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diff --git a/old/63015-0.txt b/old/63015-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9a8c624..0000000 --- a/old/63015-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4445 +0,0 @@ -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 63015 *** - - Masterpieces of - Adventure - - _In Four Volumes_ - - ORIENTAL STORIES - - - - Edited by - Nella Braddy - - - - Garden City New York - Doubleday, Page & Company - 1922 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY - DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY - - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION - INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES - AT - THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. - - - - - GRATEFULLY DEDICATED - TO - BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS, Ph.D. - - - - -EDITOR'S NOTE - -In these volumes the word _adventure_ 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. - -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. - - - - -CONTENTS - - -I. THE INLET OF PEACH BLOSSOMS - _Nathan Parker Willis_ - -II. IN THE PASHA'S GARDEN - _H. G. Dwight_ - -III. THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE - _Sir Hugh Clifford_ - -IV. LEGEND OF COUNT JULIAN AND HIS FAMILY - _Washington Irving_ - -V. A GOBOTO NIGHT - _Jack London_ - -VI. THE TWO SAMURAI - _Byron E. Veatch_ - - - - - -MASTERPIECES OF ADVENTURE - - - - -Masterpieces of Adventure - - -_ORIENTAL STORIES_ - -I - -THE INLET OF PEACH BLOSSOMS - -NATHAN PARKER WILLIS - - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -"You are noble?" he said with confident inquiry. - -Yuentsoong coloured slightly. - -"I am," he replied, "Lew-melin, a prince of the empire." - -"And by what accident here?" - -Yuentsoong explained the clue of the peach-blossoms, and represented -himself as exiled for a time to the deserted palace upon the lakes. - -"I have a daughter," said the old man, abruptly, "who has never -looked on human face save mine." - -"Pardon me!" replied his visitor; "I have thoughtlessly intruded on -her sight, and a face more heavenly fair--" - -The emperor hesitated but the old man smiled encouragingly. - -"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." - - -*The season of peach-blossoms was the only season of marriage in -ancient China. - - -The emperor started, remembering that this celebrated rebel was the -terror of his father's throne. - -"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." - -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. - -"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." - -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. - -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! - -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 "_the kieu,_" 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! - -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. - -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:-- - -"_The close wing of love covers the death-throb of honour._" - - -*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: - -"From the pine forest the azure dragon ascends to the milky way," -typical of the prosperous man arising to wealth and honours. - - -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. - -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. - -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! - -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. - -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. - -"Loose him!" cried the emperor in a voice of thunder. - -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. - -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. - -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." - - - - -II - -IN THE PASHA'S GARDEN* - -H. G. DWIGHT - -*Reprinted by permission of the author. - - -_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._ - ---O. Henry: THE TRIMMED LAMP. - - -I - -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. - -"Shall we wait, my Pasha?" asked the head _kaikji_. - -The Pasha turned to Shaban, as if to put a question. And as if to -answer it Shaban said: - -"The Madama is up in the wood, in the kiosque. She sent down word to -ask if you would go up too." - -"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. - -"I think no one is there--except Zümbül Agha," replied Shaban, -following his master up the long central path of black and white -pebbles. - -"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?" - -"I don't know, my Pasha, but I will find out." - -"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." - -"On my head!" said the Albanian, turning off to the house. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -"Eh, Shaban! It is not your business to carry coffee!" protested the -Pasha, reaching for a stand that stood near him. - -"What is your business is my business, _Pasha'm_. Have I not eaten -your bread and your father's for thirty years?" - -"No! Is it as long as that? We are getting old, Shaban." - -"We are getting old," assented the Albanian simply. - -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. - -"How long is it since you have been to your country, Shaban?" - -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. - -"Eighteen months, my Pasha." - -"And when are you going again?" - -"In Ramazan, if God wills. Or perhaps next Ramazan. We shall see." - -"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." - -"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." - -"But we have a mountain here, behind the house," laughed the Pasha. - -"Your mountain is not like our mountains," objected Shaban gravely, -hunting in his mind for the difference he felt but could not express. - -"And that new wife of yours," went on the Pasha. "Is it good to -leave a young woman like that? Are you not afraid?" - -"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." - -"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. - -"Shall I come too, my Pasha? Zümbül Agha sent word----" - -"Zümbül Agha!" interrupted the Pasha irritably. "No, you needn't -come. I will explain to Zümbül Agha." - -With which he left Shaban to pick up the empty coffee cup. - - - -II - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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: - -"Pleasant be your coming, my Pasha." - -The Pasha had forgotten about Zümbül Agha; and it seemed strange to -him that Hélène continued to sit silent and motionless on her sofa. - -"Good evening," he said at last. "You are sitting very quietly here -in the dark. Are there no lights in this place?" - -It was again Zümbül Agha who spoke, turning one question by another: - -"Did Shaban come with you?" - -"No," replied the Pasha shortly. "He said