, he had +had no sleep, he suffered from a wound in his neck caused by the broken +protruding branch of a tree; but he had courage, and he was struggling +for liberty--a tolerably sweet thing when one has it not. He found the +Cave at last, and with far greater ease than Carbourd had done, because +he knew the ground better, and his instinct was keener. His greeting to +Carbourd was nonchalantly cordial: + +"Well, you see, comrade, King Ovi's Cave is a reality." + +"So." + +"I saw the boat. The horses? What do you know?" + +"They will be at Point Assumption to-night." + +"Then we go to-night. We shall have to run the chances of rifles along +the shore at a range something short, but we have done that before, at +the Barricades, eh, Carbourd?" + +"At the Barricades. It is a pity that we cannot take Citizen Louise +Michel with us." + +"Her time will come." + +"She has no children crying and starving at home like--" + +"Like yours, Carbourd, like yours. Well, I am starving here. Give me +something to eat.... Ah, that is good--excellent! What more can we want +but freedom! Till the darkness of tyranny be overpast--overpast, eh?" + +This speech brought another weighty matter to Carbourd's mind. He said: + +"I do not wish to distress you, but--" + +"Now, Carbourd, what is the matter? Faugh! this place smells musty. +What's that--a tomb? Speak out, Citizen Carbourd." + +"It is this: Mademoiselle Wyndham is blind." Carbourd told the story +with a great anxiety in his words. + +"The poor mademoiselle--is it so? A thousand pities! So kind, so +young, so beautiful. Ah, I am distressed, and I finished her portrait +yesterday! Yes, I remember her eyes looked too bright, and then again +too dull: but I thought that it was excitement, and so--that!" + +Laflamme's regret was real enough up to a certain point, but, in +sincerity and value, it was chasms below that of Hugh Tryon, who, even +now, was getting two horses ready to give the Frenchmen their chance. + +After a pause Laflamme said: "She will not come here again, Carbourd? +No? Ah, well, perhaps it is better so; but I should have liked to speak +my thanks to her." + +That night Marie sat by the window of the sitting-room, with the light +burning, and Angers asleep in a chair beside her--sat till long after +midnight, in the thought that Laflamme, if he had reached the Cave, +would, perhaps, dare something to see her and bid her good-bye. She +would of course have told him not to come, but he was chivalrous, and +then her blindness would touch him. Yet as the hours went by the thought +came: was he, was he so chivalrous? was he altogether true?... He did +not come. The next morning Angers took her to where the boat had been, +but it was gone, and no oars were left behind. So, both had sought +escape in it. + +She went to the Cave. She took Angers with her now. Upon the wall a +paper was found. It was a note from M. Laflamme. She asked Angers to +give it to her without reading it. She put it in her pocket and kept +it there until she should see Hugh Tryon. He should read it to her. She +said to herself as she felt the letter in her pocket: "He loved me. It +was the least that I could do. I am so glad." Yet she was not altogether +glad either, and disturbing thoughts crossed the parallels of her +pleasure. + +The Governor and Madame Solde first brought news of the complete escape +of the prisoners. The two had fled through the hills by the Brocken +Path, and though pursued after crossing, had reached the coast, and were +taken aboard the Parroquet, which sailed away towards Australia. It +is probable that Marie's visitors had their suspicions regarding the +escape, but they said nothing, and did not make her uncomfortable. Just +now they were most concerned for her bitter misfortune. Madame Solde +said to her: "My poor Marie--does it feel so dreadful, so dark?" + +"No, madame, it is not so bad. There are so many things which one does +not wish to see, and one is spared the pain." + +"But you will see again. When you go to England, to great physicians +there." + +"Then I should have three lives, madame: when I could see, when sight +died, and when sight was born again. How wise I should be!" + +They left her sadly, and after a time she heard footsteps that she knew. +She came forward and greeted Tryon. + +"Ah," she said, "all's well with them, I know; and you were so good." + +"They are safe upon the seas," he gently replied, and he kissed her +hand. + +"Now you will read this letter for me. M. Laflamme left it behind in the +Cave." + +With a pang he took it, and read thus: + + DEAR FRIEND,--My grief for your misfortune is inexpressible. If it + were possible I should say so in person, but there is danger, and we + must fly at once. You shall hear from me in full gratitude when I + am in safety. I owe you so many thanks, as I give you so much of + devotion. But there is the future for all. Mademoiselle, I kiss + your hand. + + Always yours, + RIVE LAFLAMME. + +"Hugh!" she said sadly when he had finished, "I seem to have new +knowledge of things, now that I am blind. I think this letter is not +altogether real. You see, that was his way of saying-good-bye." + +What Hugh Tryon thought, he did not say. He had met the Governor on his +way to Pascal House, and had learned some things which were not for her +to know. + +She continued: "I could not bear that one who was innocent of any real +crime, who was a great artist, and who believed himself a patriot, +should suffer so here. When he asked me I helped him. Yet I suppose I +was selfish, wasn't I? It was because he loved me." + +Hugh spoke breathlessly: "And because--you loved him, Marie?" + +Her head was lifted quickly, as though she saw, and was looking him in +the eyes. "Oh no, oh no," she cried, "I never loved him. I was sorry for +him--that was all." + +"Marie, Marie," he said gently, while she shook her head a little +pitifully, "did you, then, love any one else?" + +She was silent for a space and then she said: "Yes--Oh, Hugh, I am so +sorry for your sake that I am blind, and cannot marry you." + +"But, my darling, you shall not always be blind, you shall see again. +And you shall marry me also. As though--life of my life! as though one's +love could live but by the sight of the eyes!" + +"My poor Hugh! But, blind, I could not marry you. It would not be just +to you." + +He smiled with a happy hopeful determination; "But if you should see +again?" + +"Oh, then...." + +She married him, and in time her sight returned, though not completely. +Tryon never told her, as the Governor had told him, that Rive Laflamme, +when a prisoner in New Caledonia, had a wife in Paris: and he is man +enough to hope that she may never know. + +But to this hour he has a profound regret that duels are not in vogue +among Englishmen. + + + + +A PAGAN OF THE SOUTH + +When Blake Shorland stepped from the steamer Belle Sauvage upon the quay +at Noumea, he proceeded, with the alertness of the trained newspaper +correspondent, to take his bearings. So this was New Caledonia, the home +of outcast, criminal France, the recent refuge of Communist exiles, of +Rochefort, Louise Michel, Felix Rastoul, and the rest! Over there to +the left was Ile Nou, the convict prison; on the hill was the Governor's +residence; below, the Government establishments with their red-tiled +roofs; and