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diff --git a/old/vcty10.txt b/old/vcty10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e90db8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/vcty10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14431 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Victory, by Joseph Conrad +(#27 in our series by Joseph Conrad) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Victory + +Author: Joseph Conrad + +Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6378] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 3, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, VICTORY *** + + + + +Transcribed by Tracy Camp. + + + +VICTORY: AN ISLAND TALE + + + + +NOTE TO THE FIRST EDITION + + + +The last word of this novel was written on 29 May 1914. And that +last word was the single word of the title. + +Those were the times of peace. Now that the moment of publication +approaches I have been considering the discretion of altering the +title-page. The word "Victory" the shining and tragic goal of noble +effort, appeared too great, too august, to stand at the head of a +mere novel. There was also the possibility of falling under the +suspicion of commercial astuteness deceiving the public into the +belief that the book had something to do with war. + +Of that, however, I was not afraid very much. What influenced my +decision most were the obscure promptings of that pagan residuum of +awe and wonder which lurks still at the bottom of our old humanity. +"Victory" was the last word I had written in peace-time. It was the +last literary thought which had occurred to me before the doors of +the Temple of Janus flying open with a crash shook the minds, the +hearts, the consciences of men all over the world. Such coincidence +could not be treated lightly. And I made up my mind to let the word +stand, in the same hopeful spirit in which some simple citizen of +Old Rome would have "accepted the Omen." + +The second point on which I wish to offer a remark is the existence +(in the novel) of a person named Schomberg. + +That I believe him to be true goes without saying. I am not likely +to offer pinchbeck wares to my public consciously. Schomberg is an +old member of my company. A very subordinate personage in Lord Jim +as far back as the year 1899, he became notably active in a certain +short story of mine published in 1902. Here he appears in a still +larger part, true to life (I hope), but also true to himself. Only, +in this instance, his deeper passions come into play, and thus his +grotesque psychology is completed at last. + +I don't pretend to say that this is the entire Teutonic psychology; +but it is indubitably the psychology of a Teuton. My object in +mentioning him here is to bring out the fact that, far from being +the incarnation of recent animosities, he is the creature of my old +deep-seated, and, as it were, impartial conviction. + +J. C. + + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + + +On approaching the task of writing this Note for Victory, the first +thing I am conscious of is the actual nearness of the book, its +nearness to me personally, to the vanished mood in which it was +written, and to the mixed feelings aroused by the critical notices +the book obtained when first published almost exactly a year after +the beginning of the war. The writing of it was finished in 1914 +long before the murder of an Austrian Archduke sounded the first +note of warning for a world already full of doubts and fears. + +The contemporaneous very short Author's Note which is preserved in +this edition bears sufficient witness to the feelings with which I +consented to the publication of the book. The fact of the book +having been published in the United States early in the year made it +difficult to delay its appearance in England any longer. It came +out in the thirteenth month of the war, and my conscience was +troubled by the awful incongruity of throwing this bit of imagined +drama into the welter of reality, tragic enough in all conscience, +but even more cruel than tragic and more inspiring than cruel. It +seemed awfully presumptuous to think there would be eyes to spare +for those pages in a community which in the crash of the big guns +and in the din of brave words expressing the truth of an indomitable +faith could not but feel the edge of a sharp knife at its throat. + +The unchanging Man of history is wonderfully adaptable both by his +power of endurance and in his capacity for detachment. The fact +seems to be that the play of his destiny is too great for his fears +and too mysterious for his understanding. Were the trump of the +Last Judgement to sound suddenly on a working day the musician at +his piano would go on with his performance of Beethoven's sonata and +the cobbler at his stall stick to his last in undisturbed confidence +in the virtues of the leather. And with perfect propriety. For +what are we to let ourselves be disturbed by an angel's vengeful +music too mighty our ears and too awful for our terrors? Thus it +happens to us to be struck suddenly by the lightning of wrath. The +reader will go on reading if the book pleases him and the critic +will go on criticizing with that faculty of detachment born perhaps +from a sense of infinite littleness and which is yet the only +faculty that seems to assimilate man to the immortal gods. + +It is only when the catastrophe matches the natural obscurity of our +fate that even the best representative of the race