he had a message, but I -told him not to come." - -"A-ah!" ejaculated the eunuch in his high drawl. "But it does not -matter--with the two of us." - -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: - -"Now will you give me that key?" - -The French woman took no more notice of this question than she had of -the Pasha's entrance. - -"What do you mean, Zümbül Agha?" demanded the Pasha sharply. "That -is not the way to speak to your mistress." - -"I mean this, my Pasha," retorted the eunuch--"that some one is -hiding in this chest and that Madama keeps the key." - -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. - -"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. - -"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!" - -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. - -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. - -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 -_quelconque_, 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? - -"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!" - -"Aman, my Pasha! I beg you!" entreated the eunuch. There was -something ludicrous in his voice, coming as it did from his height. - -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---- - -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. - -"Where shall we set the table?" asked the man with the lantern. - -For the Pasha the lantern seemed to make the world more like the -place he had always known. He turned to his wife, apologetically. - -"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." - -"No," uttered Hélène from her sofa, sitting with her head on her hand. - -It was the first word she had spoken. But, little as it was, it -reassured him, like the lantern. - -"There is the chest," hazarded Zümbül Agha. - -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. - -"Why not?" asked Hélène, when he was gone. "We can sit on the -cushions." - -"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. - -"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." - -"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?" - -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? - -"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." - -"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." - -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. - -"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." - -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. - -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. - -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. - -"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." - -"They say mirrors do not flatter," the Pasha did not keep himself -from rejoining, "but they are very discreet. They tell no tales!" - -Hélène raised her eyes. In the little room the servants had cleared -the improvised table and had packed up everything again except the -candles. - -"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." - -"Zümbül Agha!" exclaimed the Pasha. "I sent him away." - -"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." - -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. - -"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." - -"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? -_Au revoir_." - -And making a sign to the servants she walked out of the kiosque. - - - -III - -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. - -"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." - -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. - -"Thank you, Zümbül Agha," he replied, "but I am not the nurse of -Madama, and I will not give you the key." - -If he only might, though, he thought to himself again! - -"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!" - -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. - -"My poor Zümbül," he uttered musingly, "you have never forgiven me -for marrying her." - -"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." - -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. - -"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." - -"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?" - -"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." - -"Give me that key and I will show you what it is about," said the -eunuch, stepping forward. - -But the Pasha found he was not ready to go so directly to the point. - -"Can't you answer a simple question?" he demanded irritably, -retreating to the farther side of the fountain. - -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? - -But Zümbül Agha had begun again, doggedly: - -"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?" - -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. - -"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." - -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. - -"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----" - -"Never mind what you heard," broke in the Pasha. "I have heard -enough." - -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. - -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. - -"Go down and get Shaban," he ordered, "and don't come back." - -The eunuch stared. But if he had anything to say he thought better -of uttering it. He saluted silently and went away. - - - -IV - -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! - -Presently he heard steps on the drive and Shaban came, carrying -something dark in his hand. - -"What is that?" asked the Pasha, as Shaban held it out. - -"A pistol, my Pasha. Zümbül Agha told me you wanted it." - -The Pasha laughed curtly. - -"Zümbül made a mistake. What I want is a shovel, or a couple of -them. Can you find such a thing without asking anyone?" - -"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. - -"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." - -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. - -"He is telling us where to go," he said. - -Shaban permitted himself a low laugh. - -"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. - -"This will do," said the Pasha, "if the roots are not in the way." - -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. - -They found Zümbül Agha in the little room, sitting on the sofa with a -pistol in either hand. - -"I thought I told you not to come back!" exclaimed the Pasha sternly. - -"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." - -"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." - -"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. - -When he was gone the Pasha turned to Shaban: - -"This box, Shaban--you see this box? It has become a trouble to us, -and I am going to take it out there." - -The Albanian nodded gravely. He took hold of one of the handles, to -judge the weight of the chest. He lifted his eyebrows. - -"Can you help me put it on