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diff --git a/old/63015-h/63015-h.htm b/old/63015-h/63015-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 967c9a6..0000000 --- a/old/63015-h/63015-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7096 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> - -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> - -<head> - -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/img-cover.jpg" /> - -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> - -<title> -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Masterpieces of Adventure--Oriental Stories -</title> - -<style type="text/css"> -body { color: black; - background: white; - margin-right: 10%; - margin-left: 10%; - font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; - text-align: justify } - -p {text-indent: 4% } - -p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } - -p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 200%; - text-align: center } - -p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 150%; - text-align: center } - -p.t2b {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 150%; - font-weight: bold; - text-align: center } - -p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 100%; - text-align: center } - -p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 100%; - font-weight: bold; - text-align: center } - -p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 80%; - text-align: center } - -p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 80%; - font-weight: bold; - text-align: center } - -p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 60%; - text-align: center } - -h1 { text-align: center } -h2 { text-align: center } -h3 { text-align: center } -h4 { text-align: center } -h5 { text-align: center } - -p.poem {text-indent: 0%; - margin-left: 10%; } - -p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; - letter-spacing: 4em ; - text-align: center } - -p.letter {text-indent: 0%; - margin-left: 10% ; - margin-right: 10% } - -p.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 90%; - margin-left: 10% ; - margin-right: 10% } - -.smcap { font-variant: small-caps } - -p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; - margin-left: 10% ; - margin-right: 10% } - -p.intro {font-size: 90% ; - text-indent: -5% ; - margin-left: 5% ; - margin-right: 0% } - -p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; - margin-left: 0% ; - margin-right: 0% } - -</style> - -</head> - -<body> -<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 63015 ***</div> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t2"> - Masterpieces of<br /> - Adventure<br /> -</p> - -<p class="t3"> - <i>In Four Volumes</i><br /> -</p> - -<h1> -<br /><br /> - ORIENTAL STORIES<br /> -</h1> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> - Edited by<br /> - Nella Braddy<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> - Garden City New York<br /> - Doubleday, Page & Company<br /> - 1922<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t4"> - COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY<br /> - DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY<br /> -<br /><br /> - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION<br /> - INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN<br /> -<br /><br /> - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES<br /> - AT<br /> - THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> - GRATEFULLY DEDICATED<br /> - TO<br /> - BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS, Ph.D.<br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3b"> -EDITOR'S NOTE -</p> - -<p> -In these volumes the word <i>adventure</i> has been -used in its broadest sense to cover not only strange -happenings in strange places but also love and life -and death—all things that have to do with the great -adventure of living. Questions as to the fitness of a -story were settled by examining the qualities of the -narrative as such, rather than by reference to a -technical classification of short stories. -</p> - -<p> -It is the inalienable right of the editor of a work -of this kind to plead copyright difficulties in -extenuation for whatever faults it may possess. We beg the -reader to believe that this is why his favorite story -was omitted while one vastly inferior was included. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3b"> -CONTENTS -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p class="noindent"> -I. <a href="#chap01">THE INLET OF PEACH BLOSSOMS</a><br /> - <i>Nathan Parker Willis</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -II. <a href="#chap02">IN THE PASHA'S GARDEN</a><br /> - <i>H. G. Dwight</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -III. <a href="#chap03">THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE</a><br /> - <i>Sir Hugh Clifford</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -IV. <a href="#chap04">LEGEND OF COUNT JULIAN AND HIS FAMILY</a><br /> - <i>Washington Irving</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -V. <a href="#chap05">A GOBOTO NIGHT</a><br /> - <i>Jack London</i><br /> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -VI. <a href="#chap06">THE TWO SAMURAI</a><br /> - <i>Byron E. Veatch</i><br /> -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> -MASTERPIECES OF ADVENTURE -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> - -<p class="t2"> -Masterpieces of Adventure -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p class="t2b"> -<i>ORIENTAL STORIES</i> -</p> - -<h3> -I -<br /><br /> -THE INLET OF PEACH BLOSSOMS -</h3> - -<p class="t3"> -NATHAN PARKER WILLIS -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -The Emperor Yuentsoong, of the dynasty -Chow, was the most magnificent of the -long-descended succession of Chinese sovereigns. -On his first accession to the throne, his character -was so little understood that a conspiracy was set on -foot among the yellow-caps, or eunuchs, to put out -his eyes, and place upon the throne the rebel, -Szema, in whose warlike hands, they asserted, the -empire would more properly maintain its ancient -glory. The gravity and reserve which these myrmidons -of the palace had construed into stupidity and -fear, soon assumed another complexion, however. -The eunuchs silently disappeared; the mandarins -and princes whom they had seduced from their -allegiance, were made loyal subjects by a generous -pardon; and in a few days after the period fixed -upon for the consummation of the plot, Yuentsoong -set forth in complete armour at the head of his -troops to give battle to the rebel in the mountains. -</p> - -<p> -In Chinese annals this first enterprise of the -youthful Yuentsoong is recorded with great pomp -and particularity. Szema was a Tartar prince of -uncommon ability, young like the emperor, and, -during the few last imbecile years of the old sovereign, -he had gathered strength in his rebellion, till -now he was at the head of ninety thousand men, all -soldiers of repute and tried valour. -</p> - -<p> -The historian goes on to record that Yuentsoong -was victorious, and returned to the capital with the -formidable enemy, whose life he had spared, riding -beside him like a brother. The conqueror's career, -for several years after this, seems to have been a -series of exploits of personal valour, and the Tartar -prince shared in all his dangers and pleasures, his -inseparable friend. It was during this period of -romantic friendship that one of the events occurred -which have made Yuentsoong one of the idols of -Chinese poetry. -</p> - -<p> -By the side of a lake in a distant province of the -empire, stood one of the imperial palaces of pleasure, -seldom visited, and almost in ruins. Hither in one -of his moody periods of repose from war, came the -conqueror Yuentsoong, for the first time in years -separated from his faithful Szema. In disguise, -and with only one or two attendants, he established -himself in the long, silent halls of his ancestor -Tsinchemong, and with his boat upon the lake and his -spear in the forest, seemed to find all the amusement -of which his melancholy was susceptible. On a -certain day in the latter part of April, the emperor -had set his sail to a fragrant south wind, and -reclining on the cushions of his bark, watched the shore -as it softly and silently glided past, and the lake -being entirely encircled by the imperial forest, he -felt immersed in what he believed to be the solitude -of a deserted paradise. After skirting the fringed -sheet of water in this manner for several hours, he -suddenly observed that he had shot through a streak -of peach-blossoms floating from the shore, and at -the same moment he became conscious that his -boat was slightly headed off by a current setting -outward. Putting up his helm, he returned to the -spot, and beneath the drooping branches of some -luxuriant willows, thus early in leaf, he discovered -the mouth of an inlet, which, but for the floating -blossoms it brought to the lake, would have escaped -the notice of the closest observer. The emperor -now lowered his sail, unshipped the slender mast, -and betook him to the oars, and as the current was -gentle, and the inlet wider within the mouth, he -sped rapidly on, through what appeared to be but -a lovely and luxuriant vale of the forest. Still, -those blushing betrayers of some flowering spot -beyond extended like a rosy clue before him, and -with impulse of muscles swelled and indurated in -warlike exercise, the swift keel divided the besprent -mirror winding temptingly onward, and, for a long -hour, the royal oarsman untiringly threaded this -sweet vein of the wilderness. -</p> - -<p> -Resting a moment on his oars while the slender -bark still kept her way, he turned his head toward -what seemed to be an opening in the forest on the -left, and in the same instant the boat ran, head on, to -the shore, the inlet at this point almost doubling -on its course. Beyond, by the humming of bees -and the singing of birds, there should be a spot more -open than the tangled wilderness he had passed, -and disengaging his prow from the alders, he shoved -the boat again into the stream, and pulled round a -high rock, by which the inlet seemed to have been -compelled to curve its channel. The edge of a -bright green meadow now stole into the perspective, -and still widening with his approach, disclosed a -slightly rising terrace clustered with shrubs, and -studded here and there with vases; and farther on, -upon the same side of the stream, a skirting edge of -peach-trees loaded with the gay blossoms which had -guided him hither. -</p> - -<p> -Astonished at the signs of habitation in what was -well understood to be a privileged wilderness, -Yuentsoong kept his boat in mid-stream, and with -his eyes vigilantly on the alert, slowly made -headway against the current. A few strokes with his -oars, however, traced another curve of the inlet, -and brought into view a grove of ancient trees -scattered over a gently ascending lawn, beyond -which, hidden from the river till now by the -projecting shoulder of a mound, lay a small pavilion -with gilded pillars, glittering like fairy work in the -sun. The emperor fastened his boat to a tree -leaning over the water, and with his short spear in -his hand, bounded upon the shore, and took his -way toward the shining structure, his heart beating -with a feeling of interest and wonder altogether -new. On a nearer approach, the bases of the pillars -seemed decayed by time and the gilding weather-stained -and tarnished, but the trellised porticoes -on the southern aspect were laden with flowering -shrubs, in vases of porcelain, and caged birds -sang between the pointed arches, and there were -manifest signs of luxurious taste, elegance, and -care. -</p> - -<p> -A moment, with an indefinable timidity, the -emperor paused before stepping from the green -sward upon the marble floor of the pavilion, and in -that moment a curtain was withdrawn from the -door, and a female, with step suddenly arrested -by the sight of the stranger, stood motionless before -him. Ravished with her extraordinary beauty, -and awe-struck with the suddenness of the apparition -and the novelty of the adventure, the emperor's -tongue cleaved to his mouth, and ere he could -summon resolution, even for a gesture of courtesy, -the fair creature had fled within, and the curtain -closed the entrance as before. -</p> - -<p> -Wishing to recover his composure, so strangely -troubled, and taking it for granted that some other -inmate of the house would soon appear, Yuengtsoong -turned his steps aside to the grove, and with his -head bowed, and his spear in the hollow of his arm, -tried to recall more vividly the features of the vision -he had seen. He had walked but a few paces, when -there came toward him from the upper skirt of the -grove a man of unusual stature and erectness, with -white hair, unbraided on his shoulders, and every -sign of age except infirmity of step and mien. The -emperor's habitual dignity had now rallied, and on -his first salutation, the countenance of the old man -softened, and he quickened his pace to meet and -give him welcome. -</p> - -<p> -"You are noble?" he said with confident inquiry. -</p> - -<p> -Yuentsoong coloured slightly. -</p> - -<p> -"I am," he replied, "Lew-melin, a prince of the -empire." -</p> - -<p> -"And by what accident here?" -</p> - -<p> -Yuentsoong explained the clue of the peach-blossoms, -and represented himself as exiled for a time -to the deserted palace upon the lakes. -</p> - -<p> -"I have a daughter," said the old man, abruptly, -"who has never looked on human face save mine." -</p> - -<p> -"Pardon me!" replied his visitor; "I have -thoughtlessly intruded on her sight, and a face more -heavenly fair—" -</p> - -<p> -The emperor hesitated but the old man smiled -encouragingly. -</p> - -<p> -"It is time," he said, "that I should provide a -younger defender for my bright Teh-leen, and -Heaven has sent you in the season of peach-blossoms, -with provident kindness.[*] You have frankly -revealed to me your name and rank. Before I offer -you the hospitality of my roof I must tell you mine. -I am Choo-tseen, the outlaw, once of your own -rank and the general of the Celestial army." -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p class="footnote"> -[*]The season of peach-blossoms was the only season of -marriage in ancient China. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -The emperor started, remembering that this celebrated -rebel was the terror of his father's throne. -</p> - -<p> -"You have heard my history," the old man continued. -"I had been, before my rebellion, in charge -of the imperial palace on the lake. Anticipating an -evil day, I secretly prepared this retreat for my -family; and when my soldiers deserted me at the battle -of Ke-chow, and a price was set upon my head, -hither I fled with my women and children; and the -last alive is my beautiful Teh-leen. With this brief -outline of my life, you are at liberty to leave me as -you came, or to enter my house, on the condition -that you become the protector of my child." -</p> - -<p> -The emperor eagerly turned toward the pavilion, -and with a step as light as his own, the erect and -stately outlaw hastened to lift the curtain before -him. Leaving his guest for a moment in the outer -apartment, he entered into an inner chamber in -search of his daughter, whom he brought, panting -with fear, and blushing with surprise and delight, -to her future lover and protector. A portion of an -historical tale so delicate as the description of the -heroine is not work for imitators, however, and we -must copy strictly the portrait of the matchless -Teh-leen, as drawn by Le-pih, the Anacreon of -Chinese poetry, and the contemporary and favourite of -Yuentsoong. -</p> - -<p> -"Teh-leen was born while the morning star shone -upon the bosom of her mother. Her eye was like the -unblemished blue lily, with its light like the white -gem unfractured. The plum-blossom is most -fragrant when the cold has penetrated its stem, and -the mother of Teh-leen had known sorrow. The -head of her child drooped in thought, like a violet -overladen with dew. Bewildering was Teh-leen. -Her mouth's corners were dimpled, yet pensive. -The arch of her brows was like the vein in the -tulip's heart, and the lashes shaded the blushes on her -cheek. With the delicacy of a pale rose, her -complexion put to shame the floating light of day. Her -waist, like a thread in fineness, seemed ready to -break; yet it was straight and erect, and feared not -the fanning breeze; and her shadowy grace was as -difficult to delineate as the form of a white bird -rising from the ground by moonlight. The natural -gloss of her hair resembled the uncertain sheen of -calm water, yet without the aid of false unguents. -The native intelligence of her mind seemed to have -gained strength by retirement, and he who beheld -her, thought not of her as human. Of rare beauty, -of rarer intellect was Teh-leen, and her heart -responded to the poet's lute." -</p> - -<p> -We have not space, nor could we, without copying -from the admired Le-pih, venture to describe -the bringing of Teh-leen to court, and her surprise -at finding herself the favourite of the emperor. It -is a romantic circumstance, besides, which has had -its parallels in other countries. But the sad sequel -to the loves of poor Teh-leen is but recorded on the -cold page of history; and if the poet, who wound up -the climax of her perfections, with her susceptibility -to his lute, embalmed her sorrows in verse, he -was probably too politic to bring it ever to light. -Pass we to those neglected and unadorned passages -of her history. -</p> - -<p> -Yuentsoong's nature was passionately devoted -and confiding; and like two brothers with one -favourite sister, lived together Teh-leen, Szema, and -the emperor. The Tartar prince, if his heart knew -a mistress before the arrival of Teh-leen at the -palace, owned afterward no other than her; and -fearless of check or suspicion from the noble confidence -and generous friendship of Yuentsoong, he seemed -to live but for her service, and to have neither -energies nor ambitions except for the winning of -her smiles. Szema was of great personal beauty, -frank when it did not serve him to be wily, bold in -his pleasures, and of manners almost femininely soft -and voluptuous. He was renowned as a soldier, -and for Teh-leen, he became a poet and master of -the lute; and like all men formed for ensnaring the -hearts of women, he seemed to forget himself in the -absorbing devotion to his idolatry. His friend, the -emperor, was of another mould. Yuentsoong's -heart had three chambers—love, friendship, and -glory. Teh-leen was but a third in his existence, -yet he loved her—the sequel will show how well! -In person he was less beautiful than majestic, of -large stature, and with a brow and lip naturally -stern and lofty. He seldom smiled, even upon -Teh-leen, whom he would watch for hours in pensive -and absorbed delight; but his smile, when it did -awake, broke over his sad countenance like -morning. All men loved and honoured Yuentsoong, and -all men, except only the emperor, looked on Szema -with antipathy. To such natures as the former, -women give all honour and approbation; but for -such as the latter, they reserve their weakness! -</p> - -<p> -Wrapt up in his friend and mistress, and reserved -in his intercourse with his counsellors, Yuentsoong -knew not that, throughout the imperial city, Szema -was called "<i>the kieu,</i>" or robber-bird, and his fair -Teh-leen openly charged with dishonour. Going -out alone to hunt as was his custom, and having -left his signet with Szema, to pass and repass -through the private apartments at his pleasure, his -horse fell with him unaccountably in the open field. -Somewhat superstitious, and remembering that -good spirits sometimes "knit the grass," when other -obstacles fail to bar our way to danger, the emperor -drew rein and returned to his palace. It was an -hour after noon, and having dismissed his attendants -at the city gate, he entered by a postern to the -imperial garden, and bethought himself of the concealed -couch in a cool grot by a fountain (a favourite -retreat, sacred to himself and Teh-leen), where -he fancied it would be refreshing to sleep away the -sultriness of the remaining hours till evening. -Sitting down by the side of the murmuring fount, he -bathed his feet, and left his slippers on the lip of -the basin to be unencumbered in his repose within, -and so with unechoing step entered the resounding -grotto. Alas! there slumbered the faithless friend -with the guilty Teh-leen upon his bosom! -</p> - -<p> -Grief struck through the noble heart of the -emperor like a sword in cold blood. With a word he -could consign to torture and death the robber of his -honour, but there was agony in his bosom deeper -than revenge. He turned silently away, recalled his -horse and huntsmen, and, outstripping all, plunged -on through the forest till night gathered around him. -</p> - -<p> -Yuentsoong had been absent many days from his -capitol, and his subjects were murmuring their fears -for his safety, when a messenger arrived to the -counsellors informing them of the appointment of the -captive Tartar prince to the government of the -province of Szechuen, the second honour of the -Celestial empire. A private order accompanied the -announcement, commanding the immediate departure -of Szema for the scene of his new authority. -Inexplicable as was this riddle to the multitude, there -were those who read it truly by their knowledge of -the magnanimous soul of the emperor; and among -these was the crafty object of his generosity. -Losing no time, he set forward with great pomp for -Szechuen, and in their joy to see him no more in -the palace, the slighted princes of the empire -forgave him his unmerited advancement. Yuentsoong -returned to his capitol; but to the terror of his -counsellors and people, his hair was blanched white as -the head of an old man! He was pale as well, but -he was cheerful beyond his wont, and to Teh-leen -untiring in pensive and humble attentions. He -pleaded only impaired health and restless slumbers -for nights of solitude. Once, Teh-leen penetrated -to his lonely chamber, but by the dim night lamp -she saw that the scroll over her window[*] was -changed, and instead of the stimulus to glory which -formerly hung in golden letters before his eyes, -there was a sentence written tremblingly in black:— -</p> - -<p> -"<i>The close wing of love covers the death-throb of -honour.</i>" -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p class="footnote"> -[*]The most common decorations of rooms, halls, and temples in China -are ornamental scrolls or labels of coloured paper, -or wood, painted and gilded, -and hung over doors or windows, and inscribed with a line or couplet -conveying some allusion to the circumstances -of the inhabitant, or some pious or -philosophical axiom. For instance, a poetical one is recorded by -Dr. Morrison: -</p> - -<p class="footnote"> -"From the pine forest the azure dragon ascends to the milky way," -typical of the prosperous man arising to wealth and honours. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -Six months from this period the capital was thrown -into a tumult with the intelligence that the province -of Szechuen was in rebellion, and Szema at the -head of a numerous army on his way to seize the -throne of Yuentsoong. This last sting betrayed -the serpent even to the forgiving emperor, and -tearing the reptile at last from his heart, he entered -with the spirit of other times into warlike preparations. -The imperial army was in a few days on its -march, and at Keo-Yang the opposing forces met -and prepared for encounter. -</p> - -<p> -With a dread of the popular feeling toward -Teh-leen, Yuentsoong had commanded for her a close -litter, and she was borne after the imperial standard -in the centre of the army. On the eve before the -battle, ere the watch-fires were lit, the emperor -came to her tent, set apart from his own, and with -the delicate care and gentleness from which he -never varied, inquired how her wants were supplied, -and bade her, thus early, farewell for the night; his -own custom of passing among his soldiers on the -evening previous to an engagement, promising to -interfere with what was usually his last duty before -retiring to his couch. -</p> - -<p> -Teh-leen on this occasion seemed moved by some -irrepressible emotion, and as he rose to depart, she -fell forward upon her face and bathed his feet with -her tears. Attributing it to one of those excesses of -feeling to which all, but especially hearts ill at ease, -are liable, the noble monarch gently raised her, and, -with repeated efforts at reassurance, committed her -to the hands of her women. His own heart beat -far from tranquilly, for, in the excess of his pity for -her grief, he had unguardedly called her by one of -the sweet names of their early days of love—strange -word now upon his lips—and it brought back, spite -of memory and truth, happiness that would not be -forgotten! -</p> - -<p> -It was past midnight, and the moon was riding -high in heaven, when the emperor, returning -between the lengthening watch-fires, sought out the -small lamp, which, suspended like a star above his -own tent, guided him back from the irregular mazes -of the camp. Paled by the intense radiance of the -moonlight, the small globe of alabaster at length -became apparent to his weary eye, and with one -glance at the peaceful beauty of the heavens, he -parted the curtained door beneath it, and stood -within. The Chinese historian asserts that a bird, -from whose wing Teh-leen had once plucked an -arrow, restoring it to liberty and life, in grateful -attachment to her destiny, had removed the lamp -from the imperial tent and suspended it over hers. -The emperor stood beside her couch. Startled at -his inadvertent error, he turned to retire; but the -lifted curtain let in a flood of moonlight upon the -sleeping features of Teh-leen, and like dew-drops -the undried tears glistened in her silken lashes. A -lamp burned faintly in the inner apartment of the -tent and her attendants slept soundly. His soft -heart gave way. Taking up the lamp, he held it -over his beautiful mistress, and once more gazed -passionately and unrestrainedly on her unparalleled -beauty. The past—the early past—was alone -before him. He forgave her—there as she slept, -unconscious of the throbbing of his injured, but -noble heart, so close beside her—he forgave her in -the long silent abysses of his soul! Unwilling to -wake her from her tranquil slumber, but promising -to himself from that hour such sweets of confiding -love as had well-nigh been lost to him forever, -he imprinted one kiss upon the parted lips of -Teh-leen, and sought his couch for slumber. -</p> - -<p> -Ere daybreak the emperor was aroused by one of -his attendants with news too important for delay. -Szema, the rebel, had been arrested in the imperial -camp, disguised, and on his way back to his own -forces, and like wildfire, the information had spread -among the soldiery, who, in a state of mutinous -excitement, were with difficulty restrained from -rushing upon the tent of Teh-leen. At the door -of his tent, Yuentsoong found messengers from the -alarmed princes and officers of the different -commands, imploring immediate aid and the imperial -presence to allay the excitement, and while the -emperor prepared to mount his horse, the guard -arrived with the Tartar prince, ignominiously tied, -and bearing marks of rough usage from his indignant -captors. -</p> - -<p> -"Loose him!" cried the emperor in a voice of -thunder. -</p> - -<p> -The cords were severed, and with a glance whose -ferocity expressed no thanks, Szema reared himself -up to his fullest height, and looked scornfully around -him. Daylight had now broke, and as the group -stood upon an eminence in sight of the whole army, -shouts began to ascend, and the armed multitude, -breaking through all restraint, rolled in toward the -centre. Attracted by the commotion, Yuentsoong -turned to give some orders to those near him, when -Szema suddenly sprang upon an officer of the guard, -wrenched his drawn sword from his grasp, and in an -instant was lost to sight in the tent of Teh-leen. -A sharp scream, a second of thought, and forth -again rushed the desperate murderer, with his sword -flinging drops of blood, and ere a foot stirred in the -paralysed group, the avenging cimiter of Yuentsoong -had cleft him to the chin. -</p> - -<p> -A hush, as if the whole army were struck dumb by -a bolt from heaven, followed this rapid tragedy. -Dropping the polluted sword from his hand, the -emperor, with uncertain step, and the pallor of -death upon his countenance, entered the fatal tent. -</p> - -<p> -He came no more forth that day. The army was -marshalled by the princes, and the rebels were -routed with great slaughter; but Yuentsoong never -more wielded sword. "He pined to death," says -the historian, "with the wane of the same moon -that shone upon the forgiveness of Teh-leen." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap02"></a></p> - -<h3> -II -<br /><br /> -IN THE PASHA'S GARDEN* -</h3> - -<p class="t3"> -H. G. DWIGHT -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -*Reprinted by permission of the author. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -<i>At the old gentleman's side sat a young lady more beautiful -than pomegranate blossoms, more exquisite than the first quarter -moon viewed at twilight through the tops of oleanders.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -—O. Henry: THE TRIMMED LAMP. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> -I -</p> - -<p> -As the caique glided up to the garden gate -the three boatmen rose from their sheepskins -and caught hold of iron clamps set into the -marble of the quay. Shaban, the grizzled -gate-keeper, who was standing at the top of the -water-steps with his hands folded respectfully in front of -him, came salaaming down to help his master out. -</p> - -<p> -"Shall we wait, my Pasha?" asked the head -<i>kaikji</i>. -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha turned to Shaban, as if to put a -question. And as if to answer it Shaban said: -</p> - -<p> -"The Madama is up in the wood, in the kiosque. -She sent down word to ask if you would go up too." -</p> - -<p> -"Then don't wait." Returning the boatmen's -salaam, the Pasha stepped into his garden. "Is -there company in the kiosque or is Madama alone?" -he inquired. -</p> - -<p> -"I think no one is there—except Zümbül Agha," -replied Shaban, following his master up the long -central path of black and white pebbles. -</p> - -<p> -"Zümbül Agha!" exclaimed the Pasha. But -if it had been in his mind to say anything else he -stopped instead to sniff at a rosebud. And then -he asked: "Are we dining up there, do you -know?" -</p> - -<p> -"I don't know, my Pasha, but I will find out." -</p> - -<p> -"Tell them to send up dinner anyway, Shaban. -It is such an evening! And just ask Moustafa to -bring me a coffee at the fountain, will you? I will -rest a little before climbing that hill." -</p> - -<p> -"On my head!" said the Albanian, turning off -to the house. -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha kept on to the end of the walk. Two -big horse-chestnut trees, their candles just starting -alight in the April air, stood there at the foot of a -terrace, guarding a fountain that dripped in the -ivied wall. A thread of water started mysteriously -out of the top of a tall marble niche into a little -marble basin, from which it overflowed by two flat -bronze spouts into two smaller basins below. From -them the water dripped back into a single basin -still lower down, and so tinkled its broken way, past -graceful arabesques and reliefs of fruit and flowers, -into a crescent-shaped pool at the foot of the niche. -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha sank down into one of the wicker -chairs scattered hospitably beneath the -horse-chestnut trees, and thought how happy a man -he was to have a fountain of the period of Sultan -Ahmed III, and a garden so full of April freshness, -and a view of the bright Bosphorus and the opposite -hills of Europe and the firing West. How definitely -he thought it I cannot say, for the Pasha was not -greatly given to thought. Why should he be, since -he possessed without that trouble a goodly share of -what men acquire by taking thought? If he had -been lapped in ease and security all his days, they -numbered many more, did those days, than the -Pasha would have chosen. Still, they had touched -him but lightly, merely increasing the dignity of -his handsome presence and taking away nothing of -his power to enjoy his little walled world. -</p> - -<p> -So he sat there, breathing in the air of the place -and the hour, while gardeners came and went with -their watering-pots, and birds twittered among the -branches, and the fountain plashed beside him, until -Shaban reappeared carrying a glass of water and a -cup of coffee in a swinging tray. -</p> - -<p> -"Eh, Shaban! It is not your business to carry -coffee!" protested the Pasha, reaching for a stand -that stood near him. -</p> - -<p> -"What is your business is my business, <i>Pasha'm</i>. -Have I not eaten your bread and your father's for -thirty years?" -</p> - -<p> -"No! Is it as long as that? We are getting old, -Shaban." -</p> - -<p> -"We are getting old," assented the Albanian -simply. -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha thought, as he took out his silver -cigarette-case, of another Pasha who had -complimented him that afternoon on his youthfulness. -And, choosing a cigarette, he handed the case to his -gatekeeper. Shaban accepted the cigarette and -produced matches from his gay girdle. -</p> - -<p> -"How long is it since you have been to your -country, Shaban?" -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha, lifting his little cup by its silver zarf, -realised that he would not have sipped his coffee -quite so noisily had his French wife been sitting with -him under the horse-chestnut trees. But with his -old Shaban he could still be a Turk. -</p> - -<p> -"Eighteen months, my Pasha." -</p> - -<p> -"And when are you going again?" -</p> - -<p> -"In Ramazan, if God wills. Or perhaps next -Ramazan. We shall see." -</p> - -<p> -"Allah, Allah! How many times have I told you -to bring your people here, Shaban? We have plenty -of room to build you a house somewhere, and you -could see your wife and children every day instead -of once in two or three years." -</p> - -<p> -"Wives, wives—a man will not die if he does not -see them every day! Besides, it would not be good -for the children. In Constantinople they become -rascals. There are too many Christians." And he -added hastily: "It is better for a boy to grow up in -the mountains." -</p> - -<p> -"But we have a mountain here, behind the house," -laughed the Pasha. -</p> - -<p> -"Your mountain is not like our mountains," objected -Shaban gravely, hunting in his mind for the -difference he felt but could not express. -</p> - -<p> -"And that new wife of yours," went on the Pasha. -"Is it good to leave a young woman like that? Are -you not afraid?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, my Pasha. I am not afraid. We all live -together, you know. My brothers watch, and the -other women. She is safer than yours. Besides, in -my country it is not as it is here." -</p> - -<p> -"I don't know why I have never been to see this -wonderful country of yours, Shaban. I have so -long intended to, and I never have been. But I must -climb my mountain or they will think I have become -a rascal too." And, rising from his chair, he gave -the Albanian a friendly pat. -</p> - -<p> -"Shall I come too, my Pasha? Zümbül Agha sent -word——" -</p> - -<p> -"Zümbül Agha!" interrupted the Pasha irritably. -"No, you needn't come. I will explain to Zümbül -Agha." -</p> - -<p> -With which he left Shaban to pick up the empty -coffee cup. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> -II -</p> - -<p> -From the upper terrace a bridge led across the -public road to the wood. If it was not a wood it was -at all events a good-sized grove, climbing the steep -hillside very much as it chose. Every sort and size -of tree was there, but the greater number of them -were of a kind to be sparsely trimmed in April with -a delicate green, and among them were so many -twisted Judas trees as to tinge whole patches of the -slope with their deep rose bloom. The road that -the Pasha slowly climbed, swinging his amber beads -behind him as he walked, zigzagged so leisurely back -and forth among the trees that a carriage could have -driven up it. In that way, indeed, the Pasha had -more than once mounted to the kiosque, in the days -when his mother used to spend a good part of her -summer up there, and when he was married to his -first wife. The memory of the two, and of their -old-fashioned ways, entered not too bitterly into his -general feeling of well-being, ministered to by the -budding trees and the spring air and the sunset view. -Every now and then an enormous plane tree invited -him to stop and look at it, or a semi-circle of -cypresses. -</p> - -<p> -So at last he came to the top of the hill, where in -a grassy clearing a small house looked down on the -valley of the Bosphorus through a row of great stone -pines. The door of the kiosque was open, but his -wife was not visible. The Pasha stopped a moment, -as he had done a thousand times before, and looked -back. He was not the man to be insensible to what -he saw between the columnar trunks of the pines, -where European hills traced a dark curve against the -fading sky, and where the sinuous waterway far -below still reflected a last glamour of the day. The -beauty of it, and the sharp sweetness of the April air, -and the infinitesimal sounds of the wood, and the -half-conscious memories involved with it all, made -him sigh. He turned and mounted the steps of the -porch. -</p> - -<p> -The kiosque looked very dark and unfamiliar as -the Pasha entered it. He wondered what had become -of Hélène—if by any chance he had passed her -on the way. He wanted her. She was the expression -of what the evening roused in him. He heard -nothing, however, but the splash of water from a -half-visible fountain. It reminded him for an instant of -the other fountain, below, and of Shaban. His steps -resounded hollowly on the marble pavement as he -walked into the dim old saloon, shaped like a T, with -the crossbar longer than the leg. It was still light -enough for him to make out the glimmer of windows -on three sides and the square of the fountain in the -centre, but the painted domes above were lost in -shadow. -</p> - -<p> -The spaces on either side of the bay by which he -entered, completing the rectangle of the kiosque, -were filled by two little rooms opening into the cross -of the T. He went into the left-hand one, where -Hélène usually sat—because there were no lattices. -The room was empty. The place seemed so strange -and still in the twilight that a sort of apprehension -began to grow in him, and he half wished he had -brought up Shaban. He turned back to the second, -the latticed room—the harem, as they called it. -Curiously enough it was Hélène who would never let -him Europeanise it, in spite of the lattices. Every -now and then he found out that she liked some -Turkish things better than he did. As soon as he -opened the door he saw her sitting on the divan -opposite. He knew her profile against the checkered -pallor of the lattice. But she neither moved nor -greeted him. It was Zümbül Agha who did so, -startling him by suddenly rising beside the door and -saying in his high voice: -</p> - -<p> -"Pleasant be your coming, my Pasha." -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha had forgotten about Zümbül Agha; -and it seemed strange to him that Hélène continued -to sit silent and motionless on her sofa. -</p> - -<p> -"Good evening," he said at last. "You are sitting -very quietly here in the dark. Are there no lights in -this place?" -</p> - -<p> -It was again Zümbül Agha who spoke, turning -one question by another: -</p> - -<p> -"Did Shaban come with you?" -</p> - -<p> -"No," replied the Pasha shortly. "He said he had -a message, but I told him not to come." -</p> - -<p> -"A-ah!" ejaculated the eunuch in his high drawl. -"But it does not matter—with the two of us." -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha grew more and more puzzled, for this -was not the scene he had imagined to himself as he -came up through the part in response to his wife's -message. Nor did he grow less puzzled when the -eunuch turned to her and said in another tone: -</p> - -<p> -"Now will you give me that key?" -</p> - -<p> -The French woman took no more notice of this -question than she had of the Pasha's entrance. -</p> - -<p> -"What do you mean, Zümbül Agha?" demanded -the Pasha sharply. "That is not the way to speak -to your mistress." -</p> - -<p> -"I mean this, my Pasha," retorted the eunuch—"that -some one is hiding in this chest and that -Madama keeps the key." -</p> - -<p> -That was what the Pasha heard, in the absurd -treble of the black man, in the darkening room. He -looked down and made out, beside the tall figure of -the eunuch, the chest on which he had been sitting. -Then he looked across at Hélène, who still sat silent -in front of the lattice. -</p> - -<p> -"What are you talking about?" he asked at last, -more stupefied than anything else. "Who is it? -A thief? Has any one—?" He left the vague -question unformulated, even in his mind. -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, that I don't know. You must ask Madama. -Probably it is one of her Christian friends. But at -least if it were a woman she would not be so unwilling -to unlock her chest for us!" -</p> - -<p> -The silence that followed, while the Pasha looked -dumbly at the chest, and at Zümbül Agha, and at -his wife, was filled for him with a stranger confusion -of feelings than he had ever experienced before. -Nevertheless he was surprisingly cool, he found. -His pulse quickened very little. He told himself -that it wasn't true and that he really must get rid -of old Zümbül after all, if he went on making such -preposterous gaffes and setting them all by the ears. -How could anything so baroque happen to him, the -Pasha, who owed what he was to honourable fathers -and who had passed his life honourably and peaceably -until this moment? Yet he had had an impression, -walking into the dark old kiosque and finding -nobody until he found these two sitting here in this -extraordinary way—as if he had walked out of his -familiar garden, that he knew like his hand, into a -country he knew nothing about, where anything -might be true. And he wished, he almost -passionately wished, that Hélène would say something, -would cry out against Zümbül Agha, would lie even, -rather than sit there so still and removed and -different from other women. -</p> - -<p> -Then he began to be aware that if it were true—if!—he -ought to do something. He ought to make -a noise. He ought to kill somebody. That was -what they always did. That was what his father -would have done, or certainly his grandfather. But -he also told himself that it was no longer possible -for him to do what his father and grandfather had -done. He had been unlearning their ways too long. -Besides, he was too old. -</p> - -<p> -A sudden sting pierced him at the thought of how -old he was, and how young Hélène. Even if he -lived to be seventy or eighty she would still have a -life left when he died. Yes, it was as Shaban said. -They were getting old. He had never really felt -the humiliation of it before. And Shaban had said, -strangely, something else—that his own wife was -safer than the Pasha's. Still he felt an odd -compassion for Hélène, too—because she was young, and -it was Judas-tree time, and she was married to grey -hairs. And although he was a Pasha, descended -from great Pashas, and she was only a little French -girl <i>quelconque</i>, he felt more afraid than ever of -making a fool of himself before her—when he had -promised her that she should be as free as any other -European woman, that she should live her life. -Besides, what had the black man to do with their -private affairs? -</p> - -<p> -"Zümbül Agha," he suddenly heard himself -harshly saying, "is this your house or mine? I -have told you a hundred times that you are not to -trouble the Madama, or follow her about, or so -much as guess where she is and what she is doing. -I have kept you in the house because my father -brought you into it; but if I ever hear of you -speaking to Madama again, or spying on her, I will send -you into the street. Do you hear? Now get out!" -</p> - -<p> -"Aman, my Pasha! I beg you!" entreated the -eunuch. There was something ludicrous in his -voice, coming as it did from his height. -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha wondered if he had been too long a -person of importance in the family to realise the -change in his position, or whether he really—— -</p> - -<p> -All of a sudden a checkering of lamplight flickered -through the dark window, touched the Negro's -black face for a moment, travelled up the wall. -Silence fell again in the little room—a silence into -which the fountain dropped its silver patter. Then -steps mounted the porch and echoed in the other -room, which lighted in turn, and a man came in -sight, peering this way and that, with a big white -accordeon lantern in his hand. Behind the man two -other servants appeared, carrying on their heads -round wooden trays covered by figured silks, and a -boy tugging a huge basket. When they discovered -the three in the little room they salaamed -respectfully. -</p> - -<p> -"Where shall we set the table?" asked the man -with the lantern. -</p> - -<p> -For the Pasha the lantern seemed to make the -world more like the place he had always known. He -turned to his wife, apologetically. -</p> - -<p> -"I told them to send dinner up here. It has -been such a long time since we came. But I -forgot about the table. I don't believe there is -one here." -</p> - -<p> -"No," uttered Hélène from her sofa, sitting with -her head on her hand. -</p> - -<p> -It was the first word she had spoken. But, little -as it was, it reassured him, like the lantern. -</p> - -<p> -"There is the chest," hazarded Zümbül Agha. -</p> - -<p> -The interruption of the servants had for the -moment distracted them all. But the Pasha now -turned on him so vehemently that the eunuch salaamed -in haste and went away. -</p> - -<p> -"Why not?" asked Hélène, when he was gone. -"We can sit on the cushions." -</p> - -<p> -"Why not?" echoed the Pasha. Grateful as he -was for the interruption, he found himself wishing, -secretly, that Hélène had discouraged his idea of a -picnic dinner. And he could not help feeling a -certain constraint as he gave the necessary orders and -watched the servants put down their paraphernalia -and pull the chest into the middle of the room. -There was something unreal and stage-like about -the scene, in the uncertain light of the lantern. -Obviously the chest was not light. It was an old -cypress-wood chest that they had always used in the -summer, to keep things in, polished a bright brown, -with a little inlaid pattern of dark brown and cream -colour running around the edge of each surface, and -a more complicated design ornamenting the centre -of the cover. He vaguely associated his mother -with it. He felt a distinct relief when the men -spread the cloth. He felt as if they had covered up -more things than he could name. And when they -produced candlesticks and candles, and set them on -the improvised table and in the niches beside the -door, he seemed to come back again into the -comfortable light of common sense. -</p> - -<p> -"This is the way we used to do when I was a -boy," he said with a smile, when he and Hélène -established themselves on sofa cushions on opposite -sides of the chest. "Only then we had little tables -six inches high, instead of big ones like this." -</p> - -<p> -"It is rather a pity that we have spoiled all -that," she said. "Are we any happier for perching -on chairs around great scaffoldings, and piling the -scaffoldings with so many kinds of porcelain and -metal? After all, they knew how to live—the -people who were capable of imagining a place like this. -And they had the good taste not to fill a room with -things. Your grandfather, was it?" -</p> - -<p> -He had had a dread that she would not say anything, -that she would remain silent and impenetrable -as she had been before Zümbül Agha, as if -the chest between them were a barrier that nothing -could surmount. His heart lightened when he -heard her speak. Was it not quite her natural -voice? -</p> - -<p> -"It was my great-grandfather, the Grand Vizier. -They say he did know how to live—in his way. He -built the kiosque for a beautiful slave of his, a -Greek, whom he called Pomegranate." -</p> - -<p> -"Madame Pomegranate! What a charming -name! And that is why her cipher is everywhere. -See?" She pointed to the series of cupboards and -niches on either side of the door, dimly painted with -pomegranate blossoms, and to the plaster reliefs -around the hooded fireplace, and to the cluster of -pomegranates that made a centre to the gilt and -painted lattice-work of the ceiling. "One could be -very happy in such a little house. It has an -air—of being meant for moments. And you feel as if -they had something to do with the wonderful way -it has faded." She looked as if she had meant to -say something else, which she did not. But after a -moment she added: "Will you ask them to turn -off the water in the fountain? It is a little chilly, -now that the sun has gone, and it sounds like -rain—or tears." -</p> - -<p> -The dinner went, on the whole, not so badly. -There were dishes to be passed back and forth. -There were questions to be asked or comments to -be made. There were the servants to be spoken to. -Yet, more and more, the Pasha could not help -wondering. When a silence fell, too, he could not help -listening. And least of all could he help looking at -Hélène. He looked at her, trying not to look at -her, with an intense curiosity, as if he had never -seen her before, asking himself if there were -anything new in her face, and how she would look -if— Would she be like this? She made no attempt to -keep up a flow of words, as if to distract his -attention. She was not soft either; she was not trying to -seduce him. And she made no show of gratitude -toward him for having sent Zümbül Agha away. -Neither did she by so much as an inflection try to -insinuate or excuse or explain. She was what she -always was, perfect—and evidently a little tired. -She was indeed more than perfect, she was prodigious, -when he asked her once what she was thinking -about and she said Pandora, tapping the chest -between them. He had never heard the story of that -other Greek girl and her box, and she told him -gravely about all the calamities that came out of -it, and the one gift of hope that remained behind. -</p> - -<p> -"But I cannot be a Turkish woman long!" she -added inconsequently with a smile. "My legs are -asleep. I really must walk about a little." -</p> - -<p> -When he had helped her to her feet she led the -way into the other room. They had their coffee -and cigarettes there. Hélène walked slowly up -and down the length of the room, stopping every -now and then to look into the square pool of the -fountain and to pat her hair. -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha sat down on the long low divan that -ran under the windows. He could watch her more -easily now. And the detachment with which he -had begun to look at her grew in spite of him into -the feeling that he was looking at a stranger. After -all, what did he know about her? Who was she? -What had happened to her, during all the years that -he had not known her, in that strange free European -life which he had tried to imitate, and which at heart -he secretly distrusted? What had she ever really -told him, and what had he ever really divined of -her? For perhaps the first time in his life he realised -how little one person may know of another, and -particularly a man of a woman. And he remembered -Shaban again, and that phrase about his wife -being safer than Hélène. Had Shaban really -meant anything? Was Hélène "safe"? He -acknowledged to himself at last that the question was -there in his mind, waiting to be answered. -</p> - -<p> -Hélène did not help him. She had been standing -for some time at an odd angle to the pool, looking -into it. He could see her face there, with the -eyes turned away from him. -</p> - -<p> -"How mysterious a reflection is!" she said. -"It is so real that you can't believe it disappears -for good. How often Madame Pomegranate must -have looked into this pool, and yet I can't find her -in it. But I feel she is really there, all the -same—and who knows who else." -</p> - -<p> -"They say mirrors do not flatter," the Pasha -did not keep himself from rejoining, "but they are -very discreet. They tell no tales!" -</p> - -<p> -Hélène raised her eyes. In the little room the -servants had cleared the improvised table and -had packed up everything again except the -candles. -</p> - -<p> -"I have been up here a long time," she said, -"and I am rather tired. It is a little cold, too. -If you do not mind I think I will go down to the -house now, with the servants. You will hardly -care to go so soon, for Zümbül Agha has not finished -what he has to say to you." -</p> - -<p> -"Zümbül Agha!" exclaimed the Pasha. "I sent -him away." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, but you must know him well enough to be -sure he would not go. Let us see." She clapped -her hands. The servant of the lantern immediately -came out to her. "Will you ask Zümbül Agha to -come here?" she said. "He is on the porch." -</p> - -<p> -The man went to the door, looked out, and said -a word. Then he stood aside with a respectful -salaam, and the eunuch entered. He negligently -returned the salute and walked forward until his -air of importance changed to one of humility at -sight of the Pasha. Salaaming in turn, he stood -with his hands folded in front of him. -</p> - -<p> -"I will go down with you," said the Pasha to -his wife, rising. "It is too late for you to go through -the woods in the dark." -</p> - -<p> -"Nonsense!" She gave him a look that had -more in it than the tone in which she added: "Please -do not. I shall be perfectly safe with four servants. -You can tell them not to let me run away." Coming -nearer, she put her hand into the bosom of her -dress, then stretched out the hand toward him. -"Here is the key—the key of which Zümbül Agha -spoke—the key of Pandora's box. Will you keep -it for me, please? <i>Au revoir</i>." -</p> - -<p> -And making a sign to the servants she walked -out of the kiosque. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> -III -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha was too surprised, at first, to move—and -too conscious of the eyes of servants, too -uncertain of what he should do, too fearful of doing -the wrong, the un-European, thing. And afterward -it was too late. He stood watching until the -flicker of the lantern disappeared among the dark -trees. Then his eyes met the eunuch's. -</p> - -<p> -"Why don't you go down too?" suggested Zümbül -Agha. The variable climate of a great house -had made him too perfect an opportunist not to -take the line of being in favour again. "It -might be better. Give me the key and I will -do what there is to do. But you might send up -Shaban." -</p> - -<p> -Why not, the Pasha secretly asked himself? -Might it not be the best way out? At the same -time he experienced a certain revulsion of feeling, -now that Hélène was gone, in the way she had gone. -She really was prodigious! And with the vanishing -of the lantern that had brought him a measure of -reassurance he felt the weight of an uncleared -situation, fantastic but crucial, heavy upon him. And -the Negro annoyed him intensely. -</p> - -<p> -"Thank you, Zümbül Agha," he replied, "but -I am not the nurse of Madama, and I will not give -you the key." -</p> - -<p> -If he only might, though, he thought to himself -again! -</p> - -<p> -"You believe her, this Frank woman whom -you had never seen five years ago, and you do not -believe me who have lived in your house longer -than you can remember!" -</p> - -<p> -The eunuch said it so bitterly that the Pasha -was touched in spite of himself. He had never -been one to think very much about minor personal -relations, but even at such a moment he could -see—was it partly because he wanted more time to make -up his mind?—that he had never liked Zümbül -Agha as he liked Shaban, for instance. Yet more -honour had been due, in the old family tradition, -to the former. And he had been associated even -longer with the history of the house. -</p> - -<p> -"My poor Zümbül," he uttered musingly, -"you have never forgiven me for marrying her." -</p> - -<p> -"My Pasha, you are not the first to marry an -unbeliever, nor the last. But such a marriage -should be to the glory of Islam, and not to its -discredit. Who can trust her? She is still a -Christian. And she is too young. She has turned the -world upside down. What would your father have -said to a daughter-in-law who goes shamelessly into -the street without a veil, alone, and who receives -in your house men who are no relation to you or to -her? It is not right. Women understand only -one thing—to make fools of men. And they are -never content to fool one." -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha, still waiting to make up his mind, -let his fancy linger about Zümbül Agha. It was -really rather absurd, after all, what a part women -played in the world, and how little it all came to -in the end! Did the black man, he wondered, -walk in a clearer cooler world, free of the clouds, -the iridescences, the languors, the perfumes, the -strange obsessions, that made others walk so often -like madmen? Or might some tatter of preposterous -humanity still work obscurely in him? Or a -bitterness of not being like other men? That -perhaps was why the Pasha felt friendlier toward -Shaban. They were more alike. -</p> - -<p> -"You are right, Zümbül Agha," he said. "The -world is upside down. But neither the Madama -nor any of us made it so. All we can do is to try -and keep our heads as it turns. Now, will you -please tell me how you happened to be up here? -The Madama never told you to come. You know -perfectly well that the customs of Europe are -different from ours, and that she does not like to have -you follow her about." -</p> - -<p> -"What woman likes to be followed about?" -retorted the eunuch with a sly smile. "I know -you have told me to leave her alone. But why -was I brought into this house? Am I to stand by -and watch dishonour brought upon it simply because -you have eaten the poison of a woman?" -</p> - -<p> -"Zümbül Agha," replied the Pasha sharply, "I -am not discussing old and new or this and that, but -I am asking you to tell me what all this speech is -about." -</p> - -<p> -"Give me that key and I will show you what it is -about," said the eunuch, stepping forward. -</p> - -<p> -But the Pasha found he was not ready to go so -directly to the point. -</p> - -<p> -"Can't you answer a simple question?" he demanded -irritably, retreating to the farther side of -the fountain. -</p> - -<p> -The reflection of the painted ceiling in the pool -made him think of Hélène—and Madame -Pomegranate. He stared into the still water as if to find -Hélène's face there. Was any other face hidden -beside it, mocking him? -</p> - -<p> -But Zümbül Agha had begun again, doggedly: -</p> - -<p> -"I came here because it is my business to be here. -I went to town this morning. When I got back -they told me that you were away and that the -Madama was up here, alone. So I came. Is -this a place for a woman to be alone in—a young -woman, with men working all about and I don't -know who, and a thousand ways of getting in and -out from the hills, and ten thousand hiding places -in the woods?" -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha made a gesture of impatience, and -turned away. But after all, what could one do -with old Zümbül? He had been brought up in -his tradition. The Pasha lighted another cigarette -to help himself think. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I came up here," continued the eunuch, -"and as I came I heard Madama singing. You know -how she sings the songs of the Franks." -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha knew, but he did not say anything. -As he walked up and down, smoking and thinking, -his eye caught in the pool a reflection from the other -side of the room, where the door of the latticed room -was and where the cypress-wood chest stood as the -servants had left it in the middle of the floor. Was -that what Hélène had stood looking at so long, he -asked himself? He wondered that he could have sat -beside it so quietly. It seemed now like something -dark and dangerous crouching there in the shadow -of the little room. -</p> - -<p> -"I sat down, under the terrace," he heard the -eunuch go on, "where no one could see me, and I -listened. And after she had stopped I heard——" -</p> - -<p> -"Never mind what you heard," broke in the -Pasha. "I have heard enough." -</p> - -<p> -He was ashamed—ashamed and resolved. He -felt as if he had been playing the spy with Zümbül -Agha. And after all there was a very simple way -to answer his question for himself. He threw -away his cigarette, went forward into the little -room, bent over the chest, and fitted the key into -the lock. -</p> - -<p> -Just then a nightingale burst out singing, but so -near and so loud that he started and looked over his -shoulder. In an instant he collected himself, feeling -the black man's eyes upon him. Yet he could not -suppress the train of association started by the -impassioned trilling of the bird, even as he began to turn -the key of the chest where his mother used to keep -her quaint old silks and embroideries. The irony of -the contrast paralysed his hand for a strange -moment, and of the difference between this spring night -and other spring nights when nightingales had sung. -And what if, after all, only calamity were to come -out of the chest, and he were to lose his last gift of -hope! Ah! He knew at last what he would do! He -quickly withdrew the key from the lock, stood up -straight again, and looked at Zümbül Agha. -</p> - -<p> -"Go down and get Shaban," he ordered, "and -don't come back." -</p> - -<p> -The eunuch stared. But if he had anything to say -he thought better of uttering it. He saluted silently -and went away. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> -IV -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha sat down on the divan and lighted a -cigarette. Almost immediately the nightingale -stopped singing. For a few moments Zümbül Agha's -steps could be heard outside. Then it became very -still. The Pasha did not like it. Look which way he -would he could not help seeing the chest—or listening. -He got up and went into the big room, where -he turned on the water of the fountain. The falling -drops made company for him, and kept him from -looking for lost reflections. But they presently made -him think of what Hélène had said about them. He -went out to the porch and sat down on the steps. In -front of him the pines lifted their great dark canopies -against the stars. Other stars twinkled between the -trunks, far below, where the shore lights of the -Bosphorus were. It was so still that water sounds -came faintly up to him, and every now and then he -could even hear nightingales on the European side. -Another nightingale began singing in his own -woods—the nightingale that had told him what to do, he -said to himself. What other things the nightingales -had sung to him, years ago! And how long the pines -had listened there, still strong and green and rugged -and alive, while he, and how many before him, sat -under them for a little while and then went -away! -</p> - -<p> -Presently he heard steps on the drive and Shaban -came, carrying something dark in his hand. -</p> - -<p> -"What is that?" asked the Pasha, as Shaban held -it out. -</p> - -<p> -"A pistol, my Pasha. Zümbül Agha told me you -wanted it." -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha laughed curtly. -</p> - -<p> -"Zümbül made a mistake. What I want is a -shovel, or a couple of them. Can you find such a -thing without asking anyone?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, my Pasha," replied the Albanian promptly, -laying the revolver on the steps and disappearing -again. And it was not long before he was back with -the desired implements. -</p> - -<p> -"We must dig a hole, somewhere, Shaban," said -his master in a low voice. "It must be in a place -where people are not likely to go, but not too far -from the kiosque." -</p> - -<p> -Shaban immediately started toward the trees at -the back of the house. The Pasha followed him -silently into a path that wound through the wood. -A nightingale began to sing again, very near -them—the nightingale, thought the Pasha. -</p> - -<p> -"He is telling us where to go," he said. -</p> - -<p> -Shaban permitted himself a low laugh. -</p> - -<p> -"I think he is telling his mistress where to go. -However, we will go too." And they did, bearing -away to one side of the path till they came to the -foot of a tall cypress. -</p> - -<p> -"This will do," said the Pasha, "if the roots are -not in the way." -</p> - -<p> -Without a word Shaban began to dig. The Pasha -took the other spade. To the simple Albanian it was -nothing out of the ordinary. What was extraordinary -was that his master was able to keep it up, soft -as the loam was under the trees. The most difficult -thing about it was that they could not see what they -were doing, except by the light of an occasional -match. But at last the Pasha judged the ragged -excavation of sufficient depth. Then he led the way -back to the kiosque. -</p> - -<p> -They found Zümbül Agha in the little room, sitting -on the sofa with a pistol in either hand. -</p> - -<p> -"I thought I told you not to come back!" exclaimed -the Pasha sternly. -</p> - -<p> -"Yes," faltered the old eunuch, "but I was afraid -something might happen to you. So I waited below -the pines. And when you went away into the -woods with Shaban, I came here to watch." He -lifted a revolver significantly. "I found the other -one on the steps." -</p> - -<p> -"Very well," said the Pasha at length, more -kindly. He even found it in him at that moment to -be amused at the picture the black man made, in -his sedate frock coat, with his two weapons. And -Zümbül Agha found no less to look at in the appearance -of his master's clothes. "But now there is no -need for you to watch any longer," added the latter. -"If you want to watch, do it at the bottom of the -hill. Don't let any one come up here." -</p> - -<p> -"On my head," said the eunuch. He saw that -Shaban, as usual, was trusted more than he. But -it was not for him to protest against the ingratitude -of masters. He salaamed and backed out of the -room. -</p> - -<p> -When he was gone the Pasha turned to Shaban: -</p> - -<p> -"This box, Shaban—you see this box? It has -become a trouble to us, and I am going to take it out -there." -</p> - -<p> -The Albanian nodded gravely. He took hold of -one of the handles, to judge the weight of the chest. -He lifted his eyebrows. -</p> - -<p> -"Can you help me put it on my back?" he asked. -</p> - -<p> -"Don't try to do that, Shaban. We will carry it -together." The Pasha took hold of the other handle. -When they got as far as the outer door he let down -his end. It was not light. "Wait a minute, Shaban. -Let us shut up the kiosque, so that no one will notice -anything." He went back to blow out the candles. -Then he thought of the fountain. He caught a play -of broken images in the pool as he turned off the -water. When he had put out the lights and had -groped his way to the door he found that Shaban -was already gone with the chest. A last drop of -water made a strange echo behind him in the dark -kiosque. He locked the door and hurried after -Shaban, who had succeeded in getting the chest on his -back. Nor would Shaban let the Pasha help him till -they came to the edge of the wood. There, carrying -the chest between them, they stumbled through the -trees to the place that was ready. -</p> - -<p> -"Now we must be careful," said the Pasha. "It -might slip or get stuck." -</p> - -<p> -"But are you going to bury the box too?" demanded -Shaban, for the first time showing surprise. -</p> - -<p> -"Yes," answered the Pasha. And he added: "It -is the box I want to get rid of." -</p> - -<p> -"It is a pity," remarked Shaban regretfully. "It -is a very good box. However, you know. Now -then!" -</p> - -<p> -There was a scraping and a muffled thud, followed -by a fall of earth and small stones on wood. The -Pasha wondered if he would hear anything else. But -first one and then another nightingale began to fill -the night air with their April madness. -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, there are two of them," remarked Shaban. -"She will take the one that says the sweetest things -to her." -</p> - -<p> -The Pasha's reply was to throw a spadeful of -earth on the chest. Shaban joined him with such -vigour that the hole was very soon full. -</p> - -<p> -"We are old, my Pasha, but we are good for -something yet," said Shaban. "I will hide the -shovels here in the bushes," he added, "and early in -the morning I will come again, before any of those -lazy gardeners are up, and fix it so that no one will -ever know." -</p> - -<p> -There at least was a person of whom one could be -sure! The Pasha realised that gratefully, as they -walked back through the park. He did not feel like -talking, but at least he felt the satisfaction of having -done what he had decided to do. He remembered -Zümbül Agha as they neared the bottom of the hill. -The eunuch had not taken his commission more -seriously than it had been given, however, or he -preferred not to be seen. Perhaps he wanted to -reconnoitre again on top of the hill. -</p> - -<p> -"I don't think I will go in just yet," said the -Pasha, as they crossed the bridge into the lower -garden. "I am rather dirty. And I would like to -rest a little under the chestnut trees. Would you -get me an overcoat please, Shaban, and a brush of -some kind? And you might bring me a coffee, too." -</p> - -<p> -How tired he was! And what a short time it was, -yet what an eternity, since he last dropped into one -of those wicker chairs! He felt for his cigarettes. -As he did so he discovered something else in his -pocket, something small and hard that at first he did -not recognise. Then he remembered the key—the -key.... He suddenly tossed it into the pool -beside him. It made a sharp little splash, which was -reëchoed by the dripping basins. He got up and felt -in the ivy for the handle that shut off the water. At -the end of the garden the Bosphorus lapped softly in -the dark. Far away, up in the wood, the nightingales -were singing. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap03"></a></p> - -<h3> -III -<br /><br /> -THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE* -</h3> - -<p class="t3"> -SIR HUGH CLIFFORD -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -*Reprinted by permission of the author. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -All the wintry afternoon we had been -worming our way down the Thames, the big -steamer filtering slowly through the throng -of crafts like a 'bus moving ponderously amid -crowded traffic. When at last we won free of the river, -the Channel chop took us on its knee and rocked us -roughly, while the skud of wind and rain slapped us -in the face with riotous horse-play. As we came up -from dinner and struggled aft, our feet slipped and -slithered over the wet decks, and the shouts of the -frozen Lascars at the lookout reached us through -the sopping gloom, despairing as the howls of souls -in torment. The ugly, hopeless melancholy of our -surroundings accorded well with the mood which -possessed the majority of those on board; for we -were outward bound, and men who leave England -for the good of their purses carry heavy hearts with -them at the start. In the smoking room, therefore, -with coat-collars tugged up about our ears and -hands thrust deeply into our pockets, we sat -smoking with mournful earnestness, glaring at our -neighbours with the open animosity of the genial Briton. -</p> - -<p> -Through the thickening fog of the tobacco-smoke, -the figure of a man seated immediately opposite to -me was dimly visible; but presently his unusual -appearance claimed my closer attention and aroused -my curiosity. His emaciated body was wrapped in -a huge ulster, from the up-turned collar of which a -head emerged that I can only describe as being like -nothing so much as that of a death's-head moth. -He was clean-shaven, and his cheeks were as hollow -as saucers; his temples were pinched and prominent; -from the bottom of deeply sunken sockets little wild -eyes glared like savage things held fast in a gin. -The mouth was set hard, as though its owner were -enduring agony, and trying his best to repress a -scream. As much of his hair as his cap and his -coat-collar suffered to be seen was of a dirty -yellow-white; yet in some indefinable way the man did not -give the impression of being old. Rather he seemed -to be one prematurely broken; one who suffered -acutely and unceasingly; one who, with rigid -self-control, maintained a tight grip upon himself, as -though all his nerves were on edge. I had marked -a somewhat similar expression of concentrated -determination upon the faces of fellow-passengers -engaged in fighting the demon of sea-sickness; but -this man sucked at his pipe, and obviously drew a -measure of comfort from it, in a fashion which -showed that he was indifferent to the choppy -motion. Yet though those buried eyes of his were -glaring and savage—eyes that seemed to be eternally -seeking some means of escape from a haunting -peril—they were not restless, but rather were fixed -in a venomous scowl; while the man himself, dead -quiet, save for the light that glinted from them, -was apparently sunken in a fathomless abstraction. -All this I noted mechanically, but it was the -extraordinary condition of his face that chiefly excited -my wonder. It was literally pock-marked with -little purple cicatrices, small oblong lumps, smooth -and shining feebly in the lamplight, that rose above -the surface of the skin, and ran this way and that -at every imaginable angle. I had seen more than -once the faces of German duellists wonderfully and -fearfully beslashed; but the scars they wore were -long and clean, wholly unlike the badly healed lumps -which disfigured my queer <i>vis-à-vis</i>. I fell to -speculating as to what could have caused such a -multiplicity of wounds: not a gunpowder explosion, -certainly, for the skin showed none of the blue -tattooing inseparable from injuries so inflicted; nor yet -the bursting of a gun, for that always makes at -least one jagged cut, not innumerable tiny scars -such as those at which I was looking. I could think -of no solution that would fit the case; and as I -watched, suddenly the man withdrew his hands -from his pockets, waggling them before his face with -a nervous motion as though he were warding off -some invisible assailants. Then I saw that every -inch of the backs and palms, and as much of his -wrists as were exposed to view, were pitted with -cicatrices similar to those with which his face was -bedecked. -</p> - -<p> -"Evening, you folk!" said a nasal voice in the -doorway, breaking discordantly upon the sulky -silence which brooded over us; and I looked up to -see the figure of a typical "down-easter," slim and -alert, standing just within the room. He had a -keen, hard face on him, like a meat-axe, and the -wet rain stood upon it in drops. He jerked his -head at us in collective greeting, walked through -the haze of smoke with a free gait and swinging -shoulders, and threw himself down in a heap on the -horse-hair bench beside the man whose strange -appearance had riveted my attention. Seated thus, -he looked round at us with quick humorous glances, -as though our British solemnity, which made each -one of us grimly isolated in a crowd, struck him as -at once amusing and impossible of endurance. -</p> - -<p> -"Snakes!" he exclaimed genially. "This is -<i>mighty</i> cheerful!" His strident twang seemed to -cut wedges out of the foggy silence. "We look as -though we had swallowed a peck of tenpenny nails, -and the blamed things were sitting heavy on our -stomachs. Come, let us be friendly. I ain't doing -any trade in sore-headed bears. Wake up, sonny." And -he dug his melancholy neighbour in the ribs -with an aggressive and outrageous thumb. -</p> - -<p> -It was for all the world as though he had touched -the spring that sets in motion the clockwork of a -mechanical toy. The man's cap flew from his -head—disclosing a scalp ill-covered with sparse hairs -and scarred like his face—as he leaped to his feet -with a scream, torn suddenly, as it were, from the -depths of his self-absorbed abstraction. Casting -quick nervous glances over his shoulder, he backed -into the nearest corner, his hands clawing at the air, -his eyes hunted, defiant, yet abject. His whole -figure was instinct with terror—terror seeking -impotently to defend itself against unnumbered enemies. -His teeth were set, his gums drawn back over them -in two rigid white lines; a sort of snarling cry broke -from him—a cry that seemed to be the expression -of furious rage, pain, and agonisingly concentrated -effort. -</p> - -<p> -It all took place in a fraction of a second—as -quickly as a man jumps when badly startled—and -as quickly he recovered his balance, and pulled -himself together. Then he cast a murderous glance at -the American—who at that moment presented a -picture of petrified astonishment—let fly a -venomous oath at him, and slammed out of the room in a -towering rage. -</p> - -<p> -"Goramercy!" ejaculated the American limply. -"I want a drink. Who'll join me?" But no one -responded to his invitation. -</p> - -<p> -That was the occasion of my first meeting with -Timothy O'Hara: but as I subsequently travelled -half across the world in his company, was admitted -to his friendship, and heard him relate his -experiences, not once but many times, I am able to -supply the key to his extraordinary behaviour that -evening. I regret that it is impossible to give his -story in his own words, for he told it graphically, -and with force; but unfortunately his very proper -indignation got the better of his discretion, with the -result that he frequently waxed blasphemous in the -course of his narrative, and at times was rendered -altogether inarticulate by rage. However, the -version which I now offer to the reader is accurate in -all essential details: and my own first-hand -knowledge of that gentle race called Muruts, at whose -hands O'Hara fared so evilly, has helped me to fill -in such blanks as may have existed in the tale as it -originally reached me. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -A score of years ago there was a man in North -Borneo, whose name does not matter—a man who -had the itch of travel in him, and loved untrodden -places for their own sake. He undertook to explore -the interior of the no-man's-land which the -Chartered Company euphemistically described as its -"property." He made his way inland from the -western coast, and little more was heard of him for -several months. At the end of that time a haze of -disquieting rumours, as impalpable as the used-up, -fever-laden wind that blows eternally from the -interior, reached the little squalid stations on the -seashore; and shortly afterward the body of the -explorer, terribly mangled and mutilated, was sluiced -down-country by a freshet, and brought up on a -sand-spit near the mouth of a river on the east -coast. Here it was discovered by a couple of white -men, who with the aid of a handful of unwilling -natives buried it in becoming state, since it was the -only thing with a European father and mother -which had ever travelled across the centre of North -Borneo, from sea to sea, since the beginning of time. -</p> - -<p> -In life the explorer had been noted for his beard, -a great yellow cascade of hair which fell down his -breast from his lip to his waist; and when his corpse -was found this ornament was missing. The Chartered -Company, whose business it was to pay dividends -in adverse circumstances, did not profess to -be a philanthropical institution, and could not spend -its hard-squeezed revenues upon putting the fear of -death into people who have made too free with the -lives of white folk, as is the practice in other parts -of Asia. Therefore no steps were taken by the -local administration to punish the Muruts of the -interior who had amused themselves by putting the -explorer to an ugly death; but the knowledge that -the murdered man's beard had been shorn from his -chin by some truculent savage, and was even then -ornamenting the knife-handle of a Murut chief in -the heart of the island rankled in the minds of the -white men on the spot. The wise and prudent -members of the community talked a great deal, said -roundly that the thing was a shame and an abomination, -and took care to let their discretion carry -them no farther than the spoken word. The young -and foolish did not say much, but the recovery of -that wisp of hair became to many of them a -tremendous ambition, a dream, something that made -even existence in North Borneo tolerable, while it -presented itself to their imaginations as a feat -possible of accomplishment. With a few this dream -became an <i>idée fixe</i>, an object in a life that otherwise -was unendurable; and it may even have saved a -few from the perpetration of more immediate -follies. The quest would be the most hazardous -conceivable, a fitting enterprise for men rendered -desperate by the circumstances into the midst of which -fate had thrust them. -</p> - -<p> -Sitting at home in England, with pleasant things -to distract the mind all about you, and with -nothing at hand more dangerous than a taxicab, all this -pother concerning the hairs off a dead man's chin -may appeal to you as something absurdly sentimental -and irrational; but try for the moment to place -yourself in the position of an isolated white man at -an outstation of North Borneo. Picture to yourself -a tumble-down thatched bungalow standing on a -roughly cleared hill, with four Chinese shops and a -dilapidated police-station squatting on the bank of -a black, creeping river. Rub in a smudge of -blue-green forest, shutting you up on flanks, front, and -rear. Fill that forest with scattered huts, wherein -squalid natives live the lives of beasts—natives -whose language you do not know, whose ideas you -do not understand, who make their presence felt -only by means of savage howls raised by them in -their drunken orgies—natives whose hatred of you -can only be kept from active expression by such fear -as your armed readiness may inspire. Add to this -merciless heat, faint exhausted air, an occasional -bout of the black fever of the country, and not -enough of work to preserve your mind from rust. -Remember that the men who are doomed to live in -these places get no sport, have no recreations, no -companionship; and that the long, empty, suffocating -days trail by, one by one, bringing no hope of -change, and that the only communication with the -outer world is kept up fitfully by certain dingy -steam-tramps which are always behind time, and -which may, or may not, arrive once a month. Can -you wonder that amid such surroundings men wax -melancholy; that they take to brooding over all -manner of trivial things in a fashion which is not -quite sane; and that the knowledge that their -continued existence is dependent upon the wholesome -awe in which white folks are held sometimes gets -upon their nerves, and makes them feverishly -anxious to vindicate the honour of their race? When -you have let the full meaning of these things sink -into your minds, you will begin to understand why -so much excitement prevailed in North Borneo -concerning the reported ownership of the deceased -explorer's beard. -</p> - -<p> -Timothy O'Hara and Harold Bateman had lived -lives such as those which I have described for half -a dozen years or more. They had had ample leisure -in which to turn the matter of the explorer's beard -over and over in their minds, till the thought of it -had bred something like fanaticism—a kind of still, -white-hot rage within them. It chanced that their -leave of absence fell due upon one and the same -day. It followed that they put their heads together -and decided to start upon a private raid of their own -into the interior of the Murut country, with a view -to redeeming the trophy. It also followed that they -made their preparations with the utmost secrecy, -and that they enlisted a dozen villainous little -Dyaks from Sarawak to act as their punitive force. -The whole thing was highly improper and very -illegal, but it promised adventurous experiences, and -both Bateman and O'Hara were young and not over-wise. -Also, it must be urged in extenuation of their -conduct that they had the effects of some six years' -crushing monotony to work off; and that they had -learned to regard the Muruts of the interior as their -natural enemies; and that the ugliness and the -deadly solitude of their existence had rendered them -savage, just as the tamest beast becomes wild and -ferocious when it finds itself held in the painful grip -of a trap. -</p> - -<p> -I am in nowise concerned to justify their doings: -my part is to record them. O'Hara and Bateman -vanished one day from the last outpost of -quasi-civilisation, having given out that they were off -up-country in search of big game—which was a fact. -Their little expedition slipped into the forest, and -the wilderness swallowed it up. When once they -had pushed out into the unknown interior they were -gone past power of recall, were lost as completely as -a needle in a ten-acre hay-field; and they breathed -more freely because they had escaped from the -narrow zone wherein the law of the white man runs, -and need guide themselves for the future merely by -the dictates of their own rudimentary notions of -right and wrong. -</p> - -<p> -They had a very hard time of it, so far as I can -gather; for the current of the rivers, which crept -toward them, black and oily, from the upper -country, was dead against them, and the rapids soon -caused them to abandon their boats. Then they -tramped it, trudging with dogged perseverance up -and down the hills, clambering painfully up sheer -ascents, slipping down the steep pitches on the other -side, splashing and labouring through the swamps -betwixt hill and hill, or wading waist-deep across -wildernesses of rank <i>lalang</i>-grass, from the green -surface of which the refracted heat smote them -under their hat-brims with the force of blows. -Aching in every limb, half-blinded by the sweat that -trickled into their eyes, flayed by the sun, mired to -the ears in the morasses, torn by thorn-thickets, -devoured by tree-leeches, stung by all manner of -jungle-insects, and oppressed by the weight of -self-imposed effort that pride forbade them to abandon, -they struggled forward persistently, fiercely, -growing more savage and more vindictive at every -painful step. The golden fleece of beard, which was the -object of their quest, became an oriflamme, in the -wake of which they floundered eternally through -the inferno of an endless fight. Their determination -to recover it became a madness, a possession: it -filled their minds to the exclusion of aught else, -nerved them to fresh endeavour, spurred them out -of their weariness, and would not suffer them to -rest. But the bitterness of their travail incensed -them mightily against the Murut folk, whose lack of -reverence for white men had imposed so tremendous -a task upon these self-appointed champions of their -race; and as they sat over their unpalatable meals -when the day's toil was ended, they talked together -in blood-thirsty fashion of the vengeances they -would wreak and the punishment they would exact -from the tribe which was discovered to be in -possession of the object of their search. -</p> - -<p> -One feature of their march was that prudence -forbade a halt. The Murut of North Borneo is a -person of mean understanding, who requires time -wherein to set his slow intellect in motion. He is a -dipsomaniac, a homicide by training and predilection, -and he has a passion for collecting other people's -skulls, which is an unscrupulous and as fanatical as -that of the modern philatelist. Whenever he -encounters a stranger, he immediately falls to coveting -that stranger's skull; but as he is a creature of poor -courage it is essential to his comfort that he should -win possession of it only by means that will not -endanger his own skin. The question as to how -such means may be contrived presents a difficult -problem for his solution, and it takes his groping -mind from two to three days in which to hit upon a -workable plan. The explorer, as Bateman and -O'Hara were aware, had lost his life because, -overcome by fatigue, he had allowed himself to commit -the mistake of spending more than a single night -under a hospitable Murut roof-tree, and had so -given time to his hosts to plot his destruction. Had -he only held steadily upon his way, all might have -been well with him: for in a country where every -village is at enmity with its neighbours, a short -march would have carried him into a stranger's -land, which he should have been able to quit in its -turn ere the schemes for his immolation hatched -therein had had time in which to ripen. O'Hara -and Bateman, therefore, no matter how worn out -they might be by that everlasting, clambering -tramp across that cruel huddle of hill-caps, were -rowelled by necessity into pushing forward, and -still forward, as surely as the day dawned. -</p> - -<p> -Often the filth and squalor of the long airless -huts—each one of which accommodated a whole -village community in its dark interior, all the pigs -and fowls of the place beneath its flooring, and as -many blackened human skulls as could find hanging -space along its roof-beams—sickened them, and -drove them forth to camp in the jungle. Here -there were only wild beasts—self-respecting and -on the