is liable to lose +his detachment. It is very obvious that on the arrival of the +gentlemanly Mr. Jones, the single-minded Ricardo, and the faithful +Pedro, Heyst, the man of universal detachment, loses his mental +self-possession, that fine attitude before the universally +irremediable which wears the name of stoicism. It is all a matter +of proportion. There should have been a remedy for that sort of +thing. And yet there is no remedy. Behind this minute instance of +life's hazards Heyst sees the power of blind destiny. Besides, +Heyst in his fine detachment had lost the habit asserting himself. +I don't mean the courage of self-assertion, either moral or +physical, but the mere way of it, the trick of the thing, the +readiness of mind and the turn of the hand that come without +reflection and lead the man to excellence in life, in art, in crime, +in virtue, and, for the matter of that, even in love. Thinking is +the great enemy of perfection. The habit of profound reflection, I +am compelled to say, is the most pernicious of all the habits formed +by the civilized man. + +But I wouldn't be suspected even remotely of making fun of Axel +Heyst. I have always liked him. The flesh-and-blood individual who +stands behind the infinitely more familiar figure of the book I +remember as a mysterious Swede right enough. Whether he was a +baron, too, I am not so certain. He himself never laid claim to +that distinction. His detachment was too great to make any claims, +big or small, on one's credulity. I will not say where I met him +because I fear to give my readers a wrong impression, since a marked +incongruity between a man and his surroundings is often a very +misleading circumstance. We became very friendly for a time, and I +would not like to expose him to unpleasant suspicions though, +personally, I am sure he would have been indifferent to suspicions +as he was indifferent to all the other disadvantages of life. He +was not the whole Heyst of course; he is only the physical and moral +foundation of my Heyst laid on the ground of a short acquaintance. +That it was short was certainly not my fault for he had charmed me +by the mere amenity of his detachment which, in this case, I cannot +help thinking he had carried to excess. He went away from his rooms +without leaving a trace. I wondered where he had gone to--but now I +know. He vanished from my ken only to drift into this adventure +that, unavoidable, waited for him in a world which he persisted in +looking upon as a malevolent shadow spinning in the sunlight. Often +in the course of years an expressed sentiment, the particular sense +of a phrase heard casually, would recall him to my mind so that I +have fastened on to him many words heard on other men's lips and +belonging to other men's less perfect, less pathetic moods. + +The same observation will apply mutatis mutandis to Mr. Jones, who +is built on a much slenderer connection. Mr. Jones (or whatever his +name was) did not drift away from me. He turned his back on me and +walked out of the room. It was in a little hotel in the island of +St. Thomas in the West Indies (in the year '75) where we found him +one hot afternoon extended on three chairs, all alone in the loud +buzzing of flies to which his immobility and his cadaverous aspect +gave a most gruesome significance. Our invasion must have +displeased him because he got off the chairs brusquely and walked +out, leaving with me an indelibly weird impression of his thin +shanks. One of the men with me said that the fellow was the most +desperate gambler he had ever come across. I said: "A professional +sharper?" and got for an answer: "He's a terror; but I must say +that up to a certain point he will play fair. . . " I wonder what +the point was. I never saw him again because I believe he went +straight on board a mail-boat which left within the hour for other +ports of call in the direction of Aspinall. Mr. Jones's +characteristic insolence belongs to another man of a quite different +type. I will say nothing as to the origins of his mentality because +I don't intend to make any damaging admissions. + +It so happened that the very same year Ricardo--the physical +Ricardo--was a fellow passenger of mine on board an extremely small +and extremely dirty little schooner, during a four days' passage +between two places in the Gulf of Mexico whose names don't matter. +For the most part he lay on deck aft as it were at my feet, and +raising himself from time to time on his elbow would talk about +himself and go on talking, not exactly to me or even at me (he would +not even look up but kept his eyes fixed on the deck) but more as if +communing in a low voice with his familiar devil. Now and then he +would give me a glance and make the hairs of his stiff little +moustache stir quaintly. His eyes were green and every cat I see to +this day reminds me of the exact contour of his face. What he was +travelling for or what was his business in life he never confided to +me. Truth to say, the only passenger on board that schooner who +could have talked openly about his activities and purposes was a +very snuffy and conversationally delightful friar, the superior of a +convent, attended by a very young lay brother, of a particularly +ferocious countenance. We had with us also, lying prostrate in the +dark and unspeakable cuddy of that schooner, an old Spanish +gentleman, owner of much luggage and, as Ricardo assured me, very +ill indeed. Ricardo seemed to be either a servant or the confidant +of