hidden away in a luxuriance of tropical vegetation lay the +houses of the citizens. He stroked his black moustache thoughtfully +for a moment, and put his hand to his pocket to see that his letters of +introduction from the French Consul at Sydney to Governor Rapont and his +journalistic credentials were there. Then he remembered the advice +of the captain of the Belle Sauvage as to the best hotel, and started +towards it. He had not been shown the way, but his instincts directed +him. He knew where it ought to be, according to the outlines of the +place. + +It proved to be where he thought, and, having engaged rooms, sent for +his luggage, and refreshed himself, he set out to explore the town. +His prudent mind told him that he ought to proceed at once to Governor +Rapont and present his letters of commendation, for he was in a country +where feeling was running high against English interference with the +deportation of French convicts to New Caledonia, and the intention of +France to annex the New Hebrides. But he knew also that so soon as +these letters were presented, his freedom of action would be +restricted, either by a courtesy which would be so constant as to become +surveillance, or by an injunction having no such gloss. He had come to +study French government in New Caledonia, to gauge the extent of the +menace that the convict question bore towards Australia, and to tell his +tale to Australia, and to such other countries as would listen. The task +was not pleasant, and it had its dangers, too, of a certain kind. But +Shorland had had difficulty and peril often in his life, and he borrowed +no trouble. Proceeding along the Rue de l'Alma, and listening to the +babble of French voices round him, he suddenly paused abstractedly, and +said to himself "Somehow it brings back Paris to me, and that last night +there, when I bade Freeman good-bye. Poor old boy, I'm glad better days +are coming for him. Sure to be better, if he marries Clare. Why didn't +he do it seven years ago, and save all that other horrible business?" + +Then he moved on, noticing that he was the object of remark, but as it +was daytime, and in the street he felt himself safe. Glancing up at a +doorway he saw a familiar Paris name--Cafe Voisin. This was interesting. +It was in the Cafe Voisin that he had touched a farewell glass with Luke +Freeman, the one bosom friend of his life. He entered this Cafe Voisin +with the thought of how vague would be the society which he would meet +in such a reproduction of a famous Parisian haunt. He thought of a Cafe +chantant at Port Said, and said to himself, "It can't be worse than +that." He was right then. The world had no shambles of ghastly frivolity +and debauchery like those of Port Said. + +The Cafe Voisin had many visitors, and Shorland saw at a glance who they +were--liberes, or ticket-of-leave men, a drunken soldier or two, and +a few of that class who with an army are called camp-followers, in an +English town roughs, in a French convict settlement recidivistes. He +felt at once that he had entered upon a trying experience; but he also +felt that the luck would be with him, as it had been with him so many +times these late years. He sat down at a small table, and called to a +haggard waitress near to bring him a cup of coffee. He then saw that +there was another woman in the room. Leaning with her elbows on the bar +and her chin in her hands, she fixed her eyes on him as he opened and +made a pretence of reading La Nouvelle Caledonie. Looking up, he met her +eyes again; there was hatred in them if ever he saw it, or what might +be called constitutional diablerie. He felt that this woman, whoever +she was, had power of a curious kind; too much power for her to be +altogether vile, too physically healthy to be of that class to which +the girl who handed him his coffee belonged. There was not a sign of +gaudiness about her; not a ring, a necklace, or a bracelet. Her dress +was of cotton, faintly pink and perfectly clean; her hair was brown, and +waving away loosely from her forehead. But her eyes--was there a touch +of insanity there? Perhaps because they were rather deeply set, though +large, and because they seemed to glow in the shadows made by the brows, +the strange intensity was deepened. But Shorland could not get rid of +the feeling of active malevolence in them. The mouth was neither small +nor sensuous, the chin was strong without being coarse, the figure was +not suggestive. The hands--confound the woman's eyes! Why could he not +get rid of the feeling they gave him? She suddenly turned her head, not +moving her chin from her hands, however, or altering her position, and +said something to a man at her elbow--rather the wreck of a man, one who +bore tokens of having been some time a gallant of the town, now only a +disreputable citizen of a far from reputable French colony. + +Immediately a murmur was heard: "A spy, an English spy!" From the mouths +of absinthe-drinking liberes it passed to the mouths of rum-drinking +recidivistes. It did not escape Blake Shorland's ears, but he betrayed +no sign. He sipped his coffee and appeared absorbed in his paper, +thinking carefully of the difficulties of his position. He knew that to +rise now and make for the door would be of no advantage, for a number +of the excited crowd were between him and it. To show fear might +precipitate a catastrophe with this drunken mob. He had nerve and +coolness. + +Presently a dirty outcast passed him and rudely jostled his arm as he +drank his coffee. He begged the other's pardon conventionally in French, +and went on reading. A moment later the paper was snatched from his +hand, and a red-faced unkempt scoundrel yelled in his face: "Spy of the +devil! English thief!" + +Then he rose quickly and stepped back to the wall, feeling for the +spring in the sword-stick which he held closely pressed to his side. +This same sword-stick had been of use to him on the Fly River in New +Guinea. + +"Down with the English spy!" rang through the room, joined to vile +French oaths. Meanwhile the woman had not changed her position, but +closely watched the tumult which she herself had roused. She did not +stir when she saw a glass hurled at the unoffending Englishman's head. A +hand reached over and seized a bottle behind her. The bottle was raised +and still she did not move, though her fingers pressed her cheeks with +a spasmodic quickness. Three times Shorland had said, in well-controlled +tones: "Frenchmen, I am no spy," but they gave him the lie with +increasing uproar. Had not Gabrielle Rouget said that he was an English +spy? As the bottle was poised in the air with a fiendish cry of "A +baptism! a baptism!" and Shorland was debating on his chances of +avoiding it, and on the wisdom of now drawing his weapon and cutting his +way through the mob, there came from the door a call of "Hold! hold!" +and a young officer dashed in, his arm raised against the brutal missile +in the hands of the ticket-of-leave man, whose Chauvinism was a matter +of absinthe, natural evil, and Gabrielle Rouget. "Wretches! scum of +France!" he cried: "what is this here? And you, Gabrielle, do you sleep? +Do you permit murder?" + +The woman met the fire in his eyes without flinching, and some one +answered for her. "He is an English spy." + +"Take care, Gabrielle," the