whole cleanly beasts, which compared very -favourably with the less attractive animals in the -village huts—but a vigilant guard had to be -maintained against possible surprise; and this, after a -heart-breaking tramp, was hard alike upon white -men and Dyaks. -</p> - -<p> -The raiders had pitched their camp in such a -place one evening; and as the party lacked meat, -and the pigeons could be heard cooing in the -treetops close at hand, O'Hara took his fowling piece -and strolled off alone into the forest, with the -intention of shooting a few birds for the pot. The -jungle was very dense in this part of the country—so -dense, indeed, that a man was powerless to see in -any direction for a distance of more than a dozen -yards; but the pigeons were plentiful, and as they -fluttered from tree to tree O'Hara walked after -them without in the least realising how far he was -straying from his starting point. At last the fast-failing -light arrested his attention, and as he stooped -to pick up the last pigeon, the search for which -among the brambles had occupied more time than -he had fancied, it suddenly struck him that he -ought to be returning to the camp, while a doubt -as to its exact direction assailed him. He was in -the very act of straightening himself again with a -view to looking about him for some indication of -the path by which he had come when a slight crackle -in the underwood smote upon his ear. He remained -very still, stooping forward as he was, holding his -breath, and listening intently. It flashed through -his mind that the sound might have been made by -one of the Dyaks, who perhaps had come out of the -camp in search of him and he waited the repetition -of the snapping noise with eagerness, hoping that it -would tell him whether it were caused by man or -beast. As he stood thus for an instant with bowed -shoulders, the crackle came again, louder, crisper, -and much clearer than before; and at the same -moment, before he had time to change his attitude -or to realise that danger threatened him, something -smote him heavily in the back, bringing him prone -to the earth with a grunt. The concussion was -caused by some yielding substance, that was yet -quick and warm; and the litter of dead leaves and -the tangle of underwood combined to break his fall. -He was not hurt, therefore, though the breath was -knocked out of him, and that unseen something, -which tumbled and writhed upon his back, pinned -him to the ground. He skewed his head round, -trying to see what had assailed him, and immediately -a diabolical face peeped over his shoulder an -inch or two above it. He only saw, as it were, in a -flash; but the sight was one which, he was -accustomed to say, he would never forget. In after -years it was wont to recur to him in dreams, and -as surely as it came it woke him with a scream. -It was a savage face, brown yet pallid, grimed with -dirt and wood ashes, with a narrow retreating forehead, -a bestial prognathous snout, and a tiny twitching -chin. The little black eyes, fierce and excited, -were ringed about with angry sores, for the eyelashes -had been plucked out. The eyebrows had been -removed, but from the upper lip a few coarse wires -sprouted uncleanly. The face was split in twain by a -set of uneven teeth pointed like those of a wild cat, -and tightly clenched, while above and below them the -gums snarled rigidly, bearing witness to the physical -effort which their owner was making. The scalp -was divided into even halves by a broad parting, on -either side of which there rose a tangle of dirty, -ill-kept hair, that was drawn back into a chignon, -giving to the creature a curious sexless aspect. All -these things O'Hara noted in the fraction of a -second; and as the horror bred of them set him -heaving and fighting as well as his cramped -position made possible, a sharp knee-cap was driven -into the back of his neck, and his head fell with a -concussion that blinded him. For a moment he -lay still and inert, and in that moment he was -conscious of little deft hands, that flew this way -and that, over, under, and around his limbs, and -of the pressure of narrow withes, drawn suddenly -taut, that ate into his flesh. Up to this time the -whole affair has been transacted in a dead, -unnatural silence that somehow gave to it the -strangeness and unreality of a nightmare; but now, as -O'Hara lay prostrate with his face buried in the -underwood, the even song of the forest insects, -which rings through the jungle during the gloaming -hour, was suddenly interrupted by an outbreak of -queer sounds—by gurgling, jerky speech inter-mixed -with shrill squeakings and whistlings, and -by the clicking cackle which stands the Murut folk -instead of laughter. Yet even now the voices of his -captors were subdued and hushed, as though -unwilling to be overheard; and O'Hara, understanding -that the Muruts feared to be interrupted by their -victim's friends, made shift to raise a shout, albeit -the green stuff forced its way into his mouth and -choked his utterance. -</p> - -<p> -Immediately the little nimble hands were busy, -clutching him afresh, while the tones of those -inhuman voices shrilled and gurgled and clicked -more excitedly than before. O'Hara was heaved -and tugged, first one way, then another, until his -body was rolled over on to its back, falling with a -dull bump. He shouted once more, putting all the -strength that was in him into the yell, and the -nearest Murut promptly stamped on his mouth -with his horny heel. O'Hara bit viciously at the -thing, but his teeth could make no impression upon -its leathery under-surface, and before he could shout -again he found himself gagged with a piece of wood, -which was bound in its place by a couple of withes. -Despair seized him then, and for a moment or two -he lay still, with the manhood knocked fairly out -of him by a crushing consciousness of impotence, -while the gabble of squeak and whistle and grunt, -still hushed cautiously, broke out more discordantly -than ever. -</p> - -<p> -The withes about his limbs bound O'Hara so -cripplingly that only his neck was free to move; -but presently, craning it upward, he caught sight -of his persecutors for the first time. They formed -a squalid group of little, half-starved, wizened -creatures, not much larger than most European -children of fourteen, but with brutal faces that -seemed to bear the weight of whole centuries of -care and animal indulgence. They were naked, -save for their foul loin-clouts; they were abominably -dirty, and their skins were smothered in leprous-looking -ringworm; they had not an eyelash or an -eyebrow among them, for the hairs had been plucked -out by the root; but their scalps were covered by -frowsy growths, gathered into loathsome chignons -on the napes of their necks. Every man was armed -with one or more spears, and from the waist of -each a long knife depended, sheathed in a wooden -scabbard hung with tufts of hair. One of them—the -man of whose face O'Hara had caught a glimpse -above his shoulder—flourished his sheathed knife -insistently in his captive's face with grotesque -gesticulations, and O'Hara shuddered every time -that the disgusting tassels that bedecked the -scabbard swept his cheek. The fading daylight was -very dim now, enabling O'Hara to see only the -<i>form</i> of the things by which he was surrounded; -<i>colour</i> had ceased to have any meaning in those -gloomy forest aisles. The grinning savage prancing -and gibbering around him, and brandishing that -sheathed weapon with its revolting trophies, puzzled -him. If he meant murder, why did he not draw his -blade? In the depth of his misery the inconsequence -of this war-dance furnished O'Hara with an -additional torture. -</p> - -<p> -Presently two of the Muruts came suddenly -within his field of vision bearing a long green pole. -This they proceeded to thrust between O'Hara's -flesh and the withes that were entwined about him; -and when this had been accomplished, the whole -party set their shoulders under the extremities of -the pole and lifted their prisoner clear of the ground. -Then they bore him off at a sort of jog-trot. -</p> - -<p> -The thongs, tightened fearfully by the pressure -thus put upon them, pinched and bruised him pitilessly; -and his head, lacking all support, hung down -in an attitude of dislocation, waggling this way and -that at every jolt; the blood surged into his brain, -causing a horrible vertigo, and seeming to thrust his -eyes almost out of their sockets; he thought that he -could feel his limbs swelling above the biting grip of -the withes, and an irresistible nausea seized him. -Maddening cramps tied knots in his every muscle; -and had his journey been of long duration, Timothy -O'Hara would never have reached its end alive. -Very soon, however, the decreased pace, and the -shrill whistling sounds which came from the noses -of his Murut bearers, told him that the party was -ascending a hill—for these strange folk do not pant -like ordinary human beings, and the uncanny noise -was familiar to O'Hara from many a toilsome march -in the company of native porters. Presently, too, -between the straining legs of the leading files, O'Hara -caught a flying glimpse of distant fire; and that, he -knew, betokened the neighbourhood of a village. -</p> - -<p> -A few minutes later, just as he thought that he was -about to lose consciousness, the village was reached—a -long, narrow hut, raised on piles, and with a door -at either end, from the thresholds of which crazy -ladder-ways led to the ground. Up the nearest of -these rude staircases the Muruts struggled with their -burden, banging his head roughly against each -untrimmed rung, and throwing him down on the -bamboo flooring with a chorus of grunts. For a moment -there was silence, while the entire community -gathered round the white man, staring at him eagerly -with a kind of ferocious curiosity. Then with one -accord all the men, women, and children present set -up a diabolical chorus of whoopings and yellings. -They seemed to give themselves over to a veritable -insanity of noise. Some, squatting on their heels, -supporting the weight of their bodies on arms -thrust well behind them, tilted their chins to the -roof and howled like maniacs. Others, standing -erect, opened their mouths to their fullest extent, -and emitted a series of shrill blood-curdling bellows. -Others, again, shut their eyes, threw their arms -aloft, and, concentrating every available atom of -energy in the effort, screamed till their voices broke. -The ear-piercing din sounded as though all the -devils in hell had of a sudden broken loose. Heard -from afar, the savage triumph, the diabolical delight -that found in it their fitting expression, might well -have made the blood run cold in the veins of the -bravest; but heard close at hand by the solitary -white man whose capture had evoked that hideous -outcry, and who knew himself to be utterly at the -mercy of these fiends, it was almost enough to -unship his reason. O'Hara told me that from that -moment he forgot the pains which his bonds had -occasioned him, forgot even his desire to escape, and -was filled with a tremendous longing to be put out -of his agony—to be set free by death from this -unspeakable inferno. His mind, he said, was working -with surprising activity, and "as though it belonged -to somebody else." In a series of flashes he began -to recall all that he had ever heard of the manners -and customs of the Muruts, of the strange uses to -which they put their prisoners; and all the while he -was possessed by a kind of restlessness that made him -eager for them to do <i>something</i>—of no matter how -awful a character—that would put a period to his -unendurable suspense. -</p> - -<p> -Meanwhile the Muruts were enjoying themselves -thoroughly. Great earthenware jars, each -sufficiently large to drown a baby with comfort, were -already standing round the enclosed veranda -which formed the common-room of the village, on -to which each family cubicle opened, and to these -jars the Muruts—men, women, and children—repeatedly -addressed themselves, squatting by them, -and sucking up the abominable liquor which filled -them through long bamboo tubes. Each toper, as -he quitted the jar, fell to howling with redoubled -energy; and as more and more of the fiery stuff was -consumed, their cries became more savage, more -inarticulate, and more diabolical. -</p> - -<p> -Half a dozen men, however, were apparently busy -in the performance of some task on a spot just behind -O'Hara's head, for though they frequently paid -visits of ceremony to the liquor-jars, they always -staggered back to the same part of the room when -their draughts were ended, and there fell to hacking -and hammering at wood with renewed energy. -O'Hara was convinced that they were employed in -constructing some infernal instrument of torture; -and the impossibility of ascertaining its nature was -maddening, and set his imagination picturing every -abominable contrivance for the infliction of anguish -of which he had ever heard or read. And all the -while the hideous orgies, for which his capture was -the pretext, were waxing fast and furious. -</p> - -<p> -Suddenly the hidden group behind him set up a -shrill cat-call, and at the sound every Murut in sight -leaped to his or her feet, and danced frantically with -hideous outcry and maniacal laughter. A moment -later a rattan rope whined as it was pulled over the -main beam of the roof with something heavy at its -end; and as the slack of the cord was made fast to -the wall-post opposite to him, O'Hara was aware of -some large object suspended in mid-air, swinging out -into the middle of the veranda immediately above -him. This, as he craned his neck up at it, struggling -to see it more clearly in the uncertain torch-light, -was presently revealed as a big cage, an uneven -square in shape, the bars of which were some six -inches apart, saving on one side, where a wide gap -was left. He had barely had time to make this -discovery when a mob of Murut men and women -rushed at him, cut the bonds that bound him, and -mauling him mercilessly, lifted him up, and literally -threw him into the opening formed by the gap. The -cage rocked crazily, while the Muruts yelled their -delight, and two of their number proceeded hastily -to patch up the gap with cross-pieces of wood. Then -the whole crowd drew away a little, though the -hub-bub never slackened, and O'Hara set his teeth to -smother the groans which the pains of the removed -bonds nearly wrung from him. For the time fear was -forgotten in the acuteness of the agony which he -endured; for as the blood began to flow freely once -more, every inch of his body seemed to have been -transformed into so many raging teeth. His -extremities felt soft and flabby—cold, too, like -jellies—but O'Hara was by nature a very strong man and -at the time of his capture had been in the pink of -condition. In an incredibly short while, therefore, -the pain subsided, and he began to regain the use of -his cramped limbs. -</p> - -<p> -He was first made aware of his recovered activity -by the alacrity with which he bounded into the -centre of the cage in obedience to a sharp prick in the -back. He tried to rise to his feet, and his head came -into stunning contact with the roof; then, in a -crouching attitude, he turned in the direction whence -the attack had reached him. What he saw filled -him with horror. The leader of the Muruts who had -captured him, his eyes bloodshot with drink, was -staggering about in front of him with grotesque -posturings, waving his knife in one hand and its -wooden sheath in the other. It was the former, -evidently, that had administered that painful prod to -O'Hara's back, but it was the latter which chained -the white man's attention even in that moment of -whirling emotions, for from its base depended a long -shaggy wisp of sodden yellow hair—the golden fleece -of which O'Hara and Bateman were in search. In -a flash the savage saw that his victim had -recognised the trophy to which he had already been at -some pains to direct to his attention, and the -assembled Muruts gave unmistakable tokens that they all -grasped the picturesqueness of the situation. They -yelled and howled and bayed more frantically than -ever; some of them rolled upon the floor, their -limbs and faces contorted by paroxysms of savage -merriment, while others staggered about, smiting -their fellows on their bare shoulders, squeaking like -bats, and clicking like demoralised clockwork. A -second prod with a sharp point made O'Hara shy -across his narrow cage like a fly-bitten horse, and -before he could recover his balance a score of -delicately handled weapons inflicted light wounds all -over his face and hands. As each knife touched him -its owner put up his head and repeated some formula -in a shrill sing-song, no word of which was -intelligible to O'Hara save only the name of Kina-Balu—the -great mountain which dominates North Borneo, -and is believed by the natives to be the eternal -resting-place of the spirits which have quitted the life -of earth. -</p> - -<p> -Then, for the first time, O'Hara understood what -was happening to him. He had often heard of the -ceremony known to the wild Muruts as a <i>bangun</i>, -which has for its object the maintenance of communication -between the living and the dead. He had even -seen a pig hung up, as he was now hanging, while the -tamer Muruts prodded it to death very carefully -and slowly, charging it the while with messages for -the spirits of the departed; and he remembered -how the abominable cruelty of the proceeding had -turned him sick, and had set him longing to interfere -with native religious customs in defiance of the -prudent government which he served. Now he was -himself to be done to death by inches, just as the -pig had died, and he knew that men had spoken -truly when they had explained to him that the -unfortunate quadruped was only substituted for a -nobler victim as a concession to European prejudice, -to the great discontent of the tame Muruts. -</p> - -<p> -These thoughts rushed through his mind with the -speed of lightning, and all the while it seemed to him -that every particle of his mental forces was -concentrated upon a single object—the task of defending -himself against a crowd of persecutors. Crouching -in the centre of the cage, snarling like a cat, with his -eyes bursting from their sockets, his every limb -braced for a leap in any direction, his hands scrabbling -at the air to ward off the stabs, he faced from -side to side, his breath coming in quick, noisy pants. -Every second one or another of the points that -assailed him made him turn about with a cry of rage, -and immediately his exposed back was prodded by -every Murut within reach. Suddenly he heard his -own voice raised in awful curses and blasphemies, -and the familiar tones of his mother-tongue smote -him with surprise. He had little consciousness of -pain as pain, only the necessity of warding off the -points of his enemies' weapons presented itself to -him as something that must be accomplished at all -costs, and each separate failure enraged him. He -bounded about his cage with an energy and an -agility that astonished him, and the rocking of his -prison seemed to keep time with the lilting of his -thumping heart-beats. More than once he fell, and -his face and scalp were prodded terribly ere he could -regain his feet; often he warded off a thrust with -his bare hands. But of the wounds which he thus -received he was hardly conscious; his mind was in a -species of delirium of rage, and all the time he was -torn with a fury of indignation because he, a white -man, was being treated in this dishonouring fashion -by a pack of despicable Muruts. But he received no -serious injury; for the Muruts, who had many -messages for their dead relations, were anxious to -keep the life in him as long as might be, and in spite -of their intoxication, prodded him with shrewdness -and caution. How long it all lasted O'Hara never -knew with certainty; but it was the exhaustion -caused by loss of breath and blood, and by the wild -leaping of that bursting heart of his, that caused -him presently to sink on the floor of his cage in a -swoon. -</p> - -<p> -The Muruts, finding that he did not answer to -their stabs, drew off and gathered eagerly around -the liquor-jars. The killing would come soon after -dawn—as soon, in fact, as their overnight orgies -made it possible—when the prisoner would be set to -run the gauntlet, and would be hacked to pieces after -one final delicious <i>bangun</i>. It was essential, therefore, -that enough strength should be left in him to -show good sport; and in the meantime their villainous -home-made spirits would bring that measure -of happiness which comes to the Murut from being -suffered, for a little space, to forget the fact of his -own repulsive existence. Accordingly, with noisy -hospitality, each man tried to make his neighbour -drink to greater excess than himself, and all proved -willing victims. With hoots and squeals of laughter, -little children were torn from their mothers' breasts -and given to suck at the bamboo pipes, their ensuing -intoxication being watched with huge merriment by -men and women alike. The shouts raised by the -revellers became more and more shaky, less and less -articulate; over and over again the groups around -the jars broke up, while their members crawled away, -to lie about in deathlike stupors, from which they -aroused themselves only to vomit and drink anew. -</p> - -<p> -Long after this stage of the proceedings had been -reached, O'Hara had recovered his senses; but -prudence bade him lie as still as a mouse. Once or -twice a drunken Murut lurched onto his feet and -made a pass or two at him, and now and again he -was prodded painfully; but putting forth all the -self-control at his command, he gave no sign of life. At -last every Murut in the place was sunken in abominable -torpor, excepting only the chief, from whose -knife-scabbard hung the tuft of hair which had once -ornamented the chin of the explorer. His little red -eyes were fixed in a drunken stare upon O'Hara, and -the latter watched them with a fascination of dread -through his half-closed lids. Over and over again -the Murut crawled to the nearest liquor-jar, and -sucked up the dregs with a horrible sibilant gurgling; -and at times he even staggered to his feet, muttering -and mumbling over his tiny, busy chin, waving his -weapon uncertainly, ere he subsided in a limp heap -upon the floor. On each occasion he gave more -evident signs of drowsiness and at last his blinking -eyes were covered by their lashless lids. -</p> - -<p> -At the same moment a gentle gnawing sound, -which had been attracting O'Hara's attention for -some minutes, though he had not dared to move by -so much as a finger's breadth to discover its cause, -ceased abruptly. Then the faintest ghost of a -whisper came to his ears from below his cage, and, -moving with the greatest caution, and peering down -through the uncertain light, he saw that a hole had -been made by sawing away two of the lathes which -formed the flooring. In the black hole immediately -beneath him the faces of two of his own Dyaks were -framed, and even as he looked one of them hoisted -himself into the hut, and began deftly to remove the -bars of the cage, working as noiselessly as a shadow. -The whole thing was done so silently, and O'Hara's -own mind was so racked by the emotions which his -recent experiences had held for him, that he was at -first persuaded that what he saw, or rather fancied -he saw, was merely a figment conjured up for his -torture by the delirium which possessed him. He -felt that if he suffered himself to believe in this -mocking delusion even for an instant, the disappointment -of discovering its utter unreality would drive him -mad. He was already spent with misery, physical -and mental; he was constantly holding himself in -leash to prevent the commission of some insane -extravagance; he was seized with an unreasoning -desire to scream. He fought with himself—a self -that was unfamiliar to him, although its identity -was never in doubt—as he might have fought with -a stranger. He told himself that his senses were -playing cruel pranks upon him, and that nothing -should induce him to be deceived by them; and all -the while—hope—mad, wild hysterical hope—was -surging up in his heart, shaking him like an aspen, -wringing unaccustomed tears from his eyes, and -tearing his breast with noiseless sobs. -</p> - -<p> -As he lay inert and utterly wretched, unable to -bear up manfully under this new wanton torture -of the mind, the ghost of the second Dyak clambered -skilfully out of the darkness below the hut, -and joined his fellow, who had already made a wide -gap in the side of the cage. Then the two of them -seized O'Hara, and with the same strange absence -of sound lifted him bodily through the prison and -through the hole in the flooring on to the earth -below. Their grip upon his lacerated flesh hurt -him acutely; but the very pain was welcome, for -did it not prove the reality of his deliverers? What -he experienced of relief and gratitude O'Hara could -never tell us, for all he remembers is that, gone -suddenly weak and plaintive as a child, he clung -to the little Dyaks, sobbing broken-heartedly, and -weeping on their shoulders without restraint or -decency, in utter abandon of self-pity. Also he -recalls dimly that centuries later he found himself -standing in Bateman's camp, with his people -gathering about him, and that of a sudden he was aware -that he was mother-naked. After that, so he -avers, all is a blank. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -The closing incidents of the story were related -to me by Bateman one evening when I chanced to -foregather with him in an up-country outpost in -Borneo. We had been talking far into the night, -and our <i>solitude à deux</i> and the lateness of the hour -combined to thaw his usual taciturnity and to -unlock his shy confidence. Therefore I was put -in possession of a secret which until then, I believe, -had been closely kept. -</p> - -<p> -"It was an awful night," he said, "that upon -which poor O'Hara was missing. The Dyaks had -gone out in couples all over the place to try to pick -up his trail, but I remained in the camp; for though -there was a little moon, it was too dark for a white -man's eyes to be of any good. What with the -inactivity, and my fears for O'Hara, I was as 'jumpy' -as you make 'em; and as the Dyaks began to drop -in, two at a time, each couple bringing in their tale -of failure, I worked myself up to such a state of -depression and misery that I thought I must be -going mad. Just about three o'clock in the morning -the last brace of Dyaks turned up, and I was all of a -shake when I saw that they had poor O'Hara with -them. He broke loose from them and stumbled into -the centre of the camp stark naked, and pecked almost -to bits by those infernal Murut knives; but the -wounds were not overdeep, and the blood was -caking over most of them. He was an awful sight, -and I was for tending his hurt without delay; but he -pushed me roughly aside, and I saw that his eyes -were blazing with madness. He stood there in the -midst of us all, throwing his arms above his head, -cursing in English and in the vernacular, and -gesticulating wildly. The Dyaks edged away from him, -and I could see that his condition funked them -mortally. I tried again and again to speak to him -and calm him, but he would not listen to a word I -said, and for full five minutes he stood there raving -and ranting, now and again pacing frenziedly from -side to side, pouring out a torrent of invective mixed -with muddled orders. One of the Dyaks brought -him a pair of trousers, and after looking at them as -though he had never seen such things before, he put -them on, and stood for a second or two staring -wildly around him. Then he made a bee-line for a -rifle, loaded it, and slung a bandolier across his -naked shoulders; and before I could stay him he was -marching out of the camp with the whole crowd of -Dyaks at his heels. -</p> - -<p> -"I could only follow. I had no fancy for being -left alone in that wilderness, more especially just -then, and one of the Dyaks told me that he was -leading them back to the Murut village. You see -I only speak Malay, and as O'Hara had been talking -Dyak I had not been able to follow his ravings. -Whatever lingo he jabbered, however, it was as -plain as a pikestaff that the fellow was mad as a -hatter; but I had to stop explaining this to him, -for he threatened to shoot me, and the Dyaks would -not listen. They clearly thought that he was -possessed by a devil, and they would have gone to -hell at his bidding while their fear of him was upon -them. -</p> - -<p> -"And his madness made him cunning too, for he -stalked the Murut den wonderfully neatly, and just -as the dawn was breaking we found ourselves posted -in the jungle within a few yards of the two doors, -which were the only means of entrance or exit for -the poor devils in the hut. -</p> - -<p> -"Then O'Hara leaped out of his hiding place and -began yelling like the maniac he was; and in an -instant the whole of that long hut was humming -like a disturbed beehive. Three or four squalid -creatures showed themselves at the doorway nearest -O'Hara, and he greeted them with half the contents -of his magazine, and shrieked with laughter as they -toppled onto the ground rolling over in their -death-agony. There was such a wailing and crying set up -by the other inhabitants of the hut as you never -heard in all your life—it was just despair made -vocal—the sort of outcry that a huge menagerie of -wild animals might make when they saw flames -lapping at their cages; and above it all I could hear -O'Hara's demoniac laughter ringing with savage -delight, and the war-whoops of those little devils of -Dyaks, whose blood was fairly up now. The trapped -wretches in the hut made a stampede for the farther -door; we could hear them scuffling and fighting -with one another for the foremost places. They -thought that safety lay in that direction; but the -Dyaks were ready for them, and the bullets from -their Winchesters drove clean through three and -four of the squirming