my back?" he asked. - -"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. - -"Now we must be careful," said the Pasha. "It might slip or get -stuck." - -"But are you going to bury the box too?" demanded Shaban, for the -first time showing surprise. - -"Yes," answered the Pasha. And he added: "It is the box I want to -get rid of." - -"It is a pity," remarked Shaban regretfully. "It is a very good box. -However, you know. Now then!" - -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. - -"Ah, there are two of them," remarked Shaban. "She will take the one -that says the sweetest things to her." - -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. - -"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." - -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. - -"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." - -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. - - - - -III - -THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE* - -SIR HUGH CLIFFORD - -*Reprinted by permission of the author. - - -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. - -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 _vis-à-vis_. 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. - -"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. - -"Snakes!" he exclaimed genially. "This is _mighty_ 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. - -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. - -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. - -"Goramercy!" ejaculated the American limply. "I want a drink. -Who'll join me?" But no one responded to his invitation. - -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. - - -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. - -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 _idée fixe_, 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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _lalang_-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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _form_ of the things by which he was surrounded; _colour_ -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _something_--of no -matter how awful a character--that would put a period to his -unendurable suspense. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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 _bangun_, 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. - -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. - -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 _bangun_. 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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - - -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 -_solitude à deux_ 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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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 ... _ugh_! - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"'Mother of heaven!' he said thickly, 'what have I done?' - -"He stared round him at the little brown corpses, doubled up in -dislocated and distorted attitudes, and his eyes were troubled. - -"'God forgive me!' he muttered. 'God forgive me!' - -"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. - -"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." - -"Yes," I assented, "and he is constantly telling the first part of -the story to every chance soul he meets." - -"Exactly," said Bateman. "That is what makes me sometimes doubt the -completeness of his oblivion concerning what followed. What do you -think?" - - - - -IV - -LEGEND OF COUNT JULIAN AND HIS FAMILY - -WASHINGTON IRVING - - -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. - -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 _ore rotunda_ 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. - -... 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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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?" - -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. - -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. - -"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." - -"Enough," said the emir. "They shall all die! Parents and -children.--all shall die!" - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -"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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -"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?" - -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. - -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." - -"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." - -"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." - -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." - -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!" - -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." - -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." - -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. - -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. - -"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." - -"Bear that frantic woman hence," said the emir, "but guard her well." - -The countess was dragged away by the soldiery, without regard to her -struggles and her cries, and confined in a dungeon of the citadel. - -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. - -"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!" - -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. - -"Dost thou know yonder land beyond the blue water?" said Yuza. - -"It is Spain," replied the boy; "it is the land of my father and my -mother." - -"Then stretch forth thy hands and bless it, my child," said the -astrologer. - -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. - -Alahor came to the foot of the winding stairs. - -"Is the boy safe?" cried he. - -"He is safe," replied Yuza; "come and behold the truth with thine own -eyes." - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - - - - -V - -A GOBOTO NIGHT - -JACK LONDON - - -I - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - - - -II - -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 _Merry_; 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. - -Over their coffee, they heard the rumble of an anchor-chain through a -hawse-pipe, tokening the arrival of a vessel. - -"It's David Grief," Peter Gee remarked. - -"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." - -Peter Gee was engaged in lighting a cigarette, and did not answer. - -"Some of the niggers do amazing things that way," McMurtrey -interposed tactfully. - -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. - -"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." - -"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." - -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. - -Captain