young officer went on, "take care--you go +too far!" Waving back the sullen crowd, now joined by the woman who had +not yet spoken, he said: "Who are you, monsieur? What is the trouble?" + +Shorland drew from his pocket his letters and credentials. Gabrielle now +stood at the young officer's elbow. As the papers were handed over, a +photograph dropped from among them and fell to the floor face upward. +Shorland stooped to pick it up, but, as he did so, he heard a low +exclamation from Gabrielle. He looked up. She pointed to the portrait, +and said gaspingly: "My God--look! look!" She leaned forward and touched +the portrait in his hand. "Look! look!" she said again. And then she +paused, and a moment after laughed. But there was no mirth in her +laughter--it was hollow and nervous. Meanwhile the young officer had +glanced at the papers, and now handed them back, with the words: "All is +right, monsieur--eh, Gabrielle, well, what is the matter?" But she drew +back, keeping her eyes fixed on the Englishman, and did not answer. + +The young officer stretched out his hand. "I am Alencon Barre, +lieutenant, at your service. Let us go, monsieur." + +But there was some unusual devilry working in that drunken crowd. The +sight of an officer was not sufficient to awe them into obedience. Bad +blood had been fired, and it was fed by some cause unknown to Alencon +Barre, but to be understood fully hereafter. The mass surged forward, +with cries of "Down with the Englishman!" + +Alencon Barre drew his sword. "Villains!" he cried, and pressed the +point against the breast of the leader, who drew back. Then Gabrielle's +voice was heard: "No, no, my children," she said, "no more of that +to-day--not to-day. Let the man go." Her face was white and drawn. + +Shorland had been turning over in his mind all the events of the last +few moments, and he thought as he looked at her that just such women had +made a hell of the Paris Commune. But one thought dominated all others. +What was the meaning of her excitement when she saw the portrait--the +portrait of Luke Freeman? + +He felt that he was standing on the verge of some tragic history. + +Barre's sword again made a clear circle round him, and he said: +"Shame, Frenchmen! This gentleman is no spy. He is the friend of the +Governor--he is my friend. He is English? Well, where is the English +flag, there are the French--good French-protected. Where is the French +flag, there shall the English--good English--be safe." + +As they moved towards the door Gabrielle came forward, and, touching +Shorland's arm, said in English: "You will come again, monsieur? You +shall be safe altogether. You will come?" Looking at her searchingly, he +answered slowly: "Yes, I will come." + +As they left the turbulent crowd behind them and stepped into the +street, Barr$ said: "You should have gone at once to the Hotel du +Gouverneur and presented your letters, monsieur, or, at least, have +avoided the Cafe Voisin. Noumea is the Whitechapel and the Pentonville +of France, remember." + +Shorland acknowledged his error, thanked his rescuer, enjoyed the +situation, and was taken to Governor Rapont, by whom he was cordially +received, and then turned over to the hospitality of the officers of the +post. It was conveyed to him later by letters of commendation from the +Governor that he should be free to go anywhere in the islands and to see +whatever was to be seen, from convict prison to Hotel Dieu. + + +II + +Sitting that night in the rooms of Alencon Barre, this question was +put to Blake Shorland by his host: "What did Gabrielle say to you as we +left, monsieur? And why did she act so, when she saw the portrait? I do +not understand English well, and it was not quite clear." + +Shorland had a clear conviction that he ought to take Alencon Barre into +his confidence. If Gabrielle Rouget should have any special connection +with Luke Freeman, there might be need of the active counsel of a friend +like this young officer, whose face bespoke chivalry and gentle birth. +Better that Alencon Barre should know all, than that he should know in +part and some day unwittingly make trouble. So he raised frank eyes to +those of the other, and told the story of the man whose portrait had so +affected Gabrielle Rouget. + +"Monsieur," said he, "I will tell you of this man first, and then it +will be easier to answer your questions." + +He took the portrait from his pocket, passed it over, and continued. +"I received this portrait in a letter from England the day that I left +Sydney, as I was getting aboard the boat. I placed it among those papers +which you read. It fell out on the floor of the cafe, and you saw the +rest. The man whose face is before you there, and who sent that to +me, was my best friend in the days when I was at school and college. +Afterwards, when a law-student, and, still later, when I began to +practise my profession, we lived together in a rare old house at +Fulham, with high garden walls and--but I forget, you do not know London +perhaps. Yes? Well, the house is neither here nor there; but I like to +think of those days and of that home. Luke Freeman--that was my friend's +name--was an artist and a clever one. He had made a reputation by his +paintings of Egyptian and Algerian life. He was brilliant and +original, an indefatigable worker. Suddenly, one winter, he became less +industrious, fitful in his work, gloomy one day and elated the next, +generally uncomfortable. What was the matter? Strange to say, although +we were such friends, we chose different sets of society, and therefore +seldom appeared at the same houses or knew the same people. He liked +most things continental; he found his social pleasures in that polite +Bohemia which indulges in midnight suppers and permits ladies to +smoke cigarettes after dinner, which dines at rich men's tables and is +hob-a-nob with Russian Counts, Persian Ministers, and German Barons. +That was not to my taste, save as a kind of dramatic entertainment to be +indulged in at intervals like a Drury Lane pantomime. But though I had +no proof that such was the case, I knew Luke Freeman's malady to be a +woman. I taxed him with it. He did not deny it. He was painting at the +time, I remember, and he testily and unprofitably drew his brush across +the face of a Copt woman he was working at, and bit off the end of a +cigar. I asked him if it was another man's wife; he promptly said no. +I asked him if there were any awkward complications any inconsiderate +pressure from the girl's parents of brothers; and he promptly told me to +be damned. I told him I thought he ought to know that an ambitious man +might as well drown himself at once as get a fast woman in his path. +Then he showed a faculty for temper and profanity that stunned me. +But the up shot was that I found the case straight enough to all +appearances. The woman was a foreigner and not easy to win; was +beautiful, had a fine voice, loved admiration, and possessed a scamp of +a brother who, wanted her to marry a foreigner, so that, according to +her father's will, a large portion of her fortune would come to him.... +Were you going to speak? No? Very well. Things got worse and worse. +Freeman neglected business and everything else, became a nuisance. He +never offered to take me to see the lady, and I did not suggest it, did +not