that aged and distinguished-looking invalid, who early on the +passage held a long murmured conversation with the friar, and after +that did nothing but groan feebly, smoke cigarettes, and now and +then call for Martin in a voice full of pain. Then he who had +become Ricardo in the book would go below into that beastly and +noisome hole, remain there mysteriously, and coming up on deck again +with a face on which nothing could be read, would as likely as not +resume for my edification the exposition of his moral attitude +towards life illustrated by striking particular instances of the +most atrocious complexion. Did he mean to frighten me? Or seduce +me? Or astonish me? Or arouse my admiration? All he did was to +arouse my amused incredulity. As scoundrels go he was far from +being a bore. For the rest my innocence was so great then that I +could not take his philosophy seriously. All the time he kept one +ear turned to the cuddy in the manner of a devoted servant, but I +had the idea that in some way or other he had imposed the connection +on the invalid for some end of his own. The reader, therefore, +won't be surprised to hear that one morning I was told without any +particular emotion by the padrone of the schooner that the "rich +man" down there was dead: He had died in the night. I don't +remember ever being so moved by the desolate end of a complete +stranger. I looked down the skylight, and there was the devoted +Martin busy cording cowhide trunks belonging to the deceased whose +white beard and hooked nose were the only parts I could make out in +the dark depths of a horrible stuffy bunk. + +As it fell calm in the course of the afternoon and continued calm +during all that night and the terrible, flaming day, the late "rich +man" had to be thrown overboard at sunset, though as a matter of +fact we were in sight of the low pestilential mangrove-lined coast +of our destination. The excellent Father Superior mentioned to me +with an air of immense commiseration: "The poor man has left a +young daughter." Who was to look after her I don't know, but I saw +the devoted Martin taking the trunks ashore with great care just +before I landed myself. I would perhaps have tracked the ways of +that man of immense sincerity for a little while, but I had some of +my own very pressing business to attend to, which in the end got +mixed up with an earthquake and so I had no time to give to Ricardo. +The reader need not be told that I have not forgotten him, though. + +My contact with the faithful Pedro was much shorter and my +observation of him was less complete but incomparably more anxious. +It ended in a sudden inspiration to get out of his way. It was in a +hovel of sticks and mats by the side of a path. As I went in there +only to ask for a bottle of lemonade I have not to this day the +slightest idea what in my appearance or actions could have roused +his terrible ire. It became manifest to me less than two minutes +after I had set eyes on him for the first time, and though immensely +surprised of course I didn't stop to think it out I took the nearest +short cut--through the wall. This bestial apparition and a certain +enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti only a couple of months +afterwards, have fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning +rage, as manifested in the human animal, to the end of my days. Of +the nigger I used to dream for years afterwards. Of Pedro never. +The impression was less vivid. I got away from him too quickly. + +It seems to me but natural that those three buried in a corner of my +memory should suddenly get out into the light of the world--so +natural that I offer no excuse for their existence, They were there, +they had to come out; and this is a sufficient excuse for a writer +of tales who had taken to his trade without preparation, or +premeditation, and without any moral intention but that which +pervades the whole scheme of this world of senses. + +Since this Note is mostly concerned with personal contacts and the +origins of the persons in the tale, I am bound also to speak of +Lena, because if I were to leave her out it would look like a +slight; and nothing would be further from my thoughts than putting a +slight on Lena. If of all the personages involved in the "mystery +of Samburan" I have lived longest with Heyst (or with him I call +Heyst) it was at her, whom I call Lena, that I have looked the +longest and with a most sustained attention. This attention +originated in idleness for which I have a natural talent. One +evening I wandered into a cafe, in a town not of the tropics but of +the South of France. It was filled with tobacco smoke, the hum of +voices, the rattling of dominoes, and the sounds of strident music. +The orchestra was rather smaller than the one that performed at +Schomberg's hotel, had the air more of a family party than of an +enlisted band, and, I must confess, seemed rather more respectable +than the Zangiacomo musical enterprise. It was less pretentious +also, more homely and familiar, so to speak, insomuch that in the +intervals when all the performers left the platform one of them went +amongst the marble tables collecting offerings of sous and francs in +a battered tin receptacle recalling the shape of a sauceboat. It +was a girl. Her detachment from her task seems to me now to have +equalled or even surpassed Heyst's aloofness from all the mental +degradations to which a man's intelligence is exposed in its way +through life. Silent and wide-eyed