Stapler stepped in to help McMurtrey: - -"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." - -Deacon ignored him, and returned to the attack on the pearl-buyer. - -"How do you know from the sound of the anchor that it was this -whatever-you-called-him man?" he challenged. - -"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." - -"I thought so," Deacon sneered. "Explanation that doesn't explain is -easy." - -"Who's for bridge?" Eddy Little, the second clerk, interrupted, -looking up expectantly and starting to shuffle. "You'll play, won't -you, Peter?" - -"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." - -"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 _Gunga_, which is shortly scheduled to -leave here for Karo-Karo. I spoke to Grief, on the _Gunga_, 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 _Gunga_, 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.'" - -Deacon was for the moment crushed. The sullen blood rose darkly in -his face. - -"Well, he's answered you," McMurtrey laughed genially. "And I'll -back his bet myself for a couple of sovereigns." - -"Bridge! Who's going to take a hand?" Eddy Little cried impatiently. -"Come on, Peter!" - -"The rest of you play," Deacon said. "He and I are going to play -piquet." - -"I'd prefer bridge," Peter Gee said mildly. - -"Don't you play piquet?" - -The pearl-buyer nodded. - -"Then come on. Maybe I can show I know more about that than I do -about anchors." - -"Oh, I say----" McMurtrey began. - -"You can play bridge," Deacon shut him off. "We prefer piquet." - -Reluctantly, Peter Gee was bullied into a game that he knew would be -unhappy. - -"Only a rubber," he said, as he cut for deal. - -"For how much?" Deacon asked. - -Peter Gee shrugged his shoulders. "As you please." - -"Hundred up--five pounds a game?" - -Peter Gee agreed. - -"With the lurch double, of course, ten pounds?" - -"All right," said Peter Gee. - -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. - -"I hope Peter loses," McMurtrey said in an undertone. - -"Not if he has any luck," Andrews answered. "He's a wizard at -piquet. I know by experience." - -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. - -"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 _ngari-ngari_? 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." - -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. - -Deacon lost the second game, and an outburst heralded the fact. -Peter Gee devoted himself to lighting a cigarette and keeping quiet. - -"What!--are you quitting because you're ahead?" Deacon demanded. - -Grief raised his eyebrows questioningly to McMurtrey, who frowned -back his own disgust. - -"It's the rubber," Peter Gee answered. - -"It takes three games to make a rubber. It's my deal. Come on!" - -Peter Gee acquiesced, and the third game was on. - -"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." - -"Who is he?" Grief queried. - -"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." - -"Maybe he's only young," Grief suggested. - -"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!" - -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: - -"I'm ready for the bridge, now." - -"I wouldn't be a quitter," Deacon snarled. - -"Oh, really, I'm tired of the game," Peter Gee assured him with his -habitual quietness. - -"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." - -McMurtrey was about to interpose, but Grief restrained him with his -eyes. - -"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?" - -"That's it, chappie. Either we break even or I pay you thirty." - -"Getting blooded, eh?" Grief remarked, drawing up a chair. - -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. - -"Looks like a lurch," said Grief. - -"Which is double," said Peter Gee. - -"There's no need your telling me," Deacon snarled. "I've studied -arithmetic. I owe you forty-five pounds. There, take it!" - -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. - -"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." - -The half-caste smiled and nodded acquiescence as he folded up the -money. - -"There's a little game called casino--I wonder if you ever heard of -it?--a child's game." - -"I've seen it played," the half-caste murmured gently. - -"What's that?" snapped Deacon. "Maybe you think you can play it?" - -"Oh, no, not for a moment. I'm afraid I haven't head enough for it." - -"It's a bully game, casino," Grief broke in pleasantly. "I like it -very much." - -Deacon ignored him. - -"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?" - -"No, thanks," the half-caste answered. "They are waiting for me in -order to make up a bridge set." - -"Yes, come on," Eddy Little begged eagerly. "Come on, Peter, let's -get started." - -"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." - -The man's conduct was a hurt and an affront to all of them. -McMurtrey could stand it no longer. - -"Now hold on, Deacon. He says he doesn't want to play. Let him -alone." - -Deacon turned raging upon his host; but before he could blurt out his -abuse, Grief had stepped into the breach. - -"I'd like to play casino with you," he said. - -"What do you know about it?" - -"Not much, but I'm willing to learn." - -"Well, I'm not teaching for pennies to-night." - -"Oh, that's all right," Grief answered. "I'll play for almost any -sum--within reason, of course." - -Deacon proceeded to dispose of this intruder with one stroke. - -"I'll play you a hundred pounds a game, if that will do you any good." - -Grief beamed his delight. "That will be all right, very right. Let -us begin. Do you count sweeps?" - -Deacon was taken aback. He had not expected a Goboton trader to be -anything but crushed by such a proposition. - -"Do you count sweeps?" Grief repeated. - -Andrews had brought him a new deck, and he was throwing out the joker. - -"Certainly not," Deacon answered. "That's a sissy game." - -"I'm glad," Grief coincided. "I don't like sissy games either." - -"You don't, eh? Well, then, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll play -for five hundred pounds a game." - -Again Deacon was taken aback. - -"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?" - -"You're a lot of jokers down here," Deacon laughed, but his laughter -was strained. "How do I know you've got the money?" - -"By the same token I know you've got it. Mac, how's my credit with -the company?" - -"For all you want," the manager answered. - -"You personally guarantee that?" Deacon demanded. - -"I certainly do," McMurtrey said. "Depend upon it, the company will -honour his paper up and pass your letter of credit." - -"Low deals," Grief said, placing the deck before Deacon on the table. - -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. - -"You're