even know where she lived. What galled me most in the matter was +that Freeman had been for years attentive to a cousin of mine, Clare +Hazard, almost my sister, indeed, since she had been brought up in +my father's house; and I knew that from a child she had adored him. +However, these things seldom work out according to the law of Nature, +and so I chewed the cud of dissatisfaction and kept the thing from my +cousin as long as I could. About the time matters seemed at a crisis I +was taken ill, and was ordered south. My mother and Freeman accompanied +me as far as Paris. Here Freeman left me to return to England, and in +the Cafe Voisin, at Paris--yes, mark that--we had our farewell. I have +never seen him since. While in Italy I was brought to death's door by my +illness; and when I got up, Clare told me that Freeman was married and +had gone to Egypt. She, poor girl, bore it well. I was savage, but it +was too late. I was ordered to go to the South Seas, at least to take +a long sea-voyage; and though I could not well afford it I started for +Australia. On my way out I stopped off at Port Said to try and find +Freeman in Egypt, but failed. I heard of him at Cairo, and learned also +that his wife's brother had joined them. Two years passed, and then I +got a letter from an old friend, saying that Freeman's wife had eloped +with a Frenchman. Another year, and then came a letter from Freeman +himself, saying that his wife was dead; that he had identified her body +in the Morgue at Paris--found drowned, and all that. He believed that +remorse had driven her to suicide. But he had no trace of the brother, +no trace of the villain whom he had scoured Europe and America over to +find. Again, another three years, and now he writes me that he is going +to be married to Clare Hazard on the twenty sixth of this month. With +that information came this portrait. I tell you all, M. Barre, because I +feel that this woman Gabrielle has some connection with the past life of +my friend Luke Freeman. She recognised the face, and you saw the effect. +Now will you tell me what you know about her?" + +Shorland had been much more communicative than was his custom. But +he knew men. This man had done him a service, and that made towards +friendship on both sides. He was an officer and a gentleman, and so +he showed his hand. Then he wanted information and perhaps much more, +though what that would be he could not yet tell. + +M. Barre had smoked cigarettes freely during Shorland's narrative. At +the end he said with peculiar emphasis: "Your friend's wife was surely a +Frenchwoman?" + +"Yes." + +"Was her name Laroche?" + +"Yes, that was it. Do you think that Lucile Laroche and Gabrielle--!" + +"That Lucile Laroche and Gabrielle Rouget are one? Yes. But that Lucile +Laroche was the wife of your friend? Well, that is another matter. But +we shall see soon. Listen. A scoundrel, Henri Durien, was sent out +here for killing an American at cards. The jury called it murder, but +recommended him to mercy, and he escaped the guillotine. He had the +sympathy of the women, the Press did not deal hardly with him, and the +Public Prosecutor did not seem to push the case as he might have done. +But that was no matter to us. The woman, Gabrielle Rouget, followed him +here, where he is a prisoner for life. He is engaged in road-making with +other prisoners. She keeps the Cafe Voisin. Now here is the point which +concerns your story. Once, when Gabrielle was permitted to see Henri, +they quarrelled. I was acting as governor of the prison at the time, saw +the meeting and heard the quarrel. No one else was near. Henri accused +her of being intimate with a young officer of the post. I am sure there +was no truth in it, for Gabrielle does not have followers of that kind. +But Henri had got the idea from some source; perhaps by the convicts' +'Underground Railway,' which has connection even with the Hotel du +Gouverneur. Through it the prisoners know all that is going on, and +more. In response to Henri's accusation Gabrielle replied: 'As I live, +Henri, it is a lie.' He sardonically rejoined: 'But you do not live. +You are dead, dead I tell you. You were found drowned and carried to the +Morgue and properly identified--not by me, curse you, Lucile Laroche. +And then you were properly buried, and not by me either, nor at my cost, +curse you again. You are dead, I tell you!' She looked at him as she +looked at you the other day, dazed and spectre-like, and said: 'Henri, I +gave up my life once to a husband to please my brother. + +"He was a villain, my brother. I gave it up a second time to please you, +and because I loved you. I left behind me name, fortune, Paris, France, +everything, to follow you here. I was willing to live here, while you +lived, or till you should be free. And you curse me--you dare to curse +me! Now I will give you some cause to curse. You are a devil--I am a +sinner. Henceforth I shall be devil and sinner too.' With that she left +him. Since then she has been both devil and sinner, but not in the way +he meant; simply a danger to the safety of this dangerous community; +a Louise Michel--we had her here too!--without Louise Michel's high +motives. Gabrielle Rouget may cause a revolt of the convicts some day, +to secure the escape of Henri Durien, or to give them all a chance. The +Governor does not believe it, but I do. You noticed what I said about +the Morgue, and that?" + +Shorland paced up and down the room for a time, and then said: "Great +heaven, suppose that by some hideous chance this woman, Gabrielle +Rouget, or Lucile Laroche, should prove to be Freeman's wife! The +evidence is so overwhelming. There evidently was some trick, some +strange mistake, about the Morgue and the burial. This is the fourteenth +of January; Freeman is to be married on the twenty-sixth! Monsieur, if +this woman should be his wife, there never was brewed an uglier scrape. +There is Freeman--that's pitiful; there is Clare Hazard--that's pitiful +and horrible. For nothing can be done; no cables from here, the Belle +Sauvage gone, no vessels or sails for two weeks. Ah well, there's only +one thing to do--find out the truth from Gabrielle if I can, and trust +in Providence." + +"Well spoken," said M. Barre. "Have some more champagne. I make the most +of the pleasure of your company, and so I break another bottle. Besides, +it may be the last I shall get for a time. There is trouble brewing at +Bompari--a native insurrection--and we may have to move at any moment. +However this Gabrielle affair turns out, you have your business to do. +You want to see the country, to study our life-well, come with us. We +will house you, feed you as we feed, and you shall have your tobacco at +army prices." + +Much as Blake Shorland was moved by the events of the last few hours +he was enough the soldier and the man of the world to face possible +troubles without the loss of appetite, sleep, or nerve. He had +cultivated a habit of deliberation which saved his digestion and +preserved his mental poise; and he had a faculty for doing the right +thing at the right time. From his stand-point, his late adventure in the +Cafe Voisin was the right thing, serious as the results might have been +or might yet be. He now promptly met the French officer's exuberance of +spirits with a hearty gaiety, and