she went from table to table +with the air of a sleep-walker and with no other sound but the +slight rattle of the coins to attract attention. It was long after +the sea-chapter of my life had been closed but it is difficult to +discard completely the characteristics of half a lifetime, and it +was in something of the Jack-ashore spirit that I dropped a five- +franc piece into the sauceboat; whereupon the sleep-walker turned +her head to gaze at me and said "Merci, Monsieur" in a tone in which +there was no gratitude but only surprise. I must have been idle +indeed to take the trouble to remark on such slight evidence that +the voice was very charming and when the performers resumed their +seats I shifted my position slightly in order not to have that +particular performer hidden from me by the little man with the beard +who conducted, and who might for all I know have been her father, +but whose real mission in life was to be a model for the Zangiacomo +of Victory. Having got a clear line of sight I naturally (being +idle) continued to look at the girl through all the second part of +the programme. The shape of her dark head inclined over the violin +was fascinating, and, while resting between the pieces of that +interminable programme she was, in her white dress and with her +brown hands reposing in her lap, the very image of dreamy innocence. +The mature, bad-tempered woman at the piano might have been her +mother, though there was not the slightest resemblance between them. +All I am certain of in their personal relation to each other is that +cruel pinch on the upper part of the arm. That I am sure I have +seen! There could be no mistake. I was in too idle a mood to +imagine such a gratuitous barbarity. It may have been playfulness, +yet the girl jumped up as if she had been stung by a wasp. It may +have been playfulness. Yet I saw plainly poor "dreamy innocence" +rub gently the affected place as she filed off with the other +performers down the middle aisle between the marble tables in the +uproar of voices, the rattling of dominoes through a blue atmosphere +of tobacco smoke. I believe that those people left the town next +day. + +Or perhaps they had only migrated to the other big cafe, on the +other side of the Place de la Comedie. It is very possible. I did +not go across to find out. It was my perfect idleness that had +invested the girl with a peculiar charm, and I did not want to +destroy it by any superfluous exertion. The receptivity of my +indolence made the impression so permanent that when the moment came +for her meeting with Heyst I felt that she would be heroically equal +to every demand of the risky and uncertain future. I was so +convinced of it that I let her go with Heyst, I won't say without a +pang but certainly without misgivings. And in view of her +triumphant end what more could I have done for her rehabilitation +and her happiness? + +1920. +J. C. + + + + +PART ONE + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + + +There is, as every schoolboy knows in this scientific age, a very +close chemical relation between coal and diamonds. It is the +reason, I believe, why some people allude to coal as "black +diamonds." Both these commodities represent wealth; but coal is a +much less portable form of property. There is, from that point of +view, a deplorable lack of concentration in coal. Now, if a coal- +mine could be put into one's waistcoat pocket--but it can't! At the +same time, there is a fascination in coal, the supreme commodity of +the age in which we are camped like bewildered travellers in a +garish, unrestful hotel. And I suppose those two considerations, +the practical and the mystical, prevented Heyst--Axel Heyst--from +going away. + +The Tropical Belt Coal Company went into liquidation. The world of +finance is a mysterious world in which, incredible as the fact may +appear, evaporation precedes liquidation. First the capital +evaporates, and then the company goes into liquidation. These are +very unnatural physics, but they account for the persistent inertia +of Heyst, at which we "out there" used to laugh among ourselves--but +not inimically. An inert body can do no harm to anyone, provokes no +hostility, is scarcely worth derision. It may, indeed, be in the +way sometimes; but this could not be said of Axel Heyst. He was out +of everybody's way, as if he were perched on the highest peak of the +Himalayas, and in a sense as conspicuous. Everyone in that part of +the world knew of him, dwelling on his little island. An island is +but the top of a mountain. Axel Heyst, perched on it immovably, was +surrounded, instead of the imponderable stormy and transparent ocean +of air merging into infinity, by a tepid, shallow sea; a passionless +offshoot of the great waters which embrace the continents of this +globe. His most frequent visitors were shadows, the shadows of +clouds, relieving the monotony of the inanimate, brooding sunshine +of the tropics. His nearest neighbour--I am speaking now of things +showing some sort of animation--was an indolent volcano which smoked +faintly all day with its head just above the northern horizon, and +at night levelled at him, from amongst the clear stars, a dull red +glow, expanding and collapsing spasmodically like the end of a +gigantic cigar puffed at intermittently in the dark. Axel Heyst was +also a smoker; and when he lounged out on his veranda with his +cheroot, the last thing before going to bed, he made in the night +the same sort of glow and of the same