creatures at a time, and in a -moment that doorway, too, and the ground about -the ladder foot were a shambles. -</p> - -<p> -"After that for a space there was a kind of awful -lull within the hut, though without O'Hara and his -Dyaks capered and yelled. Then the noise which -our folk were making was drowned by a series of -the most heart-breaking shrieks you ever heard or -dreamed of, and immediately a second rush was -made simultaneously at each door. The early -morning light was getting stronger now, and I -remember noting how incongruously peaceful and -serene it seemed. Part of the hut near our end had -caught fire somehow, and there was a lot of smoke, -which hung low about the doorway. Through -this I saw the crowd of Muruts struggle in that -final rush, and my blood went cold when I understood -what they were doing. Every man had a -woman or a child held tightly in his arms—held in -front of him as a buckler—and it was from these poor -devils that those awful screams were coming. I -jumped in front of the Dyaks and yelled to them in -Malay to hold their fire; but O'Hara thrust me -aside, and shooed the Dyaks on with shouts and -curses and peals of laughter, slapping his palm on -his gunstock, and capering with delight and excitement. -The Dyaks took no sort of heed of me, and -the volleys met the Muruts like a wall of lead. -</p> - -<p> -"I had slipped and fallen when O'Hara pushed -me, and as I clambered on to my feet again I saw -the mob of savages fall together and crumple up, -for all the world as paper crumples when burned -suddenly. Most of them fell back into the dark -interior of the hut, writhing in convulsions above the -litter of the dead; but one or two pitched forward -headlong to the ground, and I saw a little brown -baby, which had escaped unharmed, crawling about -over the corpses, and squeaking like a wounded -rabbit. I ran forward to save it, but a Dyak was -too quick for me, and before I could get near it, he -had thrown himself upon it, and ... <i>ugh</i>! -</p> - -<p> -"The Muruts began cutting their way through -the flooring then, and trying to bolt into the jungle. -One or two of them got away, I think; and this -threw O'Hara into such a passion of fury that I -half expected to see him kill some of the Dyaks. -He tore around to the side of the hut, and I saw him -brain one Murut as he made a rush from under the -low floor. One end of the building was in roaring -flames by this time, and half a dozen Dyaks had -gone in at the other end and were bolting the -wretched creatures from their hiding places, just as -ferrets bolt rabbits from their burrows, while O'Hara -and the other Dyaks waited for them outside. -They hardly missed one of them, sparing neither -age nor sex, though I ran from one to another like a -madman, trying to prevent them. It was awful -... awful! and I was fairly blubbering with the -horror of it, and with the consciousness of my own -impotence. I was regularly broken up by it, and I -remember at the last sitting down upon a log, -burying my face in my hands, and crying like a child. -</p> - -<p> -"The thing seemed to be over by then: there was -no more bolting, and the Dyaks were beginning to -clear out of the hut as the flames gained ground -and made the place too hot for them. But, at the -last, there came a terrific yell from the very heart of -the fire, and a single Murut leaped out of the smoke. -He was stark naked, for his loin clout had been -burned to tinder; he was blackened by the smoke, -and his long hair was afire behind him! His mouth -was wide, and the cries that came from it went -through and through my head, running up and up -the scale till they hit upon a note the shrillness of -which agonised me. Surrounded by the flames, he -looked like a devil in the heart of the pit. In one -scorched arm he brandished a long knife, the blade -of which was red with the glare of the flames, and in -the other was the sheath, blazing at one end, and -decked at the other by a great tuft of yellow hair -that was smouldering damply. -</p> - -<p> -"As soon as he saw him O'Hara raised a terrible -cry and threw himself at him. The two men grappled -and fell, the knife and scabbard escaping from the -Murut's grasp and pitching straight into the fire. -The struggle lasted for nearly a minute, O'Hara and -his enemy rolling over and over one another, -breathing heavily but making no other sound. Then -something happened—I don't clearly know what; -but the Murut's head dropped, and O'Hara rose up -from his dead body, moving very stiffly. He stood -for a moment so, looking round him in a dazed -fashion, until his eyes caught mine. Then he -staggered toward me, reeling like a tipsy man. -</p> - -<p> -"'Mother of heaven!' he said thickly, 'what -have I done?' -</p> - -<p> -"He stared round him at the little brown corpses, -doubled up in dislocated and distorted attitudes, -and his eyes were troubled. -</p> - -<p> -"'God forgive me!' he muttered. 'God forgive -me!' -</p> - -<p> -"Then he spun about on his heel, his hands -outstretched above his head, his fingers clutching at the -air, a thin foam forming on his lips, and before I -could reach him he had toppled over in a limp heap -upon the ground. -</p> - -<p> -"I had an awful business getting O'Hara -down-country. He was mad as a March hare for three -weeks. But the Dyaks worked like bricks—though -I could not bear the sight of them—and the -currents of the rivers were in our favour when we -reached navigable water. I know that O'Hara was -mad that morning—no white man could have acted -as he did unless he had been insane—and he always -swears that he has no recollection of anything that -occurred after the Dyaks rescued him. I hope it -may be so, but I am not certain. He is a changed -man anyway, as nervous and jumpy as they make -'em, and I know that he is always brooding over -that up-country trip of ours." -</p> - -<p> -"Yes," I assented, "and he is constantly telling -the first part of the story to every chance soul he -meets." -</p> - -<p> -"Exactly," said Bateman. "That is what makes -me sometimes doubt the completeness of his oblivion -concerning what followed. What do you think?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap04"></a></p> - -<h3> -IV -<br /><br /> -LEGEND OF COUNT JULIAN AND HIS FAMILY -</h3> - -<p class="t3"> -WASHINGTON IRVING -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -Many and various are the accounts given in -ancient chronicles of the fortunes of Count -Julian and his family, and many are the -traditions on the subject still extant among the -populace of Spain, and perpetuated in those -countless ballads sung by peasants and muleteers, which -spread a singular charm over the whole of this -romantic land. -</p> - -<p> -He who has travelled in Spain in the true way in -which the country ought to be travelled,—sojourning -in its remote provinces, rambling among the -rugged defiles and secluded valleys of its mountains, -and making himself familiar with the people in their -out-of-the-way hamlets and rarely visited -neighbourhoods,—will remember many a group of -travellers and muleteers, gathered of an evening around -the door or the spacious hearth of a mountain venta, -wrapped in their brown cloaks, and listening with -grave and profound attention to the long historic -ballad of some rustic troubadour, either recited with -the true <i>ore rotunda</i> and modulated cadences of -Spanish elocution, or chanted to the tinkling of a -guitar. In this way he may have heard the doleful -end of Count Julian and his family recounted in -traditionary rhymes, that have been handed down -from generation to generation. The particulars, -however, of the following wild legend are chiefly -gathered from the writings of the pseudo Moor -Rasis; how far they may be safely taken as historic -facts it is impossible now to ascertain; we must -content ourselves, therefore, with their answering to the -exactions of poetic justice. -</p> - -<p> -... Everything had prospered with Count -Julian. He had gratified his vengeance; he had -been successful in his treason, and had acquired -countless riches from the ruin of his country. But -it is not outward success that constitutes prosperity. -The tree flourishes with fruit and foliage while -blasted and withering at the heart. Wherever he went, -Count Julian read hatred in every eye. The Christians -cursed him as the cause of all their woe; the -Moslems despised and distrusted him as a traitor. -Men whispered together as he approached, and then -turned away in scorn; and mothers snatched away -their children with horror if he offered to caress -them. He withered under the execration of his -fellow-men, and last, and worst of all, he began to -loathe himself. He tried in vain to persuade -himself that he had but taken a justifiable vengeance; -he felt that no personal wrong can justify the crime -of treason to one's country. -</p> - -<p> -For a time he sought in luxurious indulgence to -soothe or forget the miseries of the mind. He -assembled round him every pleasure and gratification -that boundless wealth could purchase, but all in -vain. He had no relish for the dainties of his -board; music had no charm wherewith to lull his -soul, and remorse drove slumber from his pillow. -He sent to Ceuta for his wife Frandina, his -daughter Florinda, and his youthful son Alarbot; hoping -in the bosom of his family to find that sympathy -and kindness which he could no longer meet with in -the world. Their presence, however, brought him -no alleviation. Florinda, the daughter of his heart, -for whose sake he had undertaken this signal -vengeance, was sinking a victim to its effects. -Wherever she went, she found herself a byword of shame -and reproach. The outrage she had suffered was -imputed to her as wantonness, and her calamity was -magnified into a crime. The Christians never -mentioned her name without a curse, and the Moslems, -the gainers by her misfortune, spake of her only by -the appellation of Cava, the vilest epithet they could -apply to woman. -</p> - -<p> -But the opprobrium of the world was nothing to -the upbraiding of her own heart. She charged -herself with all the miseries of these disastrous -wars,—the deaths of so many gallant cavaliers, the -conquest and perdition of her country. The anguish of -her mind preyed upon the beauty of her person. -Her eye, once soft and tender in its expression, -became wild and haggard; her cheek lost its bloom, -and became hollow and pallid, and at times there -was desperation in her words. When her father -sought to embrace her she withdrew with shuddering -from his arms, for she thought of his treason -and the ruin it had brought upon Spain. Her -wretchedness increased after her return to her native -country, until it rose to a degree of frenzy. One -day when she was walking with her parents in the -garden of their palace, she entered a tower, and, -having barred the door, ascended to the battlements. -From thence she called to them in piercing -accents, expressive of her insupportable anguish and -desperate determination. "Let this city," said she, -"be henceforth called Malacca, in memorial of the -most wretched of women, who therein put an end -to her days." So saying, she threw herself -headlong from the tower and was dashed to pieces. The -city, adds the ancient chronicler, received the name -thus given it, though afterwards softened to Malaga, -which it still retains in memory of the tragical -end of Florinda. -</p> - -<p> -The Countess Frandina abandoned this scene of -woe, and returned to Ceuta, accompanied by her -infant son. She took with her the remains of her -unfortunate daughter, and gave them honourable -sepulture in a mausoleum of the chapel belonging to -the citadel. Count Julian departed for Carthagena, -where he remained plunged in horror at this doleful -event. -</p> - -<p> -About this time, the cruel Suleiman, having -destroyed the family of Muza, had sent an Arab -general, named Alahor, to succeed Abdalasis as emir or -governor of Spain. The new emir was of a cruel -and suspicious nature, and commenced his sway -with a stern severity that soon made those under -his command look back with regret to the easy rule -of Abdalasis. He regarded with an eye of distrust -the renegade Christians who had aided in the -conquest, and who bore arms in the service of the -Moslems; but his deepest suspicions fell upon Count -Julian. "He has been a traitor to his own country-men," -said he; "how can we be sure that he will -not prove traitor to us?" -</p> - -<p> -A sudden insurrection of the Christians who had -taken refuge in the Asturian Mountains quickened -his suspicions, and inspired him with fears of some -dangerous conspiracy against his power. In the -height of his anxiety, he bethought him of an -Arabian sage named Yuza, who had accompanied him -from Africa. This son of science was withered in -form, and looked as if he had outlived the usual -term of mortal life. In the course of his studies and -travels in the East, he had collected the knowledge -and experience of ages; being skilled in astrology, -and, it is said, in necromancy, and possessing the -marvellous gift of prophecy or divination. To this -expounder of mysteries Alahor applied to learn -whether any secret treason menaced his safety. -</p> - -<p> -The astrologer listened with deep attention and -overwhelming brow to all the surmises and suspicions -of the emir, then shut himself up to consult -his books and commune with those supernatural -intelligences subservient to his wisdom. At an -appointed hour the emir sought him in his cell. It was -filled with the smoke of perfumes; squares and circles -and various diagrams were described upon the floor, -and the astrologer was poring over a scroll of parchment, -covered with cabalistic characters. He received -Alahor with a gloomy and sinister aspect; pretending -to have discovered fearful portents in the heavens, -and to have had strange dreams and mystic visions. -</p> - -<p> -"O emir," said he, "be on your guard! treason is -around you and in your path; your life is in peril. -Beware of Count Julian and his family." -</p> - -<p> -"Enough," said the emir. "They shall all die! -Parents and children.—all shall die!" -</p> - -<p> -He forthwith sent a summons to Count Julian to -attend him in Cordova. The messenger found him -plunged in affliction for the recent death of his -daughter. The count excused himself, on account -of this misfortune, from obeying the commands of -the emir in person, but sent several of his adherents. -His hesitation, and the circumstance of his having -sent his family across the straits to Africa, were -construed by the jealous mind of the emir into -proofs of guilt. He no longer doubted his being -concerned in the recent insurrections, and that he -had sent his family away, preparatory to an -attempt, by force of arms, to subvert the Moslem -domination. In his fury he put to death Siseburto -and Evan, the nephews of Bishop Oppas and sons -of the former king, Witiza, suspecting them of -taking part in the treason. Thus did they expiate their -treachery to their country in the fatal battle of the -Guadalete. -</p> - -<p> -Alahor next hastened to Carthagena to seize upon -Count Julian. So rapid were his movements that -the count had barely time to escape with fifteen -cavaliers, with whom he took refuge in the strong -castle of Marcuello, among the mountains of -Aragon. The emir, enraged to be disappointed of his -prey, embarked at Carthagena and crossed the -straits to Ceuta, to make captives of the Countess -Frandina and her son. -</p> - -<p> -The old chronicle from which we take this part of -our legend presents a gloomy picture of the countess -in the stern fortress to which she had fled for -refuge,—a picture heightened by supernatural -horrors. These latter the sagacious reader will admit -or reject according to the measure of his faith and -judgment; always remembering that in dark and -eventful times, like those in question, involving the -destinies of nations, the downfall of kingdoms, and -the crimes of rulers and mighty men, the hand of -fate is sometimes strangely visible, and confounds -the wisdom of the worldly wise, by intimations and -portents above the ordinary course of things. With -this proviso, we make no scruple to follow the -venerable chronicler in his narration. -</p> - -<p> -Now it so happened that the Countess Frandina -was seated late at night in her chamber in the citadel -of Ceuta, which stands on a lofty rock, overlooking -the sea. She was revolving in gloomy thought -the late disasters of her family, when she heard a -mournful noise like that of the sea-breeze moaning -about the castle walls. Raising her eyes, she beheld -her brother, the Bishop Oppas, at the entrance of -the chamber. She advanced to embrace him, but -he forbade her with a motion of his hand, and she -observed that he was ghastly pale, and that his eyes -glared as with lambent flames. -</p> - -<p> -"Touch me not, sister," said he, with a mournful -voice, "lest thou be consumed by the fire which -rages within me. Guard well thy son, for -bloodhounds are upon his track. His innocence might -have secured him the protection of Heaven, but our -crimes have involved him in our common ruin." He -ceased to speak and was no longer to be seen. His -coming and going were alike without noise, and the -door of the chamber remained fast bolted. -</p> - -<p> -On the following morning a messenger arrived -with tidings that the Bishop Oppas had been made -prisoner in battle by the insurgent Christians of the -Asturias, and had died in fetters in a tower of the -mountains. The same messenger brought word that -the Emir Alahor had put to death several of the -friends of Count Julian; had obliged him to fly for -his life to a castle in Aragon, and was embarking -with a formidable force for Ceuta. -</p> - -<p> -The Countess Frandina, as has already been -shown, was of courageous heart, and danger made -her desperate. There were fifty Moorish soldiers -in the garrison; she feared that they would prove -treacherous, and take part with their countrymen. -Summoning her officers, therefore, she informed -them of their danger, and commanded them to put -those Moors to death. The guards sallied forth to -obey her orders. Thirty-five of the Moors were in -the great square, unsuspicious of any danger, when -they were severally singled out by their executioners, -and, at a concerted signal, killed on the spot. The -remaining fifteen took refuge in a tower. They -saw the armada of the emir at a distance, and hoped -to be able to hold out until its arrival. The soldiers -of the countess saw it also, and made extraordinary -efforts to destroy these internal enemies before they -should be attacked from without. They made -repeated attempts to storm the tower, but were as -often repulsed with severe loss. They then undermined -it, supporting its foundations by stanchions -of wood. To these they set fire and withdrew to a -distance, keeping up a constant shower of missiles to -prevent the Moors from sallying forth to extinguish -the flames. The stanchions were rapidly consumed, -and when they gave way the tower fell to the -ground. Some of the Moors were crushed among the -ruins; others were flung to a distance and dashed -among the rocks; those who survived were instantly -put to the sword. -</p> - -<p> -The fleet of the emir arrived at Ceuta about the -hour of vespers. He landed, but found the gates -closed against him. The countess herself spoke to -him from a tower, and set him at defiance. The -emir immediately laid siege to the city. He -consulted the astrologer Yuza, who told him that for -seven days his star would have the ascendant over -that of the youth Alarbot, but after that time the -youth would be safe from his power, and would -effect his ruin. -</p> - -<p> -Alahor immediately ordered the city to be assailed -on every side, and at length carried it by storm. -The countess took refuge with her forces in the -citadel, and made desperate defence; but the walls -were sapped and mined, and she saw that all resistance -would soon be unavailing. Her only thoughts -now were to conceal her child. "Surely," said she, -"they will not think of seeking him among the -dead." She led him therefore into the dark and -dismal chapel. "Thou art not afraid to be alone -in this darkness, my child?" said she. -</p> - -<p> -"No, mother," replied the boy; "darkness gives -silence and sleep." She conducted him to the tomb -of Florinda. "Fearest thou the dead, my child?" "No -mother; the dead can do no harm, and what -should I fear from my sister?" -</p> - -<p> -The countess opened the sepulchre. "Listen, -my son," said she. "There are fierce and cruel -people who have come hither to murder thee. Stay -here in company with thy sister, and be quiet as -thou dost value thy life!" The boy, who was of a -courageous nature, did as he was bidden, and remained -there all that day, and all the night, and the -next day until the third hour. -</p> - -<p> -In the meantime the walls of the citadel were -sapped, the troops of the emir poured in at the -breach, and a great part of the garrison was put to -the sword. The countess was taken prisoner and -brought before the emir. She appeared in his -presence with a haughty demeanour, as if she had -been a queen receiving homage; but when he -demanded her son, she faltered and turned pale, and -replied, "My son is with the dead." -</p> - -<p> -"Countess," said the emir, "I am not to be -deceived; tell me where you have concealed -the boy, or tortures shall wring from you the -secret." -</p> - -<p> -"Emir," replied the countess, "may the greatest -torments be my portion, both here and hereafter, if -what I speak be not the truth. My darling child -lies buried with the dead." -</p> - -<p> -The emir was confounded by the solemnity of her -words; but the withered astrologer Yuza, who stood -by his side regarding the countess from beneath his -bushed eyebrows, perceived trouble in her countenance -and equivocation in her words. "Leave this -matter to me," whispered he to Alahor; "I will -produce the child." -</p> - -<p> -He ordered strict search to be made by the soldiery -and he obliged the countess to be always present. -When they came to the chapel, her cheek turned -pale and her lip quivered. "This," said the subtile -astrologer, "is the place of concealment!" -</p> - -<p> -The search throughout the chapel, however, was -equally vain, and the soldiers were about to depart -when Yuza remarked a slight gleam of joy in the -eye of the countess. "We are leaving our prey -behind," thought he; "the countess is exulting." -</p> - -<p> -He now called to mind the words of her asseveration, -that her child was with the dead. Turning -suddenly to the soldiers he ordered them to search -the sepulchres. "If you find him not," said he, -"drag forth the bones of that wanton Cava, that -they may be burnt, and the ashes scattered to the -winds." -</p> - -<p> -The soldiers searched among the tombs and -found that of Florinda partly open. Within lay -the boy in the sound sleep of childhood, and one of -the soldiers took him gently in his arms to bear him -to the emir. -</p> - -<p> -When the countess beheld that her child was -discovered, she rushed into the presence of Alahor, -and, forgetting all her pride, threw herself upon her -knees before him. -</p> - -<p> -"Mercy! mercy!" cried she in piercing accents, -"mercy on my son—my only child! O Emir! listen -to a mother's prayer and my lips shall kiss thy -feet. As thou art merciful to him so may the most -high God have mercy upon thee, and heap blessings -on thy head." -</p> - -<p> -"Bear that frantic woman hence," said the emir, -"but guard her well." -</p> - -<p> -The countess was dragged away by the soldiery, -without regard to her struggles and her cries, and -confined in a dungeon of the citadel. -</p> - -<p> -The child was now brought to the emir. He had -been awakened by the tumult, but gazed fearlessly -on the stern countenances of the soldiers. Had the -heart of the emir been capable of pity, it would have -been touched by the tender youth and innocent -beauty of the child; but his heart was as the -nether millstone, and he was bent upon the -destruction of the whole family of Julian. Calling -to him the astrologer, he gave the child into his -charge with a secret command. The withered son -of the desert took the boy by the hand and led -him up the winding staircase of a tower. When -they reached the summit, Yuza placed him on the -battlements. -</p> - -<p> -"Cling not to me, my child," said he; "there is no -danger." "Father, I fear not," said the undaunted -boy; "yet it is a wondrous height!" -</p> - -<p> -The child looked around with delighted eyes. -The breeze blew his curling locks from about his -face, and his cheek glowed at the boundless prospect; -for the tower was reared upon that lofty promontory -on which Hercules founded one of his pillars. The -surges of the sea were heard far below, beating -upon the rocks, the sea-gull screamed and wheeled -about the foundations of the tower, and the sails of -lofty caraccas were as mere specks on the bosom of -the deep. -</p> - -<p> -"Dost thou know yonder land beyond the blue -water?" said Yuza. -</p> - -<p> -"It is Spain," replied the boy; "it is the land of -my father and my mother." -</p> - -<p> -"Then stretch forth thy hands and bless it, my -child," said the astrologer. -</p> - -<p> -The boy let go his hold of the wall; and, as he -stretched forth his hands, the aged son of Ishmael, -exerting all the strength of his withered limbs, -suddenly pushed him over the battlements. He -fell headlong from the top of that tall tower, and -not a bone in his tender frame but was crushed -upon the rocks beneath. -</p> - -<p> -Alahor came to the foot of the winding stairs. -</p> - -<p> -"Is the boy safe?" cried he. -</p> - -<p> -"He is safe," replied Yuza; "come and behold -the truth with thine own eyes." -</p> - -<p> -The emir ascended the tower and looked over the -battlements, and beheld the body of the child, a -shapeless mass on the rocks far below, and the -seagulls hovering about it; and he gave orders that it -should be thrown into the sea, which was done. -</p> - -<p> -On the following morning the countess was led -forth from her dungeon into the public square. -She knew of the death of her child, and that her own -death was at hand, but she neither wept nor -supplicated. Her hair was dishevelled, her eyes were -haggard with watching, and her cheek was as the -monumental stone; but there were the remains of -commanding beauty in her countenance, and the -majesty of her presence awed even the rabble into -respect. -</p> - -<p> -A multitude of Christian prisoners were then -brought forth, and Alahor cried out: "Behold the -wife of Count Julian! behold one of that traitorous -family which has brought ruin upon yourselves and -upon your country!" And he ordered that they -should stone her to death. But the Christians -drew back with horror from the deed, and said, -"In the hand of God is vengeance; let not her blood -be upon our heads." Upon this the emir swore with -horrid imprecations that whoever of the captives -refused should himself be stoned to death. So -the cruel order was executed, and the Countess -Frandina perished by the hands of her countrymen. -Having thus accomplished his barbarous errand, -the emir embarked for Spain, and ordered the citadel -of Ceuta to be set on fire, and crossed the straits at -night by the light of its towering flames. -</p> - -<p> -The death of Count Julian, which took place not -long after, closed the tragic story of his family. How -he died remains involved in doubt. Some assert -that the cruel Alahor pursued him to his retreat -among the mountains, and, having taken him -prisoner, beheaded him; others that the Moors -confined him in a dungeon, and put an end to his life -with lingering torments; while others affirm that -the tower of the castle of Marcuello, near Huesca, in -Aragon, in which he took refuge, fell on him and -crushed him to pieces. All agree that his latter end -was miserable in the extreme and his death violent. -The curse of Heaven, which had thus pursued him -to the grave, was extended to the very place which -had given him shelter; for we are told that the castle -is no longer inhabited on account of the strange and -horrible noises that are heard in it; and that visions -of armed men are seen above it in the air; which are -supposed to be the troubled spirits of the apostate -Christians who favoured the cause of the traitor. -</p> - -<p> -In after-times a stone sepulchre was shown, outside -of the chapel of the castle, as the tomb of Count -Julian; but the traveller and the pilgrim avoided it, -or bestowed upon it a malediction; and the name of -Julian has remained a by-word and a scorn in the -land for the warning of all generations. Such ever -be the lot of him who betrays his country. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap05"></a></p> - -<h3> -V -<br /><br /> -A GOBOTO NIGHT -</h3> - -<p class="t3"> -JACK LONDON -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> -I -</p> - -<p> -At Goboto the traders come off their schooners -and the planters drift in from far, wild coasts, -and one and all they assume shoes, white -duck trousers, and various other appearances of -civilisation. At Goboto mail is received, bills are -paid, and newspapers, rarely more than five weeks -old, are accessible; for the little island, belted with -its coral reefs, affords safe anchorage, is the steamer -port of call, and serves as the distributing point for -the whole wide-scattered group. -</p> - -<p> -Life at Goboto is heated, unhealthy, and lurid, -and for its size it asserts the distinction of more cases -of acute alcoholism than any other spot in the world. -Guvutu, over in the Solomons, claims that it drinks -between drinks. Goboto does not deny this. It -merely states, in passing, that in the Goboton -chronology no such interval of time is known. It also -points out its import statistics, which show a far -larger per capita consumption of spirituous liquors. -Guvutu explains this on the basis that Goboto does -a larger business and has more visitors. Goboto -retorts that its resident population is smaller and -that its visitors are thirstier. And the discussion -goes on interminably, principally because of the fact -that the disputants do not live long enough to settle -it. -</p> - -<p> -Goboto is not large. The island is only a quarter -of a mile in diameter, and on it are situated an -admiralty coal-shed (where a few tons of coal have -lain untouched for twenty years), the barracks for a -handful of black labourers, a big store and -warehouse with sheet-iron roofs, and a bungalow -inhabited by the manager and his two clerks. They -are the white population. An average of one man -out of the three is always to be found down with -fever. The job at Goboto is a hard one. It is the -policy of the company to treat its patrons well, as -invading companies have found out, and it is the task -of the manager and clerks to do the treating. -Throughout the year traders and recruiters arrive -from far, dry cruises, and planters from equally -distant and dry shores, bringing with them magnificent -thirsts. Goboto is the Mecca of sprees, and -when they have spreed they go back to their -schooners and plantations to recuperate. -</p> - -<p> -Some of the less hardy require as much as six -months between visits. But for the manager and -his assistants there are no such intervals. They are -on the spot, and week by week, blown in by monsoon -or southeast trade, the schooners come to anchor, -cargoed with copra, ivory nuts, pearl-shell, hawksbill -turtle, and thirst. -</p> - -<p> -It is a very hard job at Goboto. That is why the -pay is twice that on other stations, and that is why -the company selects only courageous and intrepid -men for this particular station. They last no more -than a year or so, when the wreckage of them is -shipped back to Australia, or the remains of them -are buried in the sand across on the windward side -of the islet. Johnny Bassett, almost the legendary -hero of Goboto, broke all records. He was a -remittance man with a remarkable constitution, and he -lasted seven years. His dying request was duly -observed by his clerks, who pickled him in a cask of -trade-rum (paid for out of their own salaries) and -shipped him back to his people in England. -</p> - -<p> -Nevertheless, at Goboto, they tried to be -gentlemen. For that matter, though something was -wrong with them, they were gentlemen, and had -been gentlemen. That was why the great unwritten -rule of Goboto was that visitors should put on -pants and shoes. Breech-clouts, lava-lavas, and -bare legs were not tolerated. When Captain Jensen, -the wildest of the Blackbirders though descended -from old New York Knickerbocker stock, surged -in, clad in loin-cloth, undershirt, two belted -revolvers and a sheath-knife, he was stopped at the beach. -This was in the days of Johnny Bassett, ever a -stickler in matters of etiquette. Captain Jensen -stood up in the sternsheets of his whaleboat and -denied the existence of pants on his schooner. Also, -he affirmed his intention of coming ashore. They -of Goboto nursed him back to health from a bullet-hole -through his shoulder, and in addition handsomely -begged his pardon, for no pants had they -found on his schooner. And finally, on the first day -he sat up, Johnny Bassett kindly but firmly assisted -his guest into a pair of pants of his own. This -was the great precedent. In all the succeeding years -it had never been violated. White men and pants -were undivorceable. Only niggers ran naked. Pants -constituted caste. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> -II -</p> - -<p> -On this night things were, with one exception, in -nowise different from any other night. Seven of -them, with glimmering eyes and steady legs, had -capped a day of Scotch with swivel-sticked cocktails -and sat down to dinner. Jacketed, trousered, and -shod, they were: Jerry McMurtrey, the manager; -Eddy Little and Jack Andrews, clerks; Captain -Stapler, of the recruiting ketch <i>Merry</i>; Darby -Shryleton, planter from Tito-Ito; Peter Gee, a half-caste -Chinese pearl-buyer who ranged from Ceylon to the -Paumotus, and Alfred Deacon, a visitor who had -stopped off from the last steamer. At first wine was -served by the black servants to those that drank it, -though all quickly shifted back to Scotch and soda, -pickling their food as they ate it, ere it went into -their calcined, pickled stomachs. -</p> - -<p> -Over their coffee, they heard the rumble of an -anchor-chain through a hawse-pipe, tokening the -arrival of a vessel. -</p> - -<p> -"It's David Grief," Peter Gee remarked. -</p> - -<p> -"How do you know?" Deacon demanded truculently, -and then went on to deny the half-caste's -knowledge. "You chaps put on a lot of side over a -new chum. I've done some sailing myself, and this -naming a craft when its sail is only a blur, or -naming a man by the sound of his anchor—it's—it's -unadulterated poppycock." -</p> - -<p> -Peter Gee was engaged in lighting a cigarette, -and did not answer. -</p> - -<p> -"Some of the niggers do amazing things that -way," McMurtrey interposed tactfully. -</p> - -<p> -As with the others, this conduct of their visitor -jarred on the manager. From the moment of Peter -Gee's arrival that afternoon Deacon had manifested -a tendency to pick on him. He had disputed his -statements and been generally rude. -</p> - -<p> -"Maybe it's because Peter's got Chink blood in -him," had been Andrews' hypothesis. "Deacon's -Australian, you know, and they're daffy down there -on colour." -</p> - -<p> -"I fancy that's it," McMurtrey had agreed. "But -we can't permit any bullying, especially of a man -like Peter Gee, who's whiter than most white men." -</p> - -<p> -In this the manager had been in nowise wrong. -Peter Gee was that rare creature, a good as well as -clever Eurasian. In fact, it was the stolid integrity -of the Chinese blood that toned the recklessness -and licentiousness of the English blood which had -run in his father's veins. Also, he was better -educated than any man there, spoke better English as -well as several other tongues, and knew and lived -more of their own ideals of gentlemanness than they -did themselves. And, finally, he was a gentle soul. -Violence he deprecated, though he had killed men in -his time. Turbulence he abhorred. He always -avoided it as he would the plague. -</p> - -<p> -Captain Stapler stepped in to help McMurtrey: -</p> - -<p> -"I remember, when I changed schooners and -came into Altman, the niggers knew right off the -bat it was me. I wasn't expected, either, much less -to be in another craft. They told the trader it was -me. He used the glasses, and wouldn't believe -them. But they did know. Told me afterward -they could see it sticking out all over the schooner -that I was running her." -</p> - -<p> -Deacon ignored him, and returned to the attack -on the pearl-buyer. -</p> - -<p> -"How do you know from the sound of the anchor -that it was this whatever-you-called-him man?" he -challenged. -</p> - -<p> -"There are so many things that go to make up -such a judgment," Peter Gee answered. "It's very -hard to explain. It would require almost a text -book." -</p> - -<p> -"I thought so," Deacon sneered. "Explanation -that doesn't explain is easy." -</p> - -<p> -"Who's for bridge?" Eddy Little, the second -clerk, interrupted, looking up expectantly and -starting to shuffle. "You'll play, won't you, Peter?" -</p> - -<p> -"If he does, he's a bluffer," Deacon cut back. -"I'm getting tired of all this poppycock. Mr. Gee, -you will favour me and put yourself in a better light -if you tell how you know who that man was that -just dropped anchor. After that I'll play you -piquet." -</p> - -<p> -"I'd prefer bridge," Peter answered. "As for the -other thing, it's something like this: By the sound -it was a small craft—no square-rigger. No whistle, -no siren, was blown—again a small craft. It anchored -close in—still again a small craft, for -steamers and big ships must drop hook outside the -middle shoal. Now the entrance is tortuous. There is -no recruiting nor trading captain in the group who -dares to run the passage after dark. Certainly no -stranger would. There were two exceptions. The -first was Margonville. But he was executed by the -High Court at Fiji. Remains the other exception, -David Grief. Night or day, in any weather, he runs -the passage. This is well known to all. A possible -factor, in case Grief were somewhere else, would be -some young dare-devil of a skipper. In this -connection, in the first place, I don't know of any, nor -does anybody else. In the second place, David -Grief is in these waters, cruising on the <i>Gunga</i>, -which is shortly scheduled to leave here for -Karo-Karo. I spoke to Grief, on the <i>Gunga</i>, in Sandfly -Passage, day before yesterday. He was putting a -trader ashore on a new station. He said he was -going to call in at Babo, and then come on to -Goboto. He has had ample time to get here. I have -heard an anchor drop. Who else than David Grief -can it be? Captain Donovan is skipper of the -<i>Gunga</i>, and him I know too well to believe that he'd run -in to Goboto after dark unless his owner were in -charge. In a few minutes David Grief will enter -through that door and say, 'In Guvutu they merely -drink between drinks.' I'll wager fifty pounds he's -the man that enters and that his words will be, 'In -Guvutu they merely drink between drinks.'" -</p> - -<p> -Deacon was for the moment crushed. The sullen -blood rose darkly in his face. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, he's answered you," McMurtrey laughed -genially. "And I'll back his bet myself for a couple -of sovereigns." -</p> - -<p> -"Bridge! Who's going to take a hand?" Eddy -Little cried impatiently. "Come on, Peter!" -</p> - -<p> -"The rest of you play," Deacon said. "He and -I are going to play piquet." -</p> - -<p> -"I'd prefer bridge," Peter Gee said mildly. -</p> - -<p> -"Don't you play piquet?" -</p> - -<p> -The pearl-buyer nodded. -</p> - -<p> -"Then come on. Maybe I can show I know -more about that than I do about anchors." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, I say——" McMurtrey began. -</p> - -<p> -"You can play bridge," Deacon shut him off. -"We prefer piquet." -</p> - -<p> -Reluctantly, Peter Gee was bullied into a game -that he knew would be unhappy. -</p> - -<p> -"Only a rubber," he said, as he cut for deal. -</p> - -<p> -"For how much?" Deacon asked. -</p> - -<p> -Peter Gee shrugged his shoulders. "As you please." -</p> - -<p> -"Hundred up—five pounds a game?" -</p> - -<p> -Peter Gee agreed. -</p> - -<p> -"With the lurch double, of course, ten pounds?" -</p> - -<p> -"All right," said Peter Gee. -</p> - -<p> -At another table four of the others sat in at -bridge. Captain Stapler, who was no card-player, -looked on and replenished the long glasses of Scotch -that stood at each man's right hand. McMurtrey, -with poorly concealed apprehension, followed as well -as he could what went on at the piquet table. His -fellow Englishmen as well were shocked by the -behaviour of the Australian, and all were troubled by -fear of some untoward act on his part. That he -was working up his animosity against the half-caste, -and that the explosion might come any time, -was apparent to all. -</p> - -<p> -"I hope Peter loses," McMurtrey said in an undertone. -</p> - -<p> -"Not if he has any luck," Andrews answered. -"He's a wizard at piquet. I know by experience." -</p> - -<p> -That Peter Gee was lucky was patent from the -continual badgering of Deacon, who filled his glass -frequently. He had lost the first game, and, from -his remarks, was losing the second, when the door -opened and David Grief entered. -</p> - -<p> -"In Guvutu they merely drink between drinks," -he remarked casually to the assembled company, -ere he gripped the manager's hand. "Hello, Mac! -Say, my skipper's down in the whaleboat. He's got -a silk shirt, a tie, and tennis shoes, all complete, but -he wants you to send a pair of pants down. Mine -are too small, but yours will fit him. Hello, Eddy! -How's that <i>ngari-ngari</i>? You up, Jock? The -miracle has happened. No one down with fever, and -no one remarkably drunk." He sighed, "I suppose -the night is young yet. Hello, Peter! Did you -catch that big squall an hour after you left us? We -had to let go the second anchor." -</p> - -<p> -While he was being introduced to Deacon, -McMurtrey dispatched a house-boy with the pants, -and when Captain Donovan came in it was as a -white man should—at least in Goboto. -</p> - -<p> -Deacon lost the second game, and an outburst -heralded the fact. Peter Gee devoted himself to -lighting a cigarette and keeping quiet. -</p> - -<p> -"What!—are you quitting because you're -ahead?" Deacon demanded. -</p> - -<p> -Grief raised his eyebrows questioningly to -McMurtrey, who frowned back his own disgust. -</p> - -<p> -"It's the rubber," Peter Gee answered. -</p> - -<p> -"It takes three games to make a rubber. It's my -deal. Come on!" -</p> - -<p> -Peter Gee acquiesced, and the third game was on. -</p> - -<p> -"Young whelp—he needs a lacing," McMurtrey -muttered to Grief. "Come on, let us quit, you -chaps. I want to keep an eye on him. If he goes -too far I'll throw him out on the beach, company -instructions or no." -</p> - -<p> -"Who is he?" Grief queried. -</p> - -<p> -"A left-over from last steamer. Company's orders -to treat him nice. He's looking to invest in a -plantation. Has a ten-thousand-pound letter of -credit with the company. He's got 'all-white -Australia' on the brain. Thinks because his skin is -white and because his father was once Attorney-General -of the Commonwealth that he can be a -cur. That's why he's picking on Peter, and you -know Peter's the last man in the world to make -trouble or incur trouble. Damn the company. I -didn't engage to wet-nurse its infants with bank -accounts. Come on, fill your glass, Grief. The man's -a blighter, a blithering blighter." -</p> - -<p> -"Maybe he's only young," Grief suggested. -</p> - -<p> -"He can't contain his drink—that's clear." The -manager glared his disgust and wrath. "If he raises -a hand to Peter, so help me, I'll give him a licking -myself, the little overgrown cad!" -</p> - -<p> -The pearl-buyer pulled the pegs out of the -cribbage board on which he was scoring and sat back. -He had won the third game. He glanced across to -Eddy Little, saying: -</p> - -<p> -"I'm ready for the bridge, now." -</p> - -<p> -"I wouldn't be a quitter," Deacon snarled. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, really, I'm tired of the game," Peter Gee -assured him with his habitual quietness. -</p> - -<p> -"Come on and be game," Deacon bullied. "One -more. You can't take my money that way. I'm -out fifteen pounds. Double or quits." -</p> - -<p> -McMurtrey was about to interpose, but Grief -restrained him with his eyes. -</p> - -<p> -"If it positively is the last, all right," said Peter -Gee, gathering up the cards. "It's my deal, I believe. -As I understand it, this final is for fifteen -pounds. Either you owe me thirty or we quit -even?" -</p> - -<p> -"That's it, chappie. Either we break even or I -pay you thirty." -</p> - -<p> -"Getting blooded, eh?" Grief remarked, drawing -up a chair. -</p> - -<p> -The other men stood or sat around the table, and -Deacon played again in bad luck. That he was a -good player was clear. The cards were merely -running against him. That he could not take his ill -luck with equanimity was equally clear. He was -guilty of sharp, ugly curses, and he snapped and -growled at the imperturbable half-caste. In the -end Peter Gee counted out, while Deacon had not -even made his fifty points. He glowered -speechlessly at his opponent. -</p> - -<p> -"Looks like a lurch," said Grief. -</p> - -<p> -"Which is double," said Peter Gee. -</p> - -<p> -"There's no need your telling me," Deacon -snarled. "I've studied arithmetic. I owe you -forty-five pounds. There, take it!" -</p> - -<p> -The way in which he flung the nine five-pound -notes on the table was an insult in itself. Peter Gee -was even quieter, and flew no signals of resentment. -</p> - -<p> -"You've got fool's luck, but you can't play cards, -I can tell you that much," Deacon went on. "I -could teach you cards." -</p> - -<p> -The half-caste smiled and nodded acquiescence as -he folded up the money. -</p> - -<p> -"There's a little game called casino—I wonder if -you ever heard of it?—a child's game." -</p> - -<p> -"I've seen it played," the half-caste murmured -gently. -</p> - -<p> -"What's that?" snapped Deacon. "Maybe you -think you can play it?" -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, no, not for a moment. I'm afraid I haven't -head enough for it." -</p> - -<p> -"It's a bully game, casino," Grief broke in -pleasantly. "I like it very much." -</p> - -<p> -Deacon ignored him. -</p> - -<p> -"I'll play you ten quid a game—thirty-one points -out," was the challenge to Peter Gee. "And I'll -show you how little you know about cards. Come -on! Where's a full deck?" -</p> - -<p> -"No, thanks," the half-caste answered. "They -are waiting for me in order to make up a bridge -set." -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, come on," Eddy Little begged eagerly. -"Come on, Peter, let's get started." -</p> - -<p> -"Afraid of a little game like casino," Deacon girded. -"Maybe the stakes are too high. I'll play you -for pennies—or farthings, if you say so." -</p> - -<p> -The man's conduct was a hurt and an affront -to all of them. McMurtrey could stand it no -longer. -</p> - -<p> -"Now hold on, Deacon. He says he doesn't want -to play. Let him alone." -</p> - -<p> -Deacon turned raging upon his host; but before -he could blurt out his abuse, Grief had stepped into -the breach. -</p> - -<p> -"I'd like to play casino with you," he said. -</p> - -<p> -"What do you know about it?" -</p> - -<p> -"Not much, but I'm willing to learn." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, I'm not teaching for pennies to-night." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, that's all right," Grief answered. "I'll play -for almost any sum—within reason, of course." -</p> - -<p> -Deacon proceeded to dispose of this intruder with -one stroke. -</p> - -<p> -"I'll play you a hundred pounds a game, if that -will do you any good." -</p> - -<p> -Grief beamed his delight. "That will be all right, -very right. Let us begin. Do you count sweeps?" -</p> - -<p> -Deacon was taken aback. He had not expected a -Goboton trader to be anything but crushed by such -a proposition. -</p> - -<p> -"Do you count sweeps?" Grief repeated. -</p> - -<p> -Andrews had brought him a new deck, and he was -throwing out the joker. -</p> - -<p> -"Certainly not," Deacon answered. "That's a -sissy game." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm glad," Grief coincided. "I don't like sissy -games either." -</p> - -<p> -"You don't, eh? Well, then, I'll tell you what -we'll do. We'll play for five hundred pounds a -game." -</p> - -<p> -Again Deacon was taken aback. -</p> - -<p> -"I'm agreeable," Grief said, beginning to shuffle. -"Cards and spades go out first, of course, and then -big and little casino, and the aces in the bridge order -of value. Is that right?" -</p> - -<p> -"You're a lot of jokers down here," Deacon -laughed, but his laughter was strained. "How do -I know you've got the money?" -</p> - -<p> -"By the same token I know you've got it. Mac, -how's my credit with the company?" -</p> - -<p> -"For all you want," the manager answered. -</p> - -<p> -"You personally guarantee that?" Deacon demanded. -</p> - -<p> -"I certainly do," McMurtrey said. "Depend -upon it, the company will honour his paper up and -pass your letter of credit." -</p> - -<p> -"Low deals," Grief said, placing the deck before -Deacon on the table. -</p> - -<p> -The latter hesitated in the midst of the cut and -looked around with querulous misgiving at the faces -of the others. The clerks and captains nodded. -</p> - -<p> -"You're all strangers to me," Deacon complained. -"How am I to know? Money on paper isn't always -the real thing." -</p> - -<p> -Then it was that Peter Gee, drawing a wallet -from his pocket and borrowing a fountain pen from -McMurtrey, went into action. -</p> - -<p> -"I haven't gone to buying yet," the half-caste -explained, "so the account is intact. I'll just indorse -it over to you, Grief. It's for fifteen thousand. -There, look at it." -</p> - -<p> -Deacon intercepted the letter of credit as it was -being passed across the table. He read it slowly, -then glanced up at McMurtrey. -</p> - -<p> -"Is that right?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes. It's just the same as your own, and just -as good. The company's paper is always good." -</p> - -<p> -Deacon cut the cards, won the deal, and gave -them a thorough shuffle. But his luck was still -against him, and he lost the game. -</p> - -<p> -"Another game," he said. "We didn't say how -many, and you can't quit with me a loser. I want -action." -</p> - -<p> -Grief shuffled and passed the cards for the cut. -</p> - -<p> -"Let's play for a thousand," Deacon said, when -he had lost the second game. And when the thousand -had gone the way of the two five hundred bets -he proposed to play for two thousand. -</p> - -<p> -"That's progression," McMurtrey warned, and -was rewarded by a glare from Deacon. But the -manager was insistent. "You don't have to play -progression, Grief, unless you're foolish." -</p> - -<p> -"Who's playing this game?" Deacon flamed at -his host; and then, to Grief: "I've lost two -thousand to you. Will you play for two thousand?" -</p> - -<p> -Grief nodded, the fourth game began, and Deacon -won. The manifest unfairness of such betting -was known to all of them. Though he had lost -three games out of four, Deacon had lost no money. -By the child's device of doubling his wager with -each loss, he was bound, with the first game he -won, no matter how long delayed, to be even again. -</p> - -<p> -He now evinced an unspoken desire to stop, but -Grief passed the deck to be cut. -</p> - -<p> -"What?" Deacon cried. "You want more?" -</p> - -<p> -"Haven't got anything yet," Grief murmured -whimsically, as he began the deal. "For the usual -five hundred, I suppose?" -</p> - -<p> -The shame of what he had done must have tingled -in Deacon, for he answered, "No, we'll play -for a thousand. And say! Thirty-one points is too -long. Why not twenty-one points out—if it isn't -too rapid for you?" -</p> - -<p> -"That will make it a nice, quick little game," -Grief agreed. -</p> - -<p> -The former method of play was repeated. Deacon -lost two games, doubled the stake, and was -again even. But Grief was patient, though the -thing occurred several times in the next hour's play. -Then happened what he was waiting for—a lengthening -in the series of losing games for Deacon. The -latter doubled to four thousand and lost, doubled -to eight thousand and lost, and then proposed to -double to sixteen thousand. -</p> - -<p> -Grief shook his head. "You can't do that, you -know. You're only ten thousand credit with the -company." -</p> - -<p> -"You mean you won't give me action?" Deacon -asked hoarsely. "You mean that with eight -thousand of my money you're going to quit?" -</p> - -<p> -Grief smiled and shook his head. -</p> - -<p> -"It's robbery, plain robbery," Deacon went on. -"You take my money and won't give me action." -</p> - -<p> -"No, you're wrong. I'm perfectly willing to give -you what action you've got coming to you. You've -got two thousand pounds of action yet." -</p> - -<p> -"Well, we'll play it," Deacon took him up. "You -cut." -</p> - -<p> -The game was played in silence, save for irritable -remarks and curses from Deacon. Silently the -onlookers filled and sipped their long Scotch glasses. -Grief took no notice of his opponent's outbursts, but -concentrated on the game. He was really playing -cards, and there were fifty-two in the deck to be kept -track of, and of which he did keep track. Two thirds -of the way through the last deal he threw down his -hand. -</p> - -<p> -"Cards put me out," he said. "I have twenty-seven." -</p> - -<p> -"If you've made a mistake," Deacon threatened, -his face white and drawn. -</p> - -<p> -"Then I shall have lost. Count them." -</p> - -<p> -Grief passed over his stack of takings, and Deacon, -with trembling fingers, verified the count. He half -shoved his chair back from the table and emptied his -glass. He looked about him at unsympathetic faces. -</p> - -<p> -"I fancy I'll be catching the next steamer for -Sydney," he said, and for the first time his speech -was quiet and without bluster. -</p> - -<p> -As Grief told them afterward: "Had he whined or -raised a roar I wouldn't have given him that last -chance. As it was, he took his medicine like a man, -and I had to do it." -</p> - -<p> -Deacon glanced at his watch, simulated a weary -yawn, and started to rise. -</p> - -<p> -"Wait," Grief said. "Do you want further -action?" -</p> - -<p> -The other sank down in his chair, strove to speak, -but could not, licked his dry lips, and nodded his -head. -</p> - -<p> -"Captain Donovan here sails at daylight in the -<i>Gunga</i> for Karo-Karo," Grief began with seeming -irrelevance. "Karo-Karo is a ring of sand in the sea, -with a few thousand cocoanut trees. Pandanus -grows there, but they can't grow sweet potatoes nor -taro. There are about eight hundred natives, a -king and two prime ministers, and the last three -named are the only ones who wear any clothes. It's -a sort of God-forsaken little hole, and once a year I -send a schooner up from Goboto. The drinking -water is brackish, but old Tom Butler has survived -on it for a dozen years. He's the only white man -there, and he has a boat's crew of five Santa Cruz -boys who would run away or kill him if they could. -That is why they were sent there. They can't run -away. He is always supplied with the hard cases -from the plantations. There are no missionaries. Two -native Samoan teachers were clubbed to death on -the beach when they landed several years ago. -</p> - -<p> -"Naturally, you are wondering what it is all -about. But have patience. As I have said, Captain -Donovan sails on the annual trip to Karo-Karo at -daylight to-morrow. Tom Butler is old, and getting -quite helpless. I've tried to retire him to Australia, -but he says he wants to remain and die on Karo-Karo, -and he will in the next year or so. He's a -queer old codger. Now the time is due for me to -send some white man up to take the work off his -hands. I wonder how you'd like the job. You'd -have to stay two years. -</p> - -<p> -"Hold on! I've not finished. You've talked -frequently of action this evening. There's no action -in betting away what you've never sweated for. -The money you've lost to me was left you by your -father or some other relative who did the sweating. -But two years of work as trader on Karo-Karo would -mean something. I'll bet the ten thousand I've won -from you against two years of your time. If you -win, the money's yours. If you lose, you take the -job at Karo-Karo and sail at daylight. Now that's -what might be called real action. Will you play?" -</p> - -<p> -Deacon could not speak. His throat lumped and -he nodded his head as he reached for the cards. -</p> - -<p> -"One thing more," Grief said. "I can do even -better. If you lose, two years of your time are -mine—naturally without wages. Nevertheless, I'll pay -you wages. If your work is satisfactory, if you -observe all instructions and rules, I'll pay you five -thousand pounds a year for two years. The money -will be deposited with the company, to be paid to -you, with interest, when the time expires. Is that -all right?" -</p> - -<p> -"Too much so," Deacon stammered. "You -are unfair to yourself. A trader only gets ten or -fifteen pounds a month." -</p> - -<p> -"Put it down to action, then," Grief said, with an -air of dismissal. "And before we begin, I'll jot down -several of the rules. These you will repeat aloud -every morning during the two years—if you lose. -They are for the good of your soul. When you have -repeated them aloud seven hundred and thirty -Karo-Karo mornings I am confident they will be in -your memory to stay. Lend me your pen, Mac. -Now, let's see——" -</p> - -<p> -He wrote steadily and rapidly for some minutes, -then proceeded to read the matter aloud: -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -"<i>I must always remember that one man is as good as another, -save and except when he thinks he is better.</i> -</p> - -<p> -"<i>No matter how drunk I am I must not fail to be a gentleman. -A gentleman is a man who is gentle. Note: It would be better -not to get drunk.</i> -</p> - -<p> -"<i>When I play a man's game with men, I must play like a man.</i> -</p> - -<p> -"<i>A good curse, rightly used and rarely, is an efficient thing. -Too many curses spoil the cursing. Note: A curse cannot -change a card sequence nor cause the wind to blow.</i> -</p> - -<p> -"<i>There is no license for a man to be less than a man. Ten -thousand pounds cannot purchase such a license.</i>" -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -At the beginning of the reading Deacon's face had -gone white with anger. Then had arisen, from neck -to forehead, a slow and terrible flush that deepened -to the end of the reading. -</p> - -<p> -"There, that will be all," Grief said, as he folded -the paper and tossed it to the centre of the table. -"Are you still ready to play the game?" -</p> - -<p> -"I deserve it," Deacon muttered brokenly. "I've -been an ass. Mr. Gee, before I know whether I win -or lose, I want to apologise. Maybe it was the -whiskey, I don't know, but I'm an ass, a cad, a -bounder—everything that's rotten." -</p> - -<p> -He held out his hand, and the half-caste took it -beamingly. -</p> - -<p> -"I say, Grief," he blurted out, "the boy's all right. -Call the whole thing off, and let's forget it in a final -nightcap." -</p> - -<p> -Grief showed signs of debating, but Deacon cried: -</p> - -<p> -"No; I won't permit it. I'm not a quitter. If it's -Karo-Karo, it's Karo-Karo. There's nothing more -to it." -</p> - -<p> -"Right," said Grief, as he began the shuffle. "If -he's the right stuff to go to Karo-Karo, Karo-Karo -won't do him any harm." -</p> - -<p> -The game was close and hard. Three times they -divided the deck between them and "cards" was -not scored. At the beginning of the fifth and last -deal, Deacon needed three points to go out and -Grief needed four. "Cards" alone would put -Deacon out, and he played for "cards." He no -longer muttered or cursed, and played his best game -of the evening. Incidentally he gathered in the two -black aces and the ace of hearts. -</p> - -<p> -"I suppose you can name the four cards I hold," -he challenged, as the last of the deal was exhausted -and he picked up his hand. -</p> - -<p> -Grief nodded. -</p> - -<p> -"Then name them." -</p> - -<p> -"The knave of spades, the deuce of spades, the -tray of hearts, and the ace of diamonds," Grief -answered. -</p> - -<p> -Those behind Deacon and looking at his hand -made no sign. Yet the naming had been correct. -</p> - -<p> -"I fancy you play casino better than I," Deacon -acknowledged. "I can name only three of yours, -a knave, an ace, and big casino." -</p> - -<p> -"Wrong. There aren't five aces in the deck. -You've taken in three and you hold the fourth in -your hand now." -</p> - -<p> -"By Jove, you're right," Deacon admitted. "I -did scoop in three. Anyway, I'll make 'cards' on -you. That's all I need." -</p> - -<p> -"I'll let you save little casino—" Grief paused to -calculate. "Yes, and the ace as well, and still I'll -make 'cards' and go out with big casino. Play." -</p> - -<p> -"No 'cards,' and I win!" Deacon exulted as the -last of the hand was played. "I go out on little -casino and the four aces. 