all strangers to me," Deacon complained. "How am I to know? -Money on paper isn't always the real thing." - -Then it was that Peter Gee, drawing a wallet from his pocket and -borrowing a fountain pen from McMurtrey, went into action. - -"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." - -Deacon intercepted the letter of credit as it was being passed across -the table. He read it slowly, then glanced up at McMurtrey. - -"Is that right?" - -"Yes. It's just the same as your own, and just as good. The -company's paper is always good." - -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. - -"Another game," he said. "We didn't say how many, and you can't quit -with me a loser. I want action." - -Grief shuffled and passed the cards for the cut. - -"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. - -"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." - -"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?" - -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. - -He now evinced an unspoken desire to stop, but Grief passed the deck -to be cut. - -"What?" Deacon cried. "You want more?" - -"Haven't got anything yet," Grief murmured whimsically, as he began -the deal. "For the usual five hundred, I suppose?" - -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?" - -"That will make it a nice, quick little game," Grief agreed. - -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. - -Grief shook his head. "You can't do that, you know. You're only ten -thousand credit with the company." - -"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?" - -Grief smiled and shook his head. - -"It's robbery, plain robbery," Deacon went on. "You take my money -and won't give me action." - -"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." - -"Well, we'll play it," Deacon took him up. "You cut." - -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. - -"Cards put me out," he said. "I have twenty-seven." - -"If you've made a mistake," Deacon threatened, his face white and -drawn. - -"Then I shall have lost. Count them." - -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. - -"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. - -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." - -Deacon glanced at his watch, simulated a weary yawn, and started to -rise. - -"Wait," Grief said. "Do you want further action?" - -The other sank down in his chair, strove to speak, but could not, -licked his dry lips, and nodded his head. - -"Captain Donovan here sails at daylight in the _Gunga_ 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. - -"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. - -"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?" - -Deacon could not speak. His throat lumped and he nodded his head as -he reached for the cards. - -"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?" - -"Too much so," Deacon stammered. "You are unfair to yourself. A -trader only gets ten or fifteen pounds a month." - -"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----" - -He wrote steadily and rapidly for some minutes, then proceeded to -read the matter aloud: - - -"_I must always remember that one man is as good as another, save and -except when he thinks he is better._ - -"_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._ - -"_When I play a man's game with men, I must play like a man._ - -"_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._ - -"_There is no license for a man to be less than a man. Ten thousand -pounds cannot purchase such a license._" - - -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. - -"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?" - -"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." - -He held out his hand, and the half-caste took it beamingly. - -"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." - -Grief showed signs of debating, but Deacon cried: - -"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." - -"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." - -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. - -"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. - -Grief nodded. - -"Then name them." - -"The knave of spades, the deuce of spades, the tray of hearts, and -the ace of diamonds," Grief answered. - -Those behind Deacon and looking at his hand made no sign. Yet the -naming had been correct. - -"I fancy you play casino better than I," Deacon acknowledged. "I can -name only three of yours, a knave, an ace, and big casino." - -"Wrong. There aren't five aces in the deck. You've taken in three -and you hold the fourth in your hand now." - -"By Jove, you're right," Deacon admitted. "I did scoop in three. -Anyway, I'll make 'cards' on you. That's all I need." - -"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." - -"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." - -Grief shook his head. "Some mistake, I'm afraid." - -"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." - -"Count again," Grief said. - -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. - -"Going aboard, Captain?" Deacon asked. - -"Yes," was the answer. "What time shall I send the whaleboat for -you?" - -"I'll go with you now. We'll pick up my luggage from the _Billy_ as -we go by. I was sailing on her for Babo in the morning." - -Deacon shook hands all around, after receiving a final pledge of good -luck on Karo-Karo. - -"Does Tom Butler play cards?" he asked Grief. - -"Solitaire," was the answer. - -"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." - - - - -VI - -THE TWO SAMURAI* - -BYRON E. VEATCH - -*Reprinted by permission of the author. - - -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. - -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: - -"'_Samurai_--A term designating the feudal or governing class of old -Japan; the ruling families from which the fighting clans were -organised; a fighting man.'" - -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: - -"Boys, I once knew a Samurai; two of them, in fact; one to the manner -born, the other a Samurai by adoption." - -"Unlimber and get your range, Colonel, we are ready," remarked -Sanderson of the Artillery, who would talk shop. - -The old man smiled indulgently, and settling himself deeper into the -big leather chair, replied: - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"'What's your name, Sergeant?' - -"'Reynolds, sir.' - -"'How long have you been in the service?' - -"'Nearly three years, sir.' - -"'Step inside, Sergeant, I want to have a talk with you.' - -"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. - -"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: - -"'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.' - -"Quick as a shot came his reply, 