size as that other one so many +miles away. + +In a sense, the volcano was company to him in the shades of the +night--which were often too thick, one would think, to let a breath +of air through. There was seldom enough wind to blow a feather +along. On most evenings of the year Heyst could have sat outside +with a naked candle to read one of the books left him by his late +father. It was not a mean store. But he never did that. Afraid of +mosquitoes, very likely. Neither was he ever tempted by the silence +to address any casual remarks to the companion glow of the volcano. +He was not mad. Queer chap--yes, that may have been said, and in +fact was said; but there is a tremendous difference between the two, +you will allow. + +On the nights of full moon the silence around Samburan--the "Round +Island" of the charts--was dazzling; and in the flood of cold light +Heyst could see his immediate surroundings, which had the aspect of +an abandoned settlement invaded by the jungle: vague roofs above +low vegetation, broken shadows of bamboo fences in the sheen of long +grass, something like an overgrown bit of road slanting among ragged +thickets towards the shore only a couple of hundred yards away, with +a black jetty and a mound of some sort, quite inky on its unlighted +side. But the most conspicuous object was a gigantic blackboard +raised on two posts and presenting to Heyst, when the moon got over +that side, the white letters "T. B. C. Co." in a row at least two +feet high. These were the initials of the Tropical Belt Coal +Company, his employers--his late employers, to be precise. + +According to the unnatural mysteries of the financial world, the T. +B. C. Company's capital having evaporated in the course of two +years, the company went into liquidation--forced, I believe, not +voluntary. There was nothing forcible in the process, however. It +was slow; and while the liquidation--in London and Amsterdam-- +pursued its languid course, Axel Heyst, styled in the prospectus +"manager in the tropics," remained at his post on Samburan, the No. +1 coaling-station of the company. + +And it was not merely a coaling-station. There was a coal-mine +there, with an outcrop in the hillside less than five hundred yards +from the rickety wharf and the imposing blackboard. The company's +object had been to get hold of all the outcrops on tropical islands +and exploit them locally. And, Lord knows, there were any amount of +outcrops. It was Heyst who had located most of them in this part of +the tropical belt during his rather aimless wanderings, and being a +ready letter-writer had written pages and pages about them to his +friends in Europe. At least, so it was said. + +We doubted whether he had any visions of wealth--for himself, at any +rate. What he seemed mostly concerned for was the "stride forward," +as he expressed it, in the general organization of the universe, +apparently. He was heard by more than a hundred persons in the +islands talking of a "great stride forward for these regions." The +convinced wave of the hand which accompanied the phrase suggested +tropical distances being impelled onward. In connection with the +finished courtesy of his manner, it was persuasive, or at any rate +silencing--for a time, at least. Nobody cared to argue with him +when he talked in this strain. His earnestness could do no harm to +anybody. There was no danger of anyone taking seriously his dream +of tropical coal, so what was the use of hurting his feelings? + +Thus reasoned men in reputable business offices where he had his +entree as a person who came out East with letters of introduction-- +and modest letters of credit, too--some years before these coal- +outcrops began to crop up in his playfully courteous talk. From the +first there was some difficulty in making him out. He was not a +traveller. A traveller arrives and departs, goes on somewhere. +Heyst did not depart. I met a man once--the manager of the branch +of the Oriental Banking Corporation in Malacca--to whom Heyst +exclaimed, in no connection with anything in particular (it was in +the billiard-room of the club): + +"I am enchanted with these islands!" + +He shot it out suddenly, a propos des bottes, as the French say, and +while chalking his cue. And perhaps it was some sort of +enchantment. There are more spells than your commonplace magicians +ever dreamed of. + +Roughly speaking, a circle with a radius of eight hundred miles +drawn round a point in North Borneo was in Heyst's case a magic +circle. It just touched Manila, and he had been seen there. It +just touched Saigon, and he was likewise seen there once. Perhaps +these were his attempts to break out. If so, they were failures. +The enchantment must have been an unbreakable one. The manager--the +man who heard the exclamation--had been so impressed by the tone, +fervour, rapture, what you will, or perhaps by the incongruity of it +that he had related the experience to more than one person. + +"Queer chap, that Swede," was his only comment; but this is the +origin of the name "Enchanted Heyst" which some fellows fastened on +our man. + +He also had other names. In his early years, long before he got so +becomingly bald on the top, he went to present a letter of +introduction to Mr. Tesman of Tesman Brothers, a Sourabaya firm-- +tip-top house. Well, Mr. Tesman was a kindly, benevolent old +gentleman. He did not know what to make of that caller. After +telling him that they wished to render his stay among the islands as +pleasant as