'Big casino' and 'spades' -only bring you to twenty." -</p> - -<p> -Grief shook his head. "Some mistake, I'm afraid." -</p> - -<p> -"No," Deacon declared positively. "I counted -every card I took in. That's the one thing I was -correct on. I've twenty-six, and you've twenty-six." -</p> - -<p> -"Count again," Grief said. -</p> - -<p> -Carefully and slowly, with trembling fingers, -Deacon counted the cards he had taken. There -were twenty-five. He reached over to the corner of -the table, took up the rules Grief had written, folded -them, and put them in his pocket. Then he emptied -his glass, and stood up. Captain Donovan looked at -his watch, yawned, and also arose. -</p> - -<p> -"Going aboard, Captain?" Deacon asked. -</p> - -<p> -"Yes," was the answer. "What time shall I send -the whaleboat for you?" -</p> - -<p> -"I'll go with you now. We'll pick up my luggage -from the <i>Billy</i> as we go by. I was sailing on her for -Babo in the morning." -</p> - -<p> -Deacon shook hands all around, after receiving a -final pledge of good luck on Karo-Karo. -</p> - -<p> -"Does Tom Butler play cards?" he asked Grief. -</p> - -<p> -"Solitaire," was the answer. -</p> - -<p> -"Then I'll teach him double solitaire." Deacon -turned toward the door, where Captain Donovan -waited, and added with a sigh, "And I fancy he'll -skin me, too, if he plays like the rest of you island -men." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<p><a id="chap06"></a></p> - -<h3> -VI -<br /><br /> -THE TWO SAMURAI* -</h3> - -<p class="t3"> -BYRON E. VEATCH -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -*Reprinted by permission of the author. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -It was in the autumn of 1904 that the Colonel -told the story; Colonel M——, who, with his -seventy years, his snowy hair and imperial, -was yet as ruddy of cheek and as gallant of bearing -as when in the old days he led the —th Cavalry -through the deserts of the West. Since his -retirement his home was at the Army and Navy Club, -where his charming little dinners and his unfailing -wit and eloquence as an after-dinner speaker made -this courtly old warrior the most sought for man -about the capital. -</p> - -<p> -We had dined with the Colonel that evening, and -as we entered the club smoking-rooms we overheard -fragments of an animated conversation between two -naval officers, who were debating the probable -movements of the United States battleship squadron -in case the feud between Japan and Russia should -involve other nations. The relative strength of the -Japanese and Russian navies, both as to material -and personnel, was also under discussion. In -support of some claim as to Japanese superiority, one of -the navy men took up an encyclopedia, from which -he read the following: -</p> - -<p> -"'<i>Samurai</i>—A term designating the feudal or -governing class of old Japan; the ruling families from -which the fighting clans were organised; a fighting -man.'" -</p> - -<p> -We found seats in the farther corner of the room -and, after a few moments of silence, the Colonel -remarked, in the musing tone which always promised -a story: -</p> - -<p> -"Boys, I once knew a Samurai; two of them, in -fact; one to the manner born, the other a Samurai -by adoption." -</p> - -<p> -"Unlimber and get your range, Colonel, we are -ready," remarked Sanderson of the Artillery, who -would talk shop. -</p> - -<p> -The old man smiled indulgently, and settling -himself deeper into the big leather chair, replied: -</p> - -<p> -"Well, then, if you youngsters really care to -listen, and will allow an old fellow to tell his tale in -his own fashion, you shall hear of the Samurai I -have mentioned, two of the bravest men I ever met, -and I have known several. -</p> - -<p> -"At the close of the rebellion, after being mustered -out as captain in the Tenth New York Cavalry, I -re-entered the service as a lieutenant in the Fourth -Regulars, and was at once ordered to Fort Sill. -This was in '65, and for the next fifteen years we -earned every dollar Uncle Sam paid us, and -incidentally rode our horses over some millions of square -miles of his territory, between the Brazos and the -Big Horn. It was scout and fight, winter and -summer; no big affairs, you understand, but a row -of some sort going all the while, for the Indians were -ugly and required lots of licking to keep them on -their reservations. April 5, 1880, I was transferred -to the —th Cavalry, and, as ranking captain, -assumed command of Fort Huachuca, Arizona, a -three-company post only a few miles from the -Sonora border. -</p> - -<p> -"It was a favourite pastime of the redskins, for -small parties of a dozen or twenty, to break from -the reservation at night and, after raising sundry -and divers varieties of hell, to slip across the -border and take refuge in Mexico, sneaking back -to their tepees after the flurry of pursuit was over. -</p> - -<p> -"It was the first day after I assumed command -that I took my own troop out on the parade-ground, -put them through their paces, and gave them a -thorough looking-over, to see what sort of an -aggregation I had inherited. They were a rollicking lot -of lads, not pretty to look at, but comfortable -fellows to have at one's back when going into a -scrimmage, as I learned upon more than one bitter -day in the months that followed. After a few -evolutions I felt, rather than saw, what they needed: -they wanted a master; wanted a leader whose word -should be to them the law and the gospel, from -Proverbs to Revelations, and by Gad, sir, they -found their man right there and then. Half of -them didn't seem to know how to obey a command, -and the other half didn't appear to be in any particular -hurry. My subalterns, too, were apathetic, and -inside of ten minutes I knew that my work was cut -out for me, if I expected to make anything of Troop C. -</p> - -<p> -"The only man in the company who seemed to -know the game, and wanted to play it by the book, -was the First Sergeant. I spotted him at once, and -noticed that he not only understood and instantly -obeyed a command, but that he mentally anticipated -it, which showed me that he was letter-perfect -in tactics. -</p> - -<p> -"I didn't waste a great deal of time in letting -them know the lay of the land. As they wheeled -into line by fours, the order was 'Halt, Company -front!' and then, riding very slowly, I passed down -the line, and over the head of his motionless horse -I looked squarely through each trooper's eyes and -down into the subcellar of his immortal soul. At -the end of that slow riding I knew my men, and -they knew that I knew them. -</p> - -<p> -"From that moment began the upbuilding of -Company C, and before six pay-days had passed it -was the best drilled, best natured, hardest fighting -troop that ever swung the sabre or followed the -guidon. -</p> - -<p> -"As the Company broke ranks I could see that -the men were speaking eagerly among themselves, -evidently discussing their new 'Old Man.' I had -my eye on that First Sergeant, and after stables -that evening I sent an orderly for him. A few -minutes later he strode up to the open door of my -quarters, saluted and stood at attention, waiting -while I looked him over from end to end. He was a -soldierly-looking chap, square-shouldered, well set -up, long of limb and slender, and looked as hard as -iron. But it was at his face that I looked longest. -It was not a happy face—some great sorrow or -great disappointment had left its shadow there—but -it had character written all over. Prominent -cheek-bones, a good nose and chin, with deep-set -gray eyes, that looked at a man, not past him. For -a full minute he stood quietly returning my gaze, -with never a flinch nor the tremor of an eyelid. -</p> - -<p> -"'What's your name, Sergeant?' -</p> - -<p> -"'Reynolds, sir.' -</p> - -<p> -"'How long have you been in the service?' -</p> - -<p> -"'Nearly three years, sir.' -</p> - -<p> -"'Step inside, Sergeant, I want to have a talk -with you.' -</p> - -<p> -"As he passed the threshold he removed his hat, -and right there his Captain came very nearly -committing an unpardonable breach of discipline, for the -impulse came over me to get out of my chair and -offer the gentleman a seat. For Sergeant Reynolds -was a gentleman, as one could see the instant his -hat came off and that magnificent forehead appeared -in evidence. His was a splendid head, and -every line of his face and brow bore the unmistakable -stamp of intellectual force and honesty of purpose. -Why was such a man as this serving as a private -soldier in the regular army? I was distinctly -rattled for a minute, and in the little silence which -ensued I found myself speculating as to what queer -turn of Fate's fickle wheel had brought him there. -Such cases were not infrequent, and many an -interesting identity lay concealed under Uncle -Sam's army blue. -</p> - -<p> -"Whatever had been his past, I felt sure he was -the one man in the company who could be of most -assistance in bringing the troop up to concert pitch, -so I went straight to the point: -</p> - -<p> -"'Sergeant, Troop C requires some good, hard -drill and better discipline. The men need a little -ginger and soldierly spirit infused into them, and a -man in the ranks, who has his heart in the work, -can prove himself of invaluable assistance to his -officers in bringing about the desired conditions. -I had an eye on you this afternoon and, if I am not -mistaken, you know your business. Your Captain -is going to depend on you to help him round the -troop into shape, and, willingly or unwillingly, -you're going to give him that help. I sent for you -to tell you this and to know whether you will do it -because you want to, or because you have to.' -</p> - -<p> -"Quick as a shot came his reply, 'Both, sir.' -</p> - -<p> -"There was a faint smile on his lip and a pleased -look in his eyes which told me that my First Sergeant -was mine. I dismissed him without further questioning, -for I felt intuitively that no casual inquiry -would secure Sergeant Reynolds' real history, much -as I wanted it. A few minutes' private and pointed -conversation with each of my lieutenants that -evening, and I was ready for the siege of drill which -began the following day. Lord! How I did work -those fellows for the next week or two! The men -grumbled and kicked, as is the soldier's prerogative, -but they worked. Hennessy, the biggest, brawniest -trooper of the lot, probably voiced the general -sentiment when one hot afternoon he unburdened -himself to Reynolds. -</p> - -<p> -"'What do yez make av it, Sargint? Is this a -rest cure that the dear Captin is thryin' on us? -Bedad, I'd rayther be diggin' post holes in the stony -corner of hell than workin' as a hoss sojer unther -that man! Sure, me liver is jolted loose and the -seat of me panties is wored out entoirely with this -ridin' and chargin' up and down the landscape from -mornin' till night. I've dhrilled and dhrilled till the -damn thing has gone to me head, and I find meself -dhrillin' in me slape. There's wan good thing -about it, thank Hivin, the ould divil is takin' his -own medicine, for he's dhrillin' wid us.' -</p> - -<p> -"And so it was. I took my share of the drudgery, -but it paid, for the troop began immediately to show -improvement. Reynolds' influence in the ranks -was soon apparent, the men showing more and more -interest as the days went by. -</p> - -<p> -"One evening an ambulance from Benson brought -in the long delayed mails, and as the leathern pouches -were tumbled out the men gathered about, eager -for news from the San Carlos Agency, where a break -was rumoured. On the seat beside the driver sat a -young man in civilian dress, unmistakably a foreigner. -</p> - -<p> -"'Who's your friend, Bill?' sang out one of the -crowd. -</p> - -<p> -"'Recruity,' answered the driver, with a grin; 'a -gent from Japan who is stuck on sojerin' and has -come out here to get some.' -</p> - -<p> -"A delighted yell came from the boys, as they -closed in and began reaching for the newcomer. -</p> - -<p> -"'If the lady wud put her fut in me hand, I'd be -proud to assist her to land in Huachuca,' said -Hennessy, as he grabbed the stranger by the coat collar. -</p> - -<p> -"The little fellow laughed at the reception, and -without an instant's hesitation stepped into -Hennessy's hand, then to his shoulder, and, springing -lightly over the surprised trooper's head, landed -safely on his feet. It was neatly done, and his -evident good nature caught the crowd. -</p> - -<p> -"'Bully for the Mikado!' 'Hooray for the Jap!' -chorused the men, as Hennessy, nowise abashed, -took the newcomer by the arm and moved off toward -the quarters. Several others, scenting a lark, -hurried forward to take a hand, but Hennessy waved -them off. 'Lave go,' he said, 'I saw it first.' -</p> - -<p> -"I beckoned the driver to me and inquired -concerning the stranger. -</p> - -<p> -"'Don't know nuthin' about him, sir, 'cept he -tackled me as I was leaving Benson, and finally -made me understand he wanted to come here; -offered me a five-dollar gold piece to let him ride, and -here he is. Says he wants to learn to be a 'Merican -sojer, but he don't savvy United States, not a little -bit.' -</p> - -<p> -"I turned to Reynolds, who stood near, telling -him to give the Japanese something to eat and then -bring him to my quarters. It would never do to -leave him with that lot of unredeemed pagans who -had him in tow, as they would haze him mercilessly. -I mentally decided that he would be sent -back to Benson by the ambulance returning next -morning. -</p> - -<p> -"An hour later I saw Reynolds and the Jap coming -up the company street, the little fellow trotting along -beside the tall trooper, talking excitedly and smiling -as if thoroughly delighted with the situation. As -they reached my veranda, Reynolds saluted and -said, 'Here he is, sir.' -</p> - -<p> -"'Who is he, and why is he here?' I asked. -</p> - -<p> -"'Izo Yamato, sir; been in America only a few -weeks, and came from San Francisco here to enlist. -Says he wants to be a cavalryman. He is twenty-three -years old and belongs to a distinguished -family.' -</p> - -<p> -"'How comes it that he has been able to tell you -so much? I understand from the driver that he -speaks little or no English.' -</p> - -<p> -"'He speaks very little English, sir; his conversation -with me was in his own language.' -</p> - -<p> -"'In Japanese? Where in God's name did you -learn Japanese?' -</p> - -<p> -"'I lived in Kobe for several years, sir.' -</p> - -<p> -"'Um! well, you understand, of course, that he -cannot enlist here. He must first go to some recruiting -station and pass an examination, which he couldn't -do, both on account of his size and his lack of -English. Take care of him to-night, Reynolds, and -we will send him back to Benson to-morrow.' -</p> - -<p> -"All this time the Jap had not once taken his eyes -from my face, eagerly watching every movement and -gesture I made. Suddenly, as he seemed to understand -that I had refused his request, he stepped before -me, and drawing himself up to his full height, -he declared proudly, 'Me Samurai.' -</p> - -<p> -"I looked at Reynolds for an explanation. -</p> - -<p> -"'He says he is a Samurai, sir, which, translated -into English, means that he is a fighting man.' -</p> - -<p> -"I laughed outright, while the smile on the little -Jap's face broadened perceptibly, as he spoke a half -dozen quick, snappy sentences in Japanese to Reynolds. -</p> - -<p> -"'He says he doesn't expect to draw pay, sir; he -has ample funds, and only wants to learn American -soldiering.' -</p> - -<p> -"I couldn't do anything for him in that line, and -told Reynolds so. A quick shadow of disappointment -passed over the youngster's face, as Reynolds -translated my words, and I really felt sorry for him. -He was a handsome little chap, about five feet four, -deep-chested, stocky, and muscular, a sort of a big -little man, when one came to look him over. He had -jet-black hair, laughing eyes, and, while his features -were of course after the Oriental type, he really -looked more like a Portuguese or some south Europe -breed than a Japanese. After some further talk I -dismissed them, fully determined to send him out of -camp the following morning—but he didn't go. -</p> - -<p> -"Just before taps Reynolds came to me again to -ask that his new friend be permitted to remain at the -post for a time, explaining that the Jap would furnish -his own equipment, and that the government would -be reimbursed for the rations he consumed. He -urged the case so strongly that I finally inquired -what personal interest he had in the matter. At -first he seemed loath to explain, but it finally came -out. -</p> - -<p> -"'Frankly, sir, I want his society. I haven't a -real friend in the troop; of course, I get on well -enough with the boys, but they are an illiterate lot, -and it's fearfully lonely here at times, having no one -to talk with. Young Yamato is an educated gentleman, -and it would afford me infinite pleasure to have -him with me, to teach him and to have him as my -friend.' -</p> - -<p> -"'But the men will devil the life out of him, and -you will have a constant fight on your hands if you -propose to protect your friend.' -</p> - -<p> -"'I don't think they will trouble him much, as -they come to know him better, sir, and he will require -no protection.' -</p> - -<p> -"'Why, Reynolds, that big Hennessy has already -marked him as his victim. He will surely haze the -life out of the little cuss.' -</p> - -<p> -"'That's Yamato's affair, sir. I trust you will -permit him to remain at the post; if he can't stand -the gaff, then he will leave.' -</p> - -<p> -"'Reynolds, I want to ask you some questions -altogether foreign to the subject in hand; questions -you needn't answer unless you see fit. You are a -man of education and refinement; you know more -about matters military than a man in your station -is supposed to know; you are more familiar than -your officers with the latest text-books on tactics. -Were you ever at the Point? How came you to be a -private in the service? What is your history, anyway?' -</p> - -<p> -"It was brutal, the manner in which I fired those -questions at him, taking a mean advantage of his -position as petitioner to pry into his private life. I -was ashamed of it as I put the questions; I was -more ashamed when his answer came. -</p> - -<p> -"Quickly the colour rose to his cheek, then gradually -receded, leaving him deadly pale, as he slowly -replied. -</p> - -<p> -"'Captain, the rehearsal of a most unfortunate -and unhappy history could not in any manner be of -interest or profit to you. I have never been at West -Point, and my training has been more naval than -military. I am here because it appears to be the -best place for me, and while here I have tried to -perform my duties faithfully. That's all I care to say, -sir, and I trust you will respect my reticence.' The -grey eyes were looking fearlessly into mine. -</p> - -<p> -"It was a merited rebuke, delivered like a gentleman. -</p> - -<p> -"'Right, Sergeant, your history is your own -property. You may keep the Jap, and if you need -a friend, come to me.' -</p> - -<p> -"There was a suspicious brightness in his eyes and -the faintest tremor in his voice as he wrung my -proffered hand, saying, 'Thank you, Captain, I'll -not forget this.' -</p> - -<p> -"So Yamato remained at the post, the ward and -pupil of Sergeant Reynolds. The men attempted -some horse-play with him the first day or two, but -as Reynolds let it be known that the Jap was his -friend, no one cared to carry the fun-making beyond -prudent limits. They were very curious, however, -and asked the Sergeant all sorts of questions -concerning his protégé, to which they received evasive -but good-natured replies. Big Hennessy finally -cornered the Jap, and proceeded to catechise him. -</p> - -<p> -"'How ould are yez, Chink?' -</p> - -<p> -"'Me have of the years twenty-three,' replied the -lad, with his everlasting smile. -</p> - -<p> -"'Twinty-three! Sure, 'tis a big boy ye are gettin' -to be; if yez kape on growin' at the prisint rate, yez -will be a full-grown man in thirty or forty years -more,' and the Irishman guffawed uproariously. -</p> - -<p> -"'Well, me big man, what did yez do for a livin' -in the ould counthry? Did yez wheel the baby -waggin and do other light dhry-nursin', or was ye -head push in a laundhry?' -</p> - -<p> -"Not understanding, the Jap shook his head. -</p> - -<p> -"Hennessy tried again. -</p> - -<p> -"'What business were yez in? What did ye work at?' -</p> - -<p> -"Extending himself to his full height, with great -dignity the Japanese replied: -</p> - -<p> -"'Me no work; in my countree me gentleman; -me Samurai.' -</p> - -<p> -"'Samoory, eh? What particular sort av a bug -is a Samoory, anyhow?' -</p> - -<p> -"'Him no bug; Samurai ees one man of the fight.' -</p> - -<p> -"'Whoop!' yelled the big trooper derisively; then -raising his voice till he could be heard from end to -end of the company street, he shouted, -</p> - -<p> -"'Oyez! Oyez! all ye fighters come a-runnin' -with yure hats in yure hands, and do riverince to a -rale live Samoory from the Far East.' -</p> - -<p> -"Then as the boys quickly gathered about, he -made a profound obeisance before the surprised -Jap, and resumed. -</p> - -<p> -"'Gintlemen, dhrunkards, short-card min, and -sojers! 'Tis me pleasure to inthrojuce to yez me -distinguished frind and contimporary, Mister -Samoory, av Japan, who has confidentially imparted -to me the information that in his own counthry he -was known as a fighter from way back, a hell of a -feller, so to spake; and be rayson of his ability as an -all-roun' scrapper, the King gave him the title of -"Sammy, the Fightin' Man." All mimbers of -Troop C will now take warnin'! Yez will plaze -kape off the grass when Mister Sammy is awake. -Hospital accommodations will be provided for them -as forgit themselves. Form in line now, ye divils, -and extind the right hand of fellowship to Mister -Sammy, who has thravelled all the way to Americky -to be showin' us the fine points av the game.' -</p> - -<p> -"The Jap looked puzzled, but as those overgrown -children lined up, each in turn extending his hand, -the smile broadened and the black eyes fairly beamed -with pleasure. This ceremony ended, the boys gave -three rousing cheers for 'Sammy, the Fighting -Man,' the fun was over, and henceforth he was -'Sammy' to one and all. -</p> - -<p> -"When Reynolds returned later in the day, -Sammy delightedly told him of Hennessy's kindness -and the great honour conferred upon him by Troop -C. Reynolds did not disillusion the boy, but, later -on, quietly told the men that while they might guy -the Jap and have fun with him, it would not be wise -to carry it too far. They assumed by this warning -that Reynolds would resent any undue imposition -upon his friend; not once did it occur to them that -Sammy was amply able to care for himself. Their -enlightenment was yet to come. -</p> - -<p> -"Sammy's fitting out and equipment furnished -no end of fun for the men. He wanted everything -necessary to a ''Merican Soldier of the Horse,' and, -as he was amply supplied with gold, he soon had his -tent, blankets, and weapons. From some unknown -source the boys dug out an old, rusty cavalry sabre, -which he hailed with evident delight and which he at -once proceeded to scour and polish till it shone like -silver. Then he ground and whetted and sharpened -the old blade till it was keen as a razor. In vain the -men explained that the laws of war prohibited a -sharpened sword. 'Me want him for cut,' was his -only reply, as he went on whetting till the old steel -would have split a hair. Then he took his sabre to -the blacksmith and requested that he file off the -basket, or hand-guard, leaving a plain, straight, -unprotected hilt. 'Me like him better; same like in -my countree,' he explained. -</p> - -<p> -"It was in securing a horse that he had greatest -difficulty. Not being an enlisted man, he could not -be permitted to use a government mount, nor could -he purchase a horse from Uncle Sam. After a private -conversation with Mexican Joe, the proprietor -of one of the low groggeries just outside the lines, -Mr. Hennessy announced that he had heard of a fine -saddle horse for sale by a Greaser a few miles down -the valley, and, if his friend Sammy so desired, the -horse should be brought up to cantonments on the -morrow. Next day a Mexican led a piebald, -white-eyed broncho into camp, and within five minutes -departed hurriedly with fifty dollars of Sammy's -gold in his pocket. It was a bay and white pinto -which Sammy had acquired; round-bodied, long-barreled, -with flat, muscular legs and a depth of -lung space indicating great staying power, but with a -Roman nose and the restless white eyes which told -unmistakably of a 'spoiled' saddle horse. Evil -lurked in every movement of the slender, pointed -ears, and looked boldly out through those wicked -eyes. He was one of those untamed and unbreakable -specimens of horseflesh occasionally found in -the great West. -</p> - -<p> -"'Come, min,' said Hennessy briskly, 'lay hold -and help the gintleman to mount his new calico -horse,' and taking the rawhide lariat in his hand, he -advanced toward the pinto's head to adjust the -bridle; then leaping suddenly back, as the brute's -teeth snapped together dangerously near his arm, -he swung overhead the bridle with its heavy bit, -landing it with considerable force between the -white eyes. -</p> - -<p> -"'Whoa! ye murdherin' divil, have ye no sinse of -dacincy? 'Tis yure new masther, the fightin' man -av Japan, who is to ride yez!' -</p> - -<p> -"A dozen willing hands assisted in getting the -bridle and saddle in place; then Sammy, who -probably had not been astride a horse a dozen times in -his life, stepped forward and clambered into the -saddle. -</p> - -<p> -"'All set!' shouted Hennessy, as Sammy took up -the reins; 'lave go! the Arizony circus will now -begin!' -</p> - -<p> -"Begin it did; for no sooner was the maddened -brute released than he lunged wildly into the air, -alighting with a sickening jolt upon his forefeet, -while his hinder part shot skyward. Sammy's hat -flew in one direction and his six-shooter in another, -as he clutched frantically at the saddle and -endeavoured to recover the stirrups which were sailing -about his ears. First to the right, then to the left -pitched the horse, the men yelling in sheer delight, -'Stick to him, Sammy!' 