drank his wine with genial compliment +and happy anecdote. It was late when they parted; the Frenchman excited, +beaming, joyous, the Englishman responsive, but cool in mind still. + + +III + +After breakfast next morning Shorland expressed to M. Barre his +intention of going to see Gabrielle Rouget. He was told that he must not +go alone; a guard would be too conspicuous and might invite trouble; he +himself would bear him company. + +The hot January day was reflected from the red streets, white houses, +and waxen leaves of the tropical foliage with enervating force. An +occasional ex-convict sullenly lounged by, touching his cap as he +was required by law; a native here and there leaned idly against a +house-wall or a magnolia tree; ill-looking men and women loitered in the +shade. A Government officer went languidly by in full uniform--even the +Governor wore uniform at all times to encourage respect--and the cafes +were filling. Every hour was "absinthe-hour" in Noumea, which had +improved on Paris in this particular. A knot of men stood at the door +of the Cafe Voisin gesticulating nervously. One was pointing to a notice +posted on the bulletin-board of the cafe announcing that all citizens +must hold themselves in readiness to bear arms in case the rumoured +insurrection among the natives proved serious. It was an evil-looking +company who thus discussed Governor Rapont's commands. As the two +passed in, Shorland noticed that one of the group made a menacing action +towards Alencon Barre. + +Gabrielle was talking to an ex-convict as they entered. Her face looked +worn; there was a hectic spot on each cheek and dark circles round the +eyes. There was something animal-like about the poise of the head and +neck, something intense and daring about the woman altogether. Her +companion muttered between his teeth: "The cursed English spy!" + +But she turned on him sharply: "Go away, Gaspard, I have business. So +have you--go." The ex-convict slowly left the cafe still muttering. + +"Well, Gabrielle, how are your children this morning? They look gloomy +enough for the guillotine, eh?" said M. Barre. + +"They are much trouble, sometimes--my children." + +"Last night, for instance." + +"Last night. But monsieur was unwise. We do not love the English here. +They do not find it comfortable on English soil, in Australia--my +children! Not so comfortable as Louis Philippe and Louis Napoleon. +Criminal kings with gold are welcome; criminal subjects without +gold--ah, that is another matter, monsieur. It is just the same. +They may be gentlemen--many are; if they escape to Australia or go +as liberes, they are hunted down. That is English, and they hate the +English--my children." + +Gabrielle's voice was directed to M. Barre, but her eyes were on +Shorland. + +"Well, Gabrielle, all English are not inhospitable. My friend here, we +must be hospitable to him. The coals of fire, you know, Gabrielle. We +owe him some thing for yesterday. He wishes to speak to you. Be careful, +Gabrielle. No communist justice, Citizen Gabrielle." M. Barre smiled +gaily. + +Gabrielle smiled in reply, but it was not a pleasant smile, and she +said: "Treachery, M. Barre--treachery in Noumea? There is no such thing. +It is all fair in love and war. No quarter, no mercy, no hope. All is +fair where all is foul, M. Barre." + +M. Barre shrugged his shoulders pleasantly and replied: "If I had my way +your freedom should be promptly curtailed, Gabrielle. You are an active +citizen, but you are dangerous, truly." + +"I like you better when you do not have your way. Yet my children do +not hate you, M. Barre. You speak your thought, and they know what to +expect. Your family have little more freedom in France than my children +have here." + +M. Barre looked at her keenly for an instant, then, lighting a +cigarette, he said: "So, Gabrielle, so! That is enough. You wish to +speak to M. Shorland--well!" He waved his hand to her and walked away +from them. Gabrielle paused a moment, looking sharply at Blake Shorland, +then she said: "Monsieur will come with me?" + +She led the way into another room, the boudoir, sitting-room, +breakfast-room, library, all in one. She parted the curtains at the +window, letting the light fall upon the face of her companion, while +hers remained in the shadow. He knew the trick, and moved out of the +belt of light. He felt that he was dealing with a woman of singular +astuteness, with one whose wickedness was unconventional and intrepid. +To his mind there came on the instant the memory of a Rocky Mountain +lioness that he had seen caged years before; lithe, watchful, +nervously powerful, superior to its surroundings, yet mastered by those +surroundings--the trick of a lock, not a trick of strength. He thought +he saw in Gabrielle a woman who for a personal motive was trying to +learn the trick of the lock in Noumea, France's farthest prison. For +a moment they looked at each other steadily, then she said: "That +portrait--let me see it." + +The hand that she held out was unsteady, and it looked strangely white +and cold. He drew the photograph from his pocket and handed it to her. A +flush passed across her face as she looked at it, and was followed by a +marked paleness. She gazed at the portrait for a moment, then her lips +parted and a great sigh broke from her. She was about to hand it back +to him, but an inspiration seemed to seize her, and she threw it on the +floor and put her heel upon it. "That is the way I treated him," she +said, and she ground her heel into the face of the portrait. Then she +took her foot away. "See, see," she cried, "how his face is scarred and +torn! I did that. Do you know what it is to torture one who loves you? +No, you do not. You begin with shame and regret. But the sight of your +lover's agonies, his indignation, his anger, madden you and you get the +lust of cruelty. You become insane. You make new wounds. You tear +open old ones. You cut, you thrust, you bruise, you put acid in the +sores--the sharpest nitric acid; and then you heal with a kiss of +remorse, and that is acid too--carbolic acid, and it smells of death. +They put it in the room where dead people are. Have you ever been to the +Morgue in Paris? They use it there." + +She took up the portrait. "Look," she said, "how his face is torn! Tell +me of him." + +"First, who are you?" + +She steadied herself. "Who are you?" she asked. + +"I am his friend, Blake Shorland." + +"Yes, I remember your name." She threw her hands up with a laugh, a +bitter hopeless laugh. Her eyes half closed, so that only light +came from them, no colour. The head was thrown back with a defiant +recklessness, and then she said: "I was Lucile Laroche, his wife--Luke +Freeman's wife." + +"But his wife died. He identified her in the Morgue." + +"I do not know why I speak to you so, but I feel that the time has come +to tell all to you. That was not his wife in the Morgue. It was his +wife's sister, my sister whom my brother drowned for her money--he made +her life such a misery! And he did not try to save her when he knew she +meant to drown herself. She was not bad; she was a thousand times better +than I am, a million times better than he was. He was a devil. But he +is dead now too.... She was taken to the Morgue. She looked like me +altogether; she wore a ring of mine, and she had