possible, and that they were ready to assist him in his +plans, and so on, and after receiving Heyst's thanks--you know the +usual kind of conversation--he proceeded to query in a slow, +paternal tone: + +"And you are interested in--?" + +"Facts," broke in Heyst in his courtly voice. "There's nothing +worth knowing but facts. Hard facts! Facts alone, Mr. Tesman." + +I don't know if old Tesman agreed with him or not, but he must have +spoken about it, because, for a time, our man got the name of "Hard +Facts." He had the singular good fortune that his sayings stuck to +him and became part of his name. Thereafter he mooned about the +Java Sea in some of the Tesmans' trading schooners, and then +vanished, on board an Arab ship, in the direction of New Guinea. He +remained so long in that outlying part of his enchanted circle that +he was nearly forgotten before he swam into view again in a native +proa full of Goram vagabonds, burnt black by the sun, very lean, his +hair much thinned, and a portfolio of sketches under his arm. He +showed these willingly, but was very reserved as to anything else. +He had had an "amusing time," he said. A man who will go to New +Guinea for fun--well! + +Later, years afterwards, when the last vestiges of youth had gone +off his face and all the hair off the top of his head, and his red- +gold pair of horizontal moustaches had grown to really noble +proportions, a certain disreputable white man fastened upon him an +epithet. Putting down with a shaking hand a long glass emptied of +its contents--paid for by Heyst--he said, with that deliberate +sagacity which no mere water-drinker ever attained: + +"Heyst's a puffect g'n'lman. Puffect! But he's a ut-uto-utopist." + +Heyst had just gone out of the place of public refreshment where +this pronouncement was voiced. Utopist, eh? Upon my word, the only +thing I heard him say which might have had a bearing on the point +was his invitation to old McNab himself. Turning with that finished +courtesy of attitude, movement voice, which was his obvious +characteristic, he had said with delicate playfulness: + +"Come along and quench your thirst with us, Mr. McNab!" + +Perhaps that was it. A man who could propose, even playfully, to +quench old McNab's thirst must have been a utopist, a pursuer of +chimeras; for of downright irony Heyst was not prodigal. And, may +be, this was the reason why he was generally liked. At that epoch +in his life, in the fulness of his physical development, of a broad, +martial presence, with his bald head and long moustaches, he +resembled the portraits of Charles XII, of adventurous memory. +However, there was no reason to think that Heyst was in any way a +fighting man. + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + + +It was about this time that Heyst became associated with Morrison on +terms about which people were in doubt. Some said he was a partner, +others said he was a sort of paying guest, but the real truth of the +matter was more complex. One day Heyst turned up in Timor. Why in +Timor, of all places in the world, no one knows. Well, he was +mooning about Delli, that highly pestilential place, possibly in +search of some undiscovered facts, when he came in the street upon +Morrison, who, in his way, was also an "enchanted" man. When you +spoke to Morrison of going home--he was from Dorsetshire--he +shuddered. He said it was dark and wet there; that it was like +living with your head and shoulders in a moist gunny-bag. That was +only his exaggerated style of talking. Morrison was "one of us." +He was owner and master of the Capricorn, trading brig, and was +understood to be doing well with her, except for the drawback of too +much altruism. He was the dearly beloved friend of a quantity of +God-forsaken villages up dark creeks and obscure bays, where he +traded for produce. He would often sail , through awfully dangerous +channels up to some miserable settlement, only to find a very hungry +population clamorous for rice, and without so much "produce" between +them as would have filled Morrison's suitcase. Amid general +rejoicings, he would land the rice all the same, explain to the +people that it was an advance, that they were in debt to him now; +would preach to them energy and industry, and make an elaborate note +in a pocket-diary which he always carried; and this would be the end +of that transaction. I don't know if Morrison thought so, but the +villagers had no doubt whatever about it. Whenever a coast village +sighted the brig it would begin to beat all its gongs and hoist all +its streamers, and all its girls would put flowers in their hair and +the crowd would line the river bank, and Morrison would beam and +glitter at all this excitement through his single eyeglass with an +air of intense gratification. He was tall and lantern-jawed, and +clean-shaven, and looked like a barrister who had thrown his wig to +the dogs. + +We used to remonstrate with him: + +"You will never see any of your advances if you go on like this, +Morrison." + +He would put on a knowing air. + +"I shall squeeze them yet some day--never you fear. And that +reminds me"--pulling out his inseparable pocketbook--"there's that +So-and-So village. They are pretty well off again; I may just as +well squeeze them to begin with." + +He would make a ferocious entry in the pocketbook. + +Memo: Squeeze the So-and-So village at the first time of calling. + +Then he would stick the pencil back and snap the elastic on with +inflexible finality; but he never began the