'Go it, Calico!' etc. It -lasted less than ten seconds, during which time -Sammy was all over that pinto horse, travelling -from end to end with each sudden unseating; first -behind the saddle, then in front of it; clinging -desperately first to one side and then the other, as -Calico swayed to and fro, like a drunken ship, in -the effort to discharge his shifting ballast. The -rider had lost the reins, and the horse, without -guide or hindrance, his head far down between his -forefeet, his back bowed into a squirming knot of -muscle, landed with a particularly vicious jolt that -shot Sammy into the air, where he somersaulted to a -landing in a bunch of bristly soapweed, the breath -completely jarred out of him. -</p> - -<p> -"For a half-minute he lay still, and then as the -laughing soldiers gathered about, he slowly -straightened up and started toward the pinto, who stood -with ears perked forward, suspiciously eyeing his -fallen rider. The boy was badly shaken; a thin -line of blood from his nose showed red on his white -lips, as he unsteadily grasped the rope and warily -edged his way to the horse's head. Once within -reach his right hand clamped the panting nostrils, -while his left gripped an ear; there was a quick, -downward pull, an inward push, a sudden upward -twist, and Calico lay floundering on the ground -with Sammy sitting on his head. -</p> - -<p> -"So quickly was it accomplished not a man of -them could have told how it had been done. Sammy -was smiling again, as he sat quietly till the beast -ceased its struggles; then, getting up, he allowed -Calico to scramble to his feet. The white eyes were -blazing now and the horse swung his head and -squealed angrily as the Jap moved in. Again that -iron grip upon nose and ear, the sudden pushing -twist, and once more the horse fell heavily, his hoofs -impotently threshing the air. -</p> - -<p> -"Twice more the pinto was permitted to rise, -and twice more he was ruthlessly thrown, the last -time that awful grip holding to his nose till poor -Calico was well-nigh dead for want of breath. -When Sammy arose the fourth time the horse lay -still, and it required a vigorous kick to bring him to -his feet, his legs trembling unsteadily beneath him, -and for the first time in his life those white eyes -showed abject fear. Sammy walked straight to his -head, patted the dusty neck, put the reins over, then -deliberately and awkwardly climbed into the saddle -and rode slowly down the street. Calico was -licked! Licked to a finish! You should have -heard the boys cheer the little Jap as he rode back a -few minutes later. -</p> - -<p> -"Reynolds had seen it all yet no word escaped -him till after the horse had been stabled; then he -patted Sammy on the shoulder and spoke a few -words in Japanese, which caused the boy's face to -light up with satisfaction and his hand to seek -Reynolds' with a quick grip. -</p> - -<p> -"The two were inseparable; and under Reynolds' -careful tutoring Sammy made rapid progress -in English, though some words he never did get -straight. He learned to ride, too. When the men -were at drill he watched every evolution, listened -to every order. He begged so hard, and seemed so -anxious to learn, that I finally allowed him in the -ranks, a soldier serving without hope of pay or -preferment, but as gallant a soldier as ever drew -rein, as you shall hear later on. -</p> - -<p> -"He got on famously with the men. Of course, -they guyed and chaffed him, all of which he accepted -good-naturedly, so long as they kept hands off. He -would permit no one to hustle him or indulge in any -horse-play. One of the men attempted to -manhandle him one day, when Sammy grappled with -the fellow and threw him over his shoulder so -violently as nearly to break the man's neck. After -that they respected his edict of 'hands off.' His -thirst for knowledge seemed insatiable. Like a -shadow he followed Reynolds; ever his eager questions, -sometimes in English, more often in Japanese, -as to why or how, receiving the tall trooper's reply in -kind. It was about three weeks after his arrival -that Sammy had his first trouble, which came about -in this wise. -</p> - -<p> -"Hennessy, who was a roistering, good-natured -fellow when sober, but a quarrelsome brute when -in his cups, had spent the afternoon at Mexican -Joe's dive, and returning to camp in the evening, -was fighting drunk and hankering for trouble. -</p> - -<p> -"It so happened that the tent occupied by Sammy -stood at one end of the adobe building in which -Hennessy bunked, and the latter, to reach his door, -must pass within a few feet of the little Jap, who -sat cross-legged on the ground at the open flap of -his tent, tinkering at his equipment. Some evil -spirit prompted the drunken Irishman to bait the -Japanese, for he stopped, and with an ugly leer -commanded the boy to get up and get him a cup, as -he proposed to initiate all stray Orientals about the -camp into the mysteries of American tanglefoot. -</p> - -<p> -"'Get up, ye sawed-off haythen, and bring me -the cup, before I spit and dhrown yez.' -</p> - -<p> -"Sammy smiled and went on fixing his buckle. -</p> - -<p> -"'Didn'tyez hear me, ye naygur? I've a mind -to take on a body sarvint in me ould age, and as -yure so dam purty and so smilin'-like, yez have -been elected by a most overwhelmin' majority as -striker to the Honorable Tim Hinnissy, and I'll -start yez in proper by fillin' yez up on this,' and -he swung the bottle dangerously near Sammy's head. -</p> - -<p> -"Still smiling, Sammy shook his head. 'No -want him, those drink; him make for me pain of the -head.' -</p> - -<p> -"Hennessy scowled angrily. -</p> - -<p> -"'Don't want it, don't yez? Well, 'tis time ye -were larnin' that whin yure boss gives ye an ordther -ye are to move, and not sit squattin' like a -cross-legged toad, argifying. Git up, now, or I'll kick a -hole through the basement of yure pants!' and he -touched the lad none too gently with the toe of his -boot. -</p> - -<p> -"Sammy looked surprised, but still shook his -head and smiled. -</p> - -<p> -"'No want him, those drink; no geet up.' -</p> - -<p> -"Hennessy's big foot swung back, then forward, -as he landed a vicious kick squarely amidships; -Sammy rolled over, without doubt the most -surprised and the maddest Japanese in the Western -Hemisphere. He sprang to his feet, his eyes ablaze, -but as Hennessy raised his foot for another kick, -Sammy ducked under the tent flap and disappeared -within. -</p> - -<p> -"Hennessy howled derisively and stepped forward -with the evident intention of following, but -just then his head rocked backward from an awful -smash dealt him by the youngster, who stepped -out of the tent and faced the furious Irishman. It -was the hilt of that old cavalry sabre which had -halted Mr. Hennessy's advance. Full and square -in his teeth the blow had landed, and as he spat -the blood and a couple of floating teeth from between -his lacerated lips, he yelled, 'Ye son of a scutt! ye -wud play wid the tools, wud yez?' He sprang into -the open door of his own quarters, snatched up his -sabre, and, leaping out, sent the scabbard clattering -to the earth as he strode toward the waiting Jap, -who seemed to have forgotten his anger and was -now smiling expectantly. -</p> - -<p> -"The blow had instantly sobered the big trooper, -but it had also wakened the devil in him, and it -was evident to the men who ran flocking to the -scene that Hennessy meant to hurt the boy, possibly -to kill him. -</p> - -<p> -"'Now, ye haythen toad, I'll show yez how to use -the business end av a cheese knife! I'll just slice -off wan ear as a sooveneer an' then I'll spank yez -with the flat av me blade; but if ye are nasty about it, -by God, I'll take the two av thim,' and with this he -made a vicious cut at Sammy's head, the blow -slipping harmlessly from the waiting steel. -</p> - -<p> -"Two of the men started to rush Hennessy from -the rear to prevent a killing, but Reynolds interfered, -saying, 'Let him alone; this isn't your fight.' -</p> - -<p> -"'But Hennessy's crazy drunk and will kill him!' -</p> - -<p> -"'I don't think so,' calmly replied Reynolds. -'Hennessy will presently see a great light, and, if -I mistake not, will be a very sober man when he -finishes his job.' -</p> - -<p> -"And it was so. For the first few moments -Sammy seemed content to parry the strokes which -were rained upon him with all the strength and -fury of the enraged Irishman. So furiously did -Hennessy press home his attack, and so steadfastly -did the little Jap hold his ground, that again and -again the blades were engaged up to the very hilt, -and it seemed that Sammy's unguarded sword-hand -must surely suffer; but each time a deft turn -of the wrist put aside the danger. The boy's -enigmatical smile, and the ease with which he parried -each savage cut and thrust, seemed to drive the -big trooper wild, for with a fierce oath he redoubled -his effort and sought by sheer weight to break down -his adversary's guard. -</p> - -<p> -"Then Sammy's tactics changed, and within -ten seconds the spellbound men realised, as did -Hennessy, that with all his bulk and strength the -big fellow was but as a child, absolutely at the -mercy of that smiling, youthful foe, while the -sword-play which followed was the talk of many a -campfire in the years that followed. -</p> - -<p> -"Stepping back a pace, the Japanese suddenly set -his sabre whirling in a peculiar wheel-like movement, -which opposed a circular shield of steel to Hennessy's -weapon. Swifter and swifter whirled that shining -thing, its sibilant hiss growing more and more -venomous, menacing, and deadly. Utterly confounded, -Hennessy paused, his sword-arm extended, too -dumbfounded to give ground or to drop his point. -Suddenly the guardless sabre shot out, and, engaging -the Irishman's blade, tore it from his hand and -sent it flying over the heads of the crowd, to fall -harmlessly fifty feet away. Then, as his arms -dropped limply, the grey of a great fear stole over -Hennessy's face, not the fear of a coward, but the -fear of a brave man who looks into the eyes of a -death he cannot parry,—while that silent serpent of -steel darted through his hair, between ear and skull, -first on one side, then the other; passed like lightning -within a hairbreadth of his jugular; then under -each armpit, or flicked a button from the bosom of -his shirt, as if seeking the most deadly spot to place -its fatal sting. Yet no harm came to the Irishman; -not one drop of blood did he lose. -</p> - -<p> -"In a minute it was ended. Sammy swung his -sabre upward and brought it down flat-side, landing -with a sounding whack just above Hennessy's left -ear, knocking all the sense out of him for five -minutes. Turning to Reynolds, the boy laughingly said, -'Me no hurt him; him no Samurai; him big boy, -not know how for make those fight.' Then he sat -down before his tent and resumed the repairs on his -buckle. -</p> - -<p> -"That settled it. Sammy had made good as a -fighting man, and from that day he was the idol of -the Company. Hennessy was thoroughly whipped, -and, like a real man, he knew it and bore no malice. -After an hour he emerged from his quarters, and -walking up to the Jap, grasped his hand. -</p> - -<p> -"'Sammy, yure the boss. God knows ye should -av kilt me for the dhirty cur that I was, but ye didn't, -and I'm yure frind. If yez want a striker to clane -yure horse, or to be doin' yure maynial wurruk, it's -meself that's lookin' for the job, for ye are the biggest -man I iver hooked up wid, if ye are put up in a small -bundle.' -</p> - -<p> -"Sammy's smile broadened, as he warmly shook -the Irishman's hand. -</p> - -<p> -"'Hennessy one fine boy, when he no make of -those drink; it is good for be friends.' -</p> - -<p> -"Hennessy spent ten days in the guardhouse for -his drunken folly, and it was Sammy who regularly -carried to him tidbits from his own mess. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -"We had enjoyed a season of comparative quiet, -but the long expected break came early in July. -The entire Apache nation, which had for months -been seething with unrest, now broke into open -revolt with the usual campaign of murder and -pillage. -</p> - -<p> -"At dusk one evening a courier, who had ridden -seventy miles since noon, brought orders from the -Colonel to intercept a war party of seventy or eighty -Tontos, who were reported raiding up the San -Simeon Valley, bound for Sonora. Company F, at -Fort Bowie, would cut them off from the outlet at -the upper end of the valley, when it was supposed -the reds would swing to the westward and, skirting -the hills, would cross the Divide at or near Dragoon -Summit and make for the Mexican border through -the foothills to the west of Dos Cabesos. By hard -riding it might be possible to intercept them at -Hanging Rock Springs, a favourite camping-place -for such expeditions. -</p> - -<p> -"Hurried preparations were made, and at three -o'clock next morning Troop C filed out from -cantonments on its long ride. As men and horses were -fresh, we rapidly put mile after mile behind us in the -cool morning hours. A hurried breakfast as the sun -came up from behind the distant Dragoons, and then -began the dreary ride across the desolate stretch of -hill and plain which lay between us and Hanging -Rock, the point at which I hoped to bag our game. -Mile after mile we jogged under the blazing Arizona -sun, the rear of the little column hidden in the -blinding alkali dust, which rose in clouds from the dry, -parched earth. Far to the front, with the flankers, -rode Reynolds, and with him Sammy, who had -entered upon this man-hunt with all the enthusiasm -of a boy. -</p> - -<p> -"At noon we halted for an hour, to rest the horses -and eat our slender ration; then on we pushed across -the barren wastes toward our destination. At -mid-afternoon the heat became terrific, the horses -suffering severely and many of them beginning to show -evidences of the twelve-hours' stretch. Hanging -Rock, fifteen miles away, was now in plain view -across the valley, but it began to be questionable -whether the command could reach it before dusk, and -it would be most imprudent to scale the hill and -enter that rocky den after the sun had gone down. -</p> - -<p> -"Nature, in a freakish mood, had pushed the long -shelf of rock out from the summit of the divide, and -most strange it was that there, high up above the -plain, should bubble forth from beneath the hanging -scarp of stone, a great spring of clear, cool water. -The ridge was a wilderness of giant boulders, a -jungle of ragged rocks, thick strewn, as if scattered by -some Titan hand in the far-off days when earth was -young. -</p> - -<p> -"Suddenly the left flankers, a half mile in advance, -drew up, and Reynolds' signal told me that -something unusual was beyond. A moment later we saw -a single horseman emerge from one of the numerous -blind cañons on the left and ride rapidly toward the -waiting soldiers. Reaching them he seemed to -confer for a moment, then Reynolds wheeled and dashed -back toward the column, waving his hat and shouting -some unintelligible message. As I rode forward -to meet the flying horseman, his white face warned -me of evil tidings. -</p> - -<p> -"'Captain, a scout from Fort Grant says that -the Colonel's wife and his two little children, with -a detail of six men, left Grant at noon, to meet the -Colonel at Huachuca; two hours after they left the -post, news of the break reached the camp, and -Captain Dunlap sent this scout after the Colonel's -wife to bring her back. He ran into a band of -Apaches who were following the trail of the -ambulance, and he thinks they will overtake it at Hanging -Rock. Unable to warn the detail, and with another -band of Indians between him and Grant, he cut -around and was making for Huachuca when he spied -us.' -</p> - -<p> -"God! It was fifteen miles to Hanging Rock, and -even now the little detail might be surrounded. And -a woman, too! It meant swift action; so, turning -to the command, I told the men the situation, -explaining that the lives of our Colonel's wife and -children, and of the six troopers, depended upon our -reaching Hanging Rock before the reds could -complete their devilish work. As many of the horses -were exhausted, it would depend upon those who -had the best mounts to make the rescue, so I ordered -each man to do his best and started the entire troop -upon a free-for-all run for the Rock. Within ten -minutes Company C was strung out for a mile across -the desert, the better horses forging to the front, the -weaker falling to the rear. -</p> - -<p> -"Fortunately, my horse was in fair condition and -carried me well to the front. I rode hard, but far in -advance of all raced Reynolds' big bay and Sammy's -pinto. An hour, which seemed an eternity, had -passed, when less than a score of troopers reached -the foot of the ridge a mile from the spring. As one -after another of the horses dropped back exhausted, -I wondered how many would be with me at the -finish, and if we should be in time. -</p> - -<p> -"Suddenly from the heights above came the far-away -bang of a Springfield, then another, while the -faint puff of rifle smoke floating from the summit -told us that the Tontos were at work. Up the slope -we went as rapidly as the reeking horses would carry -us; far to the front, now disappearing behind the -rocks, rode Reynolds and Sammy. The reports of -the Springfields came ever clearer to us as we toiled -up the rocky slope, and now and again we heard the -exultant yells of the savages as they pressed their -attack. -</p> - -<p> -"A quarter of a mile from the spring my horse -wavered, then stumbled and fell, unable to carry -me another rod. Snatching my pistols from the -holsters, I ran on, hoping against hope that we -might be in time. A louder chorus of savage yells -and a popping of the Colts told me that Reynolds -and Sammy had reached the scene. Breathless with -the uphill run, I finally turned a giant boulder, and -the little amphitheatre about the spring was spread -out before me. -</p> - -<p> -"To the rear of the water hole stood an ambulance, -the mules all down; just behind the spring, and -cowering against the overhanging rock, was the Colonel's -wife, with her helpless little ones; while lying about -were five motionless figures in faded army blue, -which told the story of brave men who had battled -to the last and had died the soldier's death. Beside -the praying woman knelt a wounded trooper, calmly -shooting into the horde of savage figures who were -darting and dodging amidst the rocks; while to the -left and in front stood Sammy and Reynolds, their -Colts spitting viciously at the Indians, who were -evidently surprised and disturbed by the unwelcome -re-enforcements. The men were directly between -the Indians and the woman, and as the savages hoped -to capture the latter alive they were not using their -guns, but had attacked the Jap and his comrade -with knives and war clubs. -</p> - -<p> -"As I looked, the wounded man went down, and, -casting aside their empty weapons, Reynolds and -Sammy drew their sabres and stood between the -kneeling woman and the two score of yelping beasts. -A moment later Reynolds toppled backward from -a murderous thrust in the side and a blow from a -war club upon the head, delivered simultaneously, -and Sammy was alone, confronting that swarm of -naked cut-throats. A half-dozen of my men now -came running up the trail, and in an instant their -Springfields were roaring as they pressed forward, -shooting, and shouting encouragement to the boy. -</p> - -<p> -"And then, startlingly clear and vibrant, above -the din of the yelling savages, above the shouts of -the men and the banging of the Springfields, rose -in a foreign tongue a strange, weird chant, full and -sonorous as a trumpet-call. It was the battle song -of the Samurai,—Sammy's answering challenge—the -war-cry of his fathers. About him shimmered -and hissed that impenetrable circle of steel, and -though they hacked and stabbed in frantic haste, -not once did a hostile thrust reach beyond that -matchless guard. Like a thing of light, the shining -weapon darted here and there, claiming with each -touch its tithe of blood. -</p> - -<p> -"The leader of the redskins, a hideously painted -buck, seeing the rescuers near at hand, made a -sudden feint and, dropping upon one knee, -attempted to stab the boy through the abdomen. It -was his last stroke, for as Sammy sprang back his -blade whirled downward, the savage hand dropped -to the earth, lopped clean at the wrist as with an -axe, and the next instant a life went out through an -ugly gash in the dusky throat. Louder rose that -rhythmic chant, while ever, like some thin flame, -the slender blade played swiftly about the swordsman. -</p> - -<p> -"Reynolds struggled to rise, but was too badly -hurt, and sank beside the prostrate trooper. Never -pausing in his song, Sammy stepped in front of his -fallen friend, and as the steel told on its fateful -tale, high up above the din of strife the sonorous -words rang out: -</p> - -<p> -"'Heed me, oh mighty ones, my fathers of the -past! The spirit lives within thy son! See! the -arm is strong, the hand is sure, and with each stroke -the life wine flows! To the sacred annals of our -house I add another deed. Hail to ye, oh mighty -dead! Hail! heroes of Yamato's line!' -</p> - -<p> -"Swiftly and more deadly flamed that gleaming -brand, as Sammy, seemingly endowed with more -than human strength, now took the offensive and -pressing into the struggling band, made a sudden, -swinging side-cut which swept a head completely -from its moorings, then plunged a foot of steel into -another naked breast. -</p> - -<p> -"It was more than the Tontos could stand, and -they gave way before the Jap's sudden onslaught, -taking refuge behind the rocks. A dozen troopers -were now in action, their fire soon causing the -Indians to scatter like quail along the rocky ridge, -where it would have been foolhardy to pursue. -</p> - -<p> -"As the Indians fled Sammy dropped his dripping -point, and turning, ran back to Reynolds, and was -in the act of lifting him when an Indian, who had -paused in his flight, rested his rifle barrel upon a -boulder, and, taking deliberate aim, shot the Jap -through the body. The little fellow pitched -forward and lay so motionless we thought him dead; -but as the boys tenderly lifted and turned him he -smiled faintly, as he said, 'Me all right; help Meester -Reynolds.' Then the mercy of unconsciousness -came to him, and he lay white and still as one whose -earthly cares were at an end. -</p> - -<p> -"It was the wickedest little fight I've ever seen; -five troopers were dead and three were desperately -wounded, while there were eighteen good Indians to -balance the account, seven of them Sammy's. But -the woman and her babies were safe, so the sacrifice -had not been wholly in vain. -</p> - -<p> -"The surgeon shortly reached the scene and -hurriedly examined the wounded men. To my -look of inquiry, he replied, 'Reynolds and the other -man will pull through, but Sammy is booked, spine -broken.' From the troopers gathered close about -came a half-suppressed sob, which told, more -eloquently than words, how the lad had won them. -</p> - -<p> -"Throwing out a strong picket, I made quick -preparations for the night. Within an hour the -remainder of the command had struggled in, the -Colonel's wife and children were housed in the -ambulance, supper was cooked, then the stillness -and the grandeur of an Arizona night was upon -that blood-stained bivouac. -</p> - -<p> -"Reynolds, his head bandaged and the long cut -in his side dressed and stitched, slept fitfully, -muttering incoherently of unknown people and places. -For Sammy, nothing could be done; his hurt was -mortal, and within a few hours the great Silence, -the Nirvana of his faith, would be his. Presently -the moon came swinging up into the cloudless, -starlit sky, driving back the shadows, toning the -rough outlines of the rocks, and making beautiful -the rugged amphitheatre about the spring. By -ten o'clock it was as light as at early dawn, while the -surgeon and I sat beside the now conscious boy as -he lay upon the rough blanket bed. -</p> - -<p> -"'Sammy,' I said, as I took his hand, 'you are -badly wounded and it may be that you will not -again return to your people. Will you tell me of -your home, and will you give me some message for -those who are dear to you?" -</p> - -<p> -"There was wondrous strength in the grip he -gave my hand, and his voice was steady as, in -halting, uncertain English, he told me of his -birthplace in far-away Japan, his beautiful Japan that he -would never see again; of his father, the 'grand -man' who had sent him out into the world that he -might learn the ways of the 'Merican Soldier,' and -thus be of greater service to his country in some -day of need. He told us of the great palace upon a -hill, which had been his home, and spoke reverently -of the little mother who waited for his return. He -was most anxious that his father should know he -had fallen in battle, and that many men had felt -his steel before he went down. -</p> - -<p> -"'Me Samurai,' he added, simply; 'it is good -that Samurai should die in those fight.' -</p> - -<p> -"Reynolds, unconscious and feverishly moaning, -lay a few feet distant, and Sammy asked that he be -moved so that he might lie beside his friend. Just -beside his bed the moonlight showed a tiny desert -flower, a flower not born to blush unseen, but -destined, thank God, to brighten the dying hour of that -home-hungry little Japanese. He plucked the -flower, and lifting it to his lips, he said, 'Many -flowers in my countree.' After this he lay very -still, gazing steadily up into the limitless, jewelled -space, as if trying to fathom the eternal mystery of -life and death. It was nearly midnight when I -noticed that his hands were growing cold, and found -that the respiration was growing very laboured. -The surgeon, after feeling the pulse, beckoned me -aside to whisper that the hour was come. -</p> - -<p> -"As we bent over him, his eyes sought mine and -he said, haltingly, 'Captaine and that doctor man -are been verre good to Sammy.' Turning his -head, he noticed that the blanket had fallen away -from his comrade's shoulder; with great effort he -reached out, and pulling the blanket in place, patted -the shoulder lovingly, and laid the desert flower -upon Reynolds' breast. 'Him my friend,' he -whispered; 'him Samurai, too; him 'Merican Samurai.' For -a few minutes his pulse fluttered intermittently, -when I saw that his lips were moving, and bending -low, I caught the faintly murmured words, 'Nippon! -Nippon! Samurai!' Then the brave heart was still -forever, and we knew that a gallant soul had passed. -</p> - -<p> -"So died a Samurai; giving his young life in -defense of the helpless ones of an alien people, a -people who regarded him and his kind as pagans. -Surely, in the final muster, the Great Commander, -making no distinction as to race or creed, will -reward soldiers such as he. -</p> - -<p> -"It was a sad returning to the home camp. -Reynolds, raving in delirium, was conveyed slowly in -the ambulance, and it was not until after poor -Sammy had been buried that he regained consciousness. -A fortnight later he emerged from the hospital, -gaunt and haggard, with deep lines on his brow -from this last sorrow, for he had loved his little -comrade with all the strength of his great nature. -</p> - -<p> -"The men came in a body to request that Sammy -should be given a soldier's funeral. The Colonel, -who had arrived, and had heard how the boy died, -cried like a child as he told the men they should -have their wish. -</p> - -<p> -"At sunset we laid him to rest, with full military -honours. The salute was fired; then, with tears -coursing down his bronzed cheek, the bugler stepped -to the head of that lowly grave and sounded taps—the -soldier's 'good-night.' Sweetly and sadly those -mournful cadences floated out over the desert, -Troop C's farewell to little Sammy. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -"Two days later a message came from Department -Headquarters inquiring if one Izo Yamato, a -Japanese, was at Huachuca, and if so to extend to -him every courtesy, etc., etc., by order of the War -Department. I replied, briefly detailing the history -of his death. I also wrote the Japanese consul at -San Francisco, telling him all. -</p> - -<p> -"A month slipped by, when an ambulance and -escort arrived from Benson. Sammy's father, -Count Yamato, a distinguished man of middle age, -had come to take the body home. Through an -interpreter and Reynolds he heard the story of -Sammy's gallant fight and death. He was much -moved and, though his eyes were dim with unshed -tears, he gravely saluted the Colonel and myself, -and declared himself content, since his son had died -as befitted a Samurai of his rank. -</p> - -<p> -"Through the interpreter, we told him of the -great friendship between his son and Reynolds. -It was after a long talk with the Count next day -that Reynolds sought the Colonel with a strange -request. He explained that, as his three years of -service would expire within a month, he desired -the Colonel's influence with the Department in -securing his immediate discharge. The Count had -offered formally to adopt him as his son and, having -no ties which bound him to his native land, the -Sergeant had accepted. Count Yamato seconded -the petition, stating that having lost his only son, -his heart had gone out to the gallant young American -whom he now desired to make his heir. It was -easily arranged, and two days later they started -west with Sammy's remains. -</p> - -<p> -"Within a week or two after I, too, was in San -Francisco, ordered to duty at the Presidio. As I -crossed the ferry from Oakland, we ran close under -the stern of a great Pacific liner bound for the -Orient. On the after-deck stood a tall figure, and -Sergeant Reynolds' voice came to me across the -waters, 'Good-bye and God bless you, Captain.' The -Count stood beside him, and I knew that -below decks little Sammy's body was going home -to sleep beside his fathers. Into the splendour of -the sunset which lay beyond the Golden Gate, -to the far-off land of flowers, sailed the mighty -ship bearing my two Samurai, the living and the -dead." -</p> - -<p> -The Colonel paused in his story, and taking from -his pocket a letter postmarked Tokio, Japan, May -1, 1904, he read the following extract: -</p> - -<p> -"'As a military man you are, of course, interested -in the war. Here in Japan we hear little of events -at the front save the official dispatches, with which -you are already familiar. Yesterday, however, I -witnessed an event of more than passing interest. -During the recent desperate fighting between the -Japanese torpedo flotilla and the Russian -battleships about Port Arthur, a lieutenant-commander -of the Japanese navy, in command of a destroyer, -made a daring and successful attack upon one of -the enemy's vessels. He was killed in the action, -and his body brought home for interment. Never -have I seen so splendid a spectacle nor so impressive -a service. In attendance were the Emperor and -the entire Imperial Court, as well as the highest -officers of the Army and Navy, all ablaze with gold -lace and jewelled decorations. The body rested -upon a magnificent catafalque of purple velvet, -bearing the national arms and draped with the -battle-flags of his ship. It seems that the officer -had been a Samurai, a member of some noble family, -and, in recognition of his gallantry in action, a part -of the ceremony was the conferring by the Emperor -on the dead man of the Order of the Golden Kite, -thus marking him as one of Japan's national heroes. -After this ceremony was ended, an old, white-haired -noble, said to be the dead man's father, -took from an attendant a package, which proved to -be a silken American flag, with which he reverently -covered the casket. Then the crowd slowly filed -out, leaving the dead hero alone under the folds of -Old Glory. It is said to have been an event -unprecedented in the history of Japan, but I could learn -little concerning it. Those I asked either didn't -know, or wouldn't tell. Strange people, these -Japanese.'" -</p> - -<p> -The Colonel folded up the letter and replaced it -in his pocket. As he rose to bid us good-night, he -said: -</p> - -<p> -"I have since learned that the daring commander -who gave his life to Japan, and whose body lay in -the old temple, shrouded in the American colours, -was Sergeant Reynolds of old Troop C, one of my -Two Samurai." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /></p> - -<p class="t3"> -END -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 63015 ***</div> -</body> - -</html> - |