'Both, sir.' - -"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. - -"'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.' - -"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. - -"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. - -"'Who's your friend, Bill?' sang out one of the crowd. - -"'Recruity,' answered the driver, with a grin; 'a gent from Japan who -is stuck on sojerin' and has come out here to get some.' - -"A delighted yell came from the boys, as they closed in and began -reaching for the newcomer. - -"'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. - -"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. - -"'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.' - -"I beckoned the driver to me and inquired concerning the stranger. - -"'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.' - -"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. - -"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.' - -"'Who is he, and why is he here?' I asked. - -"'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.' - -"'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.' - -"'He speaks very little English, sir; his conversation with me was in -his own language.' - -"'In Japanese? Where in God's name did you learn Japanese?' - -"'I lived in Kobe for several years, sir.' - -"'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.' - -"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.' - -"I looked at Reynolds for an explanation. - -"'He says he is a Samurai, sir, which, translated into English, means -that he is a fighting man.' - -"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. - -"'He says he doesn't expect to draw pay, sir; he has ample funds, and -only wants to learn American soldiering.' - -"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. - -"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. - -"'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.' - -"'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.' - -"'I don't think they will trouble him much, as they come to know him -better, sir, and he will require no protection.' - -"'Why, Reynolds, that big Hennessy has already marked him as his -victim. He will surely haze the life out of the little cuss.' - -"'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.' - -"'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?' - -"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. - -"Quickly the colour rose to his cheek, then gradually receded, -leaving him deadly pale, as he slowly replied. - -"'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. - -"It was a merited rebuke, delivered like a gentleman. - -"'Right, Sergeant, your history is your own property. You may keep -the Jap, and if you need a friend, come to me.' - -"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.' - -"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. - -"'How ould are yez, Chink?' - -"'Me have of the years twenty-three,' replied the lad, with his -everlasting smile. - -"'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. - -"'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?' - -"Not understanding, the Jap shook his head. - -"Hennessy tried again. - -"'What business were yez in? What did ye work at?' - -"Extending himself to his full height, with great dignity the -Japanese replied: - -"'Me no work; in my countree me gentleman; me Samurai.' - -"'Samoory, eh? What particular sort av a bug is a Samoory, anyhow?' - -"'Him no bug; Samurai ees one man of the fight.' - -"'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, - -"'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.' - -"Then as the boys quickly gathered about, he made a profound -obeisance before the surprised Jap, and resumed. - -"'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.' - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"'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. - -"'Whoa! ye murdherin' divil, have ye no sinse of dacincy? 'Tis yure -new masther, the fightin' man av Japan, who is to ride yez!' - -"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. - -"'All set!' shouted Hennessy, as Sammy took up the reins; 'lave go! -the Arizony circus will now begin!' - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"'Get up, ye sawed-off haythen, and bring me the cup, before I spit -and dhrown yez.' - -"Sammy smiled and went on fixing his buckle. - -"'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. - -"Still smiling, Sammy shook his head. 'No want him, those drink; him -make for me pain of the head.' - -"Hennessy scowled angrily. - -"'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. - -"Sammy looked surprised, but still shook his head and smiled. - -"'No want him, those drink; no geet up.' - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"'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. - -"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.' - -"'But Hennessy's crazy drunk and will kill him!' - -"'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.' - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"'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.' - -"Sammy's smile broadened, as he warmly shook the Irishman's hand. - -"'Hennessy one fine boy, when he no make of those drink; it is good -for be friends.' - -"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. - - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"'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.' - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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: - -"'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!' - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"'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?" - -"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. - -"'Me Samurai,' he added, simply; 'it is good that Samurai should die -in those fight.' - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - - -"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. - -"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. - -"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. - -"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." - -The Colonel paused in his story, and taking from his pocket a letter -postmarked Tokio, Japan, May 1, 1904, he read the following extract: - -"'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.'" - -The Colonel folded up the letter and replaced it in his pocket. As -he rose to bid us good-night, he said: - -"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." - - - -END - - - - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Masterpieces of Adventure--Oriental -Stories, by Various - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 63015 *** |