a mark on her shoulder +the same as one on mine; her initials were the same. Luke had never +seen her. He believed that I lay dead there, and he buried her for me. I +thought at the time that it would be best I should be dead to him and to +the world. And so I did not speak. It was all the same to my brother. He +got what was left of my fortune, and I got what was left of hers. For I +was dead, you see--dead, dead, dead!" + +She paused again. Neither spoke for a moment. Shorland was thinking what +all this meant to Clare Hazard and Luke Freeman. + +"Where is he? What is he doing?" she said at length. "Tell me. I was--I +am--his wife." + +"Yes, you were--you are--his wife. But better if you had been that woman +in the Morgue," he said without pity. What were this creature's feelings +to him? There was his friend and the true-souled Clare. + +"I know, I know," she replied. "Go on!" + +"He is well. The man that was born when his wife lay before him in the +Morgue has found another woman, a good woman who loves him and--" + +"And is married to her?" interrupted Gabrielle, her face taking on again +a shining whiteness. But, as though suddenly remembering something, +she laughed that strange laugh which might have come from a soul +irretrievably lost. "And is married to her?" + +Blake Shorland thought of the lust of cruelty, of the wounds, and the +acids of torture. "Not yet," he said; "but the marriage is set for the +twenty-six of this month." + +"How I could spoil all that!" + +"Yes, you could spoil all that. But you have spoiled enough already. +Don't you think that if Luke Freeman does marry, you had better be dead +as you have been this last five years? To have spoiled one life ought to +be enough to satisfy even a woman like you." + +Her eyes looked through Blake Shorland's eyes and beyond them to +something else; and then they closed. When they opened again, she said: +"It is strange that I never thought of his marrying again. And now I +want to kill her--just for the moment. That is the selfish devil in me. +Well, what is to be done, monsieur? There is the Morgue left. But then +there is no Morgue here. Ah, well, we can make one, perhaps--we can make +a Morgue, monsieur." + +"Can't you see that he ought to be left the rest of his life in peace?" + +"Yes, I can see that." + +"Well, then!" + +"Well--and then, monsieur? Ah, you did not wish him to marry me. He told +me so. 'A fickle foreigner,' you said. And you were right, but it was +not pleasant to me. I hated you then, though I had never spoken to you +nor seen you; not because I wanted him, but because you interfered. +He said once to me that you had told the truth in that. But--and then, +monsieur?" + +"Then continue to efface yourself. Continue to be the woman in the +Morgue." + +"But others know." + +"Yes, Henri Durien knows and M. Barre suspects." + +"So, you see." + +"But Henri Durien is a prisoner for life; he cannot hear of the marriage +unless you tell him. M. Barre is a gentleman: he is my friend; his +memory will be dead like you." + +"For M. Barre, well! But the other--Henri. How do you know that he is +here for life? Men get pardoned, men get free, men--get free, I tell +you." + +Shorland noticed the interrupted word. He remembered it afterwards all +too distinctly enough. + +"The twenty-sixth, the twenty-sixth," she said. + +Then a pause, and afterwards with a sudden sharpness: "Come to me on the +twenty-fifth, and I will give you my reply, M. Shorland." + +He still held the portrait in his hand. She stepped forward. "Let me see +it again," she said. + +He handed it to her: "You have spoiled a good face, Gabrielle." + +"But the eyes are not hurt," she replied; "see how they look at one." +She handed it back. + +"Yes, kindly." + +"And sadly. As though he still remembered Lucile. Lucile! I have not +been called that name for a long time. It is on my grave-stone, you +know. Ah, perhaps you do not know. You never saw my grave. I have. And +on the tombstone is written this: By Luke to Lucile. And then beneath, +where the grass almost hides it, the line: I have followed my Star to +the last. You do not know what that line means; I will tell you. Once, +when we were first married, he wrote me some verses, and he called them, +'My Star, Lucile.' Here is a verse--ah, why do you not smile, when I +say I will tell you what he wrote? Chut! Women such as I have memories +sometimes. One can admire the Heaven even if one lives in--ah, you know! +Listen." And with a voice that seemed far away and not part of herself +she repeated these lines: + + "In my sky of delight there's a beautiful Star; + 'Tis the sun and the moon of my days; + And the doors of its glory are ever ajar, + And I live in the glow of its rays. + 'Tis my winter of joy and my summer of rest, + 'Tis my future, my present, my past; + And though storms fill the East and the clouds haunt the West, + I shall follow my Star to the last." + +"There, that was to Lucile. What would he write to Gabrielle--to Henri's +Gabrielle? How droll--how droll!" Again she laughed that laugh of +eternal recklessness. + +It filled Shorland this time with a sense of fear. He lost sight of +everything--this strange and interesting woman, and the peculiar nature +of the events in which he was sharing, and saw only Clare Hazard's +ruined life, Luke Freeman's despair, and the fatal 26th of January, so +near at hand. He could see no way out of the labyrinth of disgrace. It +unnerved him more than anything that had ever happened to him, and he +turned bewildered towards the door. He saw that while Gabrielle lived, +a dead misfortune would be ever crouching at the threshold of Freeman's +home, that whether the woman agreed to be silent or not, the hurt to +Clare would remain the same. With an angry bitterness in his voice that +he did not try to hide he said: "There is nothing more to be done now, +Gabrielle, that I can see. But it is a crime--it is a pity!" + +"A pity that he did not tell the truth on the gravestone--that he did +not follow his star to the last, monsieur? How droll! And you should see +how green the grass was on my grave! Yes, it is a pity." + +But Shorland, heavy at heart, looked at her and said nothing more. He +wondered why it was that he did not loathe her. Somehow, even in her +shame, she compelled a kind of admiration and awe. She was the wreck of +splendid possibilities. A poisonous vitality possessed her, but through +it glowed a daring and a candour that belonged to her before she became +wicked, and that now half redeemed her in the eyes of this man, who knew +the worst of her. Even in her sin she was loyal to the scoundrel for +whom she had sacrificed two lives, her own and another's. Her brow might +flush with shame of the mad deed that turned her life awry, and of the +degradation of her present surroundings; but her eyes looked straight +into those of Shorland without wavering, with the pride of strength if +not of goodness. + +"Yes, there is one thing more," she said. "Give me that portrait to +keep--until the 25th. Then you may take it--from the woman in the +Morgue." + +Shorland thought for a moment. She had spoken just now without sneering, +without bravado, without hardness. He felt that behind this woman's +outward cruelty and varying moods there was something working that +perhaps might be trusted, something in