squeezing. Some men +grumbled at him. He was spoiling the trade. Well, perhaps to a +certain extent; not much. Most of the places he traded with were +unknown not only to geography but also to the traders' special lore +which is transmitted by word of mouth, without ostentation, and +forms the stock of mysterious local knowledge. It was hinted also +that Morrison had a wife in each and every one of them, but the +majority of us repulsed these innuendoes with indignation. He was a +true humanitarian and rather ascetic than otherwise. + +When Heyst met him in Delli, Morrison was walking along the street, +his eyeglass tossed over his shoulder, his head down, with the +hopeless aspect of those hardened tramps one sees on our roads +trudging from workhouse to workhouse. Being hailed on the street he +looked up with a wild worried expression. He was really in trouble. +He had come the week before into Delli and the Portuguese +authorities, on some pretence of irregularity in his papers, had +inflicted a fine upon him and had arrested his brig. + +Morrison never had any spare cash in hand. With his system of +trading it would have been strange if he had; and all these debts +entered in the pocketbook weren't good enough to raise a millrei on- +-let alone a shilling. The Portuguese officials begged him not to +distress himself. They gave him a week's grace, and then proposed +to sell the brig at auction. This meant ruin for Morrison; and when +Heyst hailed him across the street in his usual courtly tone, the +week was nearly out. + +Heyst crossed over, and said with a slight bow, and in the manner of +a prince addressing another prince on a private occasion: + +"What an unexpected pleasure. Would you have any objection to drink +something with me in that infamous wine-shop over there? The sun is +really too strong to talk in the street." + +The haggard Morrison followed obediently into a sombre, cool hovel +which he would have distained to enter at any other time. He was +distracted. He did not know what he was doing. You could have led +him over the edge of a precipice just as easily as into that wine- +shop. He sat down like an automaton. He was speechless, but he saw +a glass full of rough red wine before him, and emptied it. Heyst +meantime, politely watchful, had taken a seat opposite. + +"You are in for a bout of fever, I fear," he said sympathetically. + +Poor Morrison's tongue was loosened at that. + +"Fever!" he cried. "Give me fever. Give me plague. They are +diseases. One gets over them. But I am being murdered. I am being +murdered by the Portuguese. The gang here downed me at last among +them. I am to have my throat cut the day after tomorrow." + +In the face of this passion Heyst made, with his eyebrows, a slight +motion of surprise which would not have been misplaced in a drawing- +room. Morrison's despairing reserve had broken down. He had been +wandering with a dry throat all over that miserable town of mud +hovels, silent, with no soul to turn to in his distress, and +positively maddened by his thoughts; and suddenly he had stumbled on +a white man, figuratively and actually white--for Morrison refused +to accept the racial whiteness of the Portuguese officials. He let +himself go for the mere relief of violent speech, his elbows planted +on the table, his eyes blood-shot, his voice nearly gone, the brim +of his round pith hat shading an unshaven, livid face. His white +clothes, which he had not taken off for three days, were dingy. He +had already gone to the bad, past redemption. The sight was +shocking to Heyst; but he let nothing of it appear in his hearing, +concealing his impression under that consummate good-society manner +of his. Polite attention, what's due from one gentleman listening +to another, was what he showed; and, as usual, it was catching; so +that Morrison pulled himself together and finished his narrative in +a conversational tone, with a man-of-the-world air. + +"It's a villainous plot. Unluckily, one is helpless. That +scoundrel Cousinho--Andreas, you know--has been coveting the brig +for years. Naturally, I would never sell. She is not only my +livelihood; she's my life. So he has hatched this pretty little +plot with the chief of the customs. The sale, of course, will be a +farce. There's no one here to bid. He will get the brig for a +song--no, not even that--a line of a song. You have been some years +now in the islands, Heyst. You know us all; you have seen how we +live. Now you shall have the opportunity to see how some of us end; +for it is the end, for me. I can't deceive myself any longer. You +see it--don't your?" + +Morrison had pulled himself together, but one felt the snapping +strain on his recovered self-possession. Heyst was beginning to say +that he "could very well see all the bearings of this unfortunate--" +when Morrison interrupted him jerkily. + +"Upon my word, I don't know why I have been telling you all this. I +suppose seeing a thoroughly white man made it impossible to keep my +trouble to myself. Words can't do it justice; but since I've told +you so much I may as well tell you more. Listen. This morning on +board, in my cabin I went down on my knees and prayed for help. I +went down on my knees!" + +"You are a believer, Morrison?" asked Heyst with a distinct note of +respect. + +"Surely I am not an infidel." + +Morrison was swiftly reproachful in his answer, and there came a +pause, Morrison perhaps interrogating his conscience, and Heyst +preserving a mien of unperturbed, polite