Luke's interest. He was certain +that this portrait had moved her deeply. Had she come to that period of +reaction in evil when there is an agonised desire to turn back towards +the good? He gave the portrait to her. + + +IV + +Sitting in Alencon Barre's room an hour later, Shorland told him in +substance the result of his conference with Gabrielle, and begged his +consideration for Luke if the worst should happen. Alencon Barre gave +his word as a man of honour that the matter should be sacred to him. +As they sat there, a messenger came from the commandant to say that +the detachment was to start that afternoon for Bompari. Then a note +was handed to Shorland from Governor Rapont offering him a horse and a +native servant if he chose to go with the troops. This was what Shorland +had come for--news and adventure. He did not hesitate, though the shadow +of the twenty-fifth was hanging over him. He felt his helplessness in +the matter, but determined to try to be back in Noumea on that date. Not +that he expected anything definite, but because he had a feeling that +where Gabrielle was on that day he ought to be. + +For two days they travelled, the friendship between them growing hourly +closer. It was the swift amalgamation of two kindred natures in the +flame of a perfect sincerity, for even with the dramatic element so +strongly developed in him, the Englishman was downright and true. His +friendship was as tenacious as his head was cool. + +On the evening of the third day Shorland noticed that the strap of +his spur was frayed. He told his native servant to attend to it. Next +morning as they were starting he saw that the strap had not been mended +or replaced. His language on the occasion was pointed and confident. The +fact is, he was angry with himself for trusting anything to a servant. +He was not used to such a luxury, and he made up his mind to live for +the rest of the campaign without a servant, as he had done all his life +long. + +The two friends rode side by side for miles through the jungle of fern +and palm, and then began to enter a more open but scrubby country. The +scouts could be seen half a mile ahead. Not a sign of natives had been +discovered on the march. More than once Barre had expressed his anxiety +at this. He knew it pointed to concentrated trouble ahead, and, just +as they neared the edge of the free country, he rose in his saddle +and looked around carefully. Shorland imitated his action, and, as he +resumed his seat, he felt his spur-strap break. He leaned back, and drew +up the foot to take off the spur. As he did so, he felt a sudden twitch +at his side, and Barre swayed in his saddle with a spear in the groin. +Shorland caught him and prevented him falling to the ground. A wild cry +rose from the jungle behind and from the clearing ahead, and in a moment +the infuriated French soldiers were in the thick of a hand-to-hand fray +under a rain of spears and clubs. The spear that had struck Barre would +have struck Shorland had he not bent backward when he did. As it was the +weapon had torn a piece of cloth from his coat. + +A moment, and the wounded man was lifted to the ground. The surgeon +shook his head in sad negation. Death already blanched the young +officer's face. Shorland looked into the misty eyes with a sadness +only known to those who can gauge the regard of men who suffer for each +other. Four days ago this gallant young officer had taken risk for him, +had saved him from injury, perhaps death; to-day the spear meant for +him had stricken down this same young officer, never to rise again. The +vicarious sacrifice seemed none the less noble to the Englishman because +it was involuntary and an accident. The only point clear in his mind +was that had he not leant back, Barre would be the whole man and he the +wounded one. + +"How goes it, my friend?" said Shorland, bending over him. + +Alencon Barre looked up, agony twitching his nostrils and a dry white +line on his lips. "Ah, mon camarade," he answered huskily, "it is in +action--that is much; it is for France, that is more to me--everything. +They would not let me serve France in Paris, but I die for her in New +Caledonia. I have lived six-and-twenty years. I have loved the world. +Many men have been kind, and once there was a woman--and I shall see her +soon, quite soon. It is strange. The eyes will become blind, and then +they will open, and--ah!" His fingers closed convulsively on those of +Blake Shorland. When the ghastly tremor, the deadly corrosions of the +poisoned spear passed he said: "So--so! It is the end. C'est bien, c'est +bien!" + +All round them the fight raged, and French soldiers were repeating +English bravery in the Soudan. + +"It is not against a great enemy, but it is good," said the wounded man +as he heard the conquering cries of a handful of soldiers punishing ten +times their numbers. "You remember Prince Eugene and the assegais?" + +"I remember." + +"Our Houses were enemies, but we were friends, he and I. And so, and so, +you see, it is the same for both." + +Again the teeth of the devouring poison fastened on him, and, when it +left him, a grey pallor had settled upon the face. + +Blake Shorland said to him gently: "How do you feel about it all?" + +As if in gentle protest the head moved slightly. "All's well, all's +well," the low voice said. + +A pause, in which the cries of the wounded came through the smoke, and +then the dying man, feeling the approach of another convulsion, said: "A +cigarette, mon ami." + +Blake Shorland put a cigarette between his lips and lighted it. + +"And now a little wine," the fallen soldier added. The surgeon, who had +come again for a moment, nodded and said: "It may help." + +Barre's native servant brought a bottle of champagne intended to be +drunk after the expected victory, but not in this fashion! + +Shorland understood. This brave young soldier of a dispossessed family +wished to show no fear of pain, no lack of outward and physical courage +in the approaching and final shock. He must do something that was +conventional, natural, habitual, that would take his mind from the thing +itself. At heart he was right. The rest was a question of living like a +strong-nerved soldier to the last. The tobacco-smoke curled feebly +from his lips, and was swallowed up in the clouds of powder-smoke +that circled round them. With his head on his native servant's knee he +watched Shorland uncork the bottle and pour the wine into the surgeon's +medicine-glass. It was put in his fingers; he sipped it once and then +drank it all. "Again," he said. + +Again it was filled. The cigarette was smoked nearly to the end. +Shorland must unburden his mind of one thought, and he said: "You took +what was meant for me, my friend." + +"Ah, no, no! It was the fortune, we will say the good fortune. C'est +bien!" Then, "The wine, the wine," he said, and his fingers again +clasped those of Shorland tremblingly. He took the glass in his right +hand and lifted it. "God guard all at home, God keep France!" he said. +He was about to place the glass to his lips, when a tremor seized him, +and the glass fell from his hand. He fell back, his breath quick and +vanishing, his eyes closing, and a faint smile upon his lips. "It is +always the same with France," he said; "always the same." And he was +gone. + + +V + +The French had bought their victory dear with the death of Alencon +Barre, their favourite officer. When they turned their backs upon a +quelled insurrection, there was a gap that not even French buoyancy +could fill. On the morning of the twenty-fifth they neared Noumea. +Shorland thought of all that day meant to Luke and Clare. He was +helpless to alter the course of events, to stay a terrible possibility. + +"You can never trust a woman of Gabrielle's stamp," he said to himself, +as they rode along through valleys of ferns, grenadillas, and limes. +"They have no baseline of duty; they either rend themselves or rend +others, but rend they must, hearts and not garments. Henri Durien knows, +and she knows, and Alencon Barre knew, poor boy! But what Barre knew +is buried with him back there under the palms. Luke and Clare are to be +married to-morrow-God help them! And I can see them in their home, he +standing by the fireplace in his old way--it's winter there--and looking +down at Clare; and on the other side of the fireplace sits the sister of +the Woman in the Morgue, waiting for the happiest moment in the lives of +these two before her. And when it comes, as she did with the portrait, +as she did with him before, she will set her foot upon his face and +then on Clare's; only neither Luke nor Clare will live again after that +crucifixion." Then aloud: "Hello! what's that?--a messenger riding hard +to meet us! Smoke in the direction of Noumea and sound of firing! What's +that, doctor? Convicts revolted, made a break at the prison and on the +way to the quarries at the same moment! Of course--seized the time when +the post was weakest, helped by ticket-of-leave-men and led by Henri +Durien, Gaspard, and Gabrielle Rouget. Gabrielle Rouget, eh! And this is +the twenty-fifth! Yes, I will take Barre's horse, captain, thank you; it +is fresher than mine. Away we go! Egad, they're at it, doctor! Hear +the rifles!" Answering to the leader's cry of "Forward, forward!" the +detachment dashed into the streets of this little Paris, which, after +the fashion of its far-away mother, was dipping its hands in Revolution. +Outcast and criminal France were arrayed against military France once +more. A handful of guards in the prison at Ile Nou were bravely holding +in check a ruthless mob of convicts; and a crowd of convicts in +the street keeping back a determined military force. Part of the +newly-arrived reinforcements proceeded to Ile Nou, part moved towards +the barricade. Shorland went to the barricade. + +The convicts had the Cafe Voisin in their rear. As the reinforcements +joined the besieging party a cheer arose, and a sally was made upon the +barricade. It was a hail of fire meeting a slighter rain of fire--a cry +of coming victory cutting through a sullen roar of despair. The square +in which the convicts were massed was a trench of blood and bodies; +but they fought on. There was but one hope--to break out, to meet the +soldiers hand to hand and fight for passage to the friendly jungle and +to the sea, where they might trust to that Providence who appears to +help even the wicked sometimes. As Shorland looked upon the scene he +thought of Alencon Barre's words: "It is always the same with France, +always the same." + +The fight grew fiercer, the soldiers pressed nearer. And now one clear +voice was heard above the din, "Forward, forward, my children!" and some +one sprang upon the outer barricade. It was the plotter of the revolt, +the leader, the manager of the "Underground Railway," the beloved of the +convicts--Gabrielle Rouget. + +The sunlight glorified her flying hair and vivid dress-vivid with the +blood of the fallen. Her arms, her shoulders, her feet were bare; all +that she could spare from her body had gone to bind the wounds of her +desperate comrades. In her hands she held a carbine. As she stood for an +instant unmoving, the firing, as if by magic, ceased. She raised a hand. +"We will have the guillotine in Paris," she said; "but not the hell of +exile here." + +Then Henri Durien, the convict, sprang up beside her; the man for whom +she had made a life's sacrifice--for whom she had come to this! His head +was bandaged and clotted with blood; his eyes shone with the fierceness +of an animal at bay. Close after him crowded the handful of his frenzied +compatriots in crime. + +Then a rifle-crack was heard, and Henri Durieu fell at the feet of +Gabrielle. The wave on the barricade quivered, and then Gabrielle's +voice was heard crying, "Avenge him! Free yourselves, my children! Death +is better than prison!" + +The wave fell in red turmoil on the breakers. And still Gabrielle stood +alone above the body of Henri Durien; but the carbine was fallen from +her hands. She stood as one awaiting death, her eyes upon the unmoving +form at her feet. The soldiers watched her, but no one fired. Her face +was white; but in the eyes there was a wild triumph. She wanted death +now; but these French soldiers had not the heart to kill her. + +When she saw that, she leaned and thrust a hand into the bleeding bosom +of Henri Durien, and holding it aloft cried: "For this blood men must +die." Stooping again she seized the carbine and levelled it at the +officer in command. Before she could pull the trigger some one fired, +and she fell across the body of her lover. A moment afterwards Shorland +stood beside her. She was shot through the lungs. + +He stooped over her. "Gabrielle, Gabrielle!" he said. "Yes, yes, +I know--I saw you. This is the twenty-fifth. He will be married +to-morrow-Luke. I owed it to him to die; I owed it to Henri to die this +way." She drew the scarred portrait of Luke Freeman from her bosom and +gave it over. + +"His eyes made me," she said. "They haunted me. + +"Well, it is all done. I am sorry, ah! Never tell him of this. I go +away--away--with Henri." + +She closed her eyes and was still for a moment; so still that he thought +her dead. But she looked up at him again and said with her last breath: +"I am--the Woman in the Morgue--always--now!" + + + PG EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + All is fair where all is foul + Answered, with the indifference of despair + Ate some coffee-beans and drank some cold water + He borrowed no trouble + His courtesy was not on the same expansive level as his vanity + It isn't what they do, it's what they don't do + Mystery is dear to a woman's heart + Never looked to get an immense amount of happiness out of life + No, I'm not good--I'm only beautiful + Preserved a marked unconsciousness + Should not make our own personal experience a law unto the world + Surely she might weep a little for herself + There is nothing so tragic as the formal + Time when she should and when she should not be wooed + Undisciplined generosity + Where the light is darkness + Women don't go by evidence, but by their feelings + You have lost your illusions + You've got to be ready, that's all + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cumner & South Sea Folk, Complete +by Gilbert Parker + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CUMNER & SOUTH SEA FOLK, COMPLETE *** + +***** This file should be named 6201.txt or 6201.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/0/6201/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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