interest. + +"I prayed like a child, of course. I believe in children praying-- +well, women, too, but I rather think God expects men to be more +self-reliant. I don't hold with a man everlastingly bothering the +Almighty with his silly troubles. It seems such cheek. Anyhow, +this morning I--I have never done any harm to any God's creature +knowingly--I prayed. A sudden impulse--I went flop on my knees; so +you may judge--" + +They were gazing earnestly into each other's eyes. Poor Morrison +added, as a discouraging afterthought: + +"Only this is such a God-forsaken spot." + +Heyst inquired with a delicate intonation whether he might know the +amount for which the brig was seized. + +Morrison suppressed an oath, and named curtly a sum which was in +itself so insignificant that any other person than Heyst would have +exclaimed at it. And even Heyst could hardly keep incredulity out +of his politely modulated voice as he asked if it was a fact that +Morrison had not that amount in hand. + +Morrison hadn't. He had only a little English gold, a few +sovereigns, on board. He had left all his spare cash with the +Tesmans, in Samarang, to meet certain bills which would fall due +while he was away on his cruise. Anyhow, that money would not have +been any more good to him than if it had been in the innermost +depths of the infernal regions. He said all this brusquely. He +looked with sudden disfavour at that noble forehead, at those great +martial moustaches, at the tired eyes of the man sitting opposite +him. Who the devil was he? What was he, Morrison, doing there, +talking like this? Morrison knew no more of Heyst than the rest of +us trading in the Archipelago did. Had the Swede suddenly risen and +hit him on the nose, he could not have been taken more aback than +when this stranger, this nondescript wanderer, said with a little +bow across the table: + +"Oh! If that's the case I would be very happy if you'd allow me to +be of use!" + +Morrison didn't understand. This was one of those things that don't +happen--unheard of things. He had no real inkling of what it meant, +till Heyst said definitely: + +"I can lend you the amount." + +"You have the money?" whispered Morrison. "Do you mean here, in +your pocket?" + +"Yes, on me. Glad to be of use." + +Morrison, staring open-mouthed, groped over his shoulder for the +cord of the eyeglass hanging down his back. When he found it, he +stuck it in his eye hastily. It was as if he expected Heyst's usual +white suit of the tropics to change into a shining garment, flowing +down to his toes, and a pair of great dazzling wings to sprout out +on the Swede's shoulders--and didn't want to miss a single detail of +the transformation. But if Heyst was an angle from on high, sent in +answer to prayer, he did not betray his heavenly origin by outward +signs. So, instead of going on his knees, as he felt inclined to +do, Morrison stretched out his hand, which Heyst grasped with formal +alacrity and a polite murmur in which "Trifle--delighted--of +service," could just be distinguished. + +"Miracles do happen," thought the awestruck Morrison. To him, as to +all of us in the Islands, this wandering Heyst, who didn't toil or +spin visibly, seemed the very last person to be the agent of +Providence in an affair concerned with money. The fact of his +turning up in Timor or anywhere else was no more wonderful than the +settling of a sparrow on one's window-sill at any given moment. But +that he should carry a sum of money in his pocket seemed somehow +inconceivable. + +So inconceivable that as they were trudging together through the +sand of the roadway to the custom-house--another mud hovel--to pay +the fine, Morrison broke into a cold sweat, stopped short, and +exclaimed in faltering accents: + +"I say! You aren't joking, Heyst?" + +"Joking!" Heyst's blue eyes went hard as he turned them on the +discomposed Morrison. "In what way, may I ask?" he continued with +austere politeness. + +Morrison was abashed. + +"Forgive me, Heyst. You must have been sent by God in answer to my +prayer. But I have been nearly off my chump for three days with +worry; and it suddenly struck me: 'What if it's the Devil who has +sent him?'" + +"I have no connection with the supernatural," said Heyst graciously, +moving on. "Nobody has sent me. I just happened along." + +"I know better," contradicted Morrison. "I may be unworthy, but I +have been heard. I know it. I feel it. For why should you offer-- +" + +Heyst inclined his head, as from respect for a conviction in which +he could not share. But he stuck to his point by muttering that in +the presence of an odious fact like this, it was natural - + +Later in the day, the fine paid, and the two of them on board the +brig, from which the guard had been removed, Morrison who, besides, +being a gentleman was also an honest fellow began to talk about +repayment. He knew very well his inability to lay by any sum of +money. It was partly the fault of circumstances and partly of his +temperament; and it would have been very difficult to apportion the +responsibility between the two. Even Morrison himself could not +say, while confessing to the fact. With a worried air he ascribed +it to fatality: + +"I don't know how it is that I've never been able to save. It's +some sort of curse. There's always a bill or two to meet." + +He plunged his hand into his pocket for the famous notebook so well +known in the islands, the fetish of his hopes, and fluttered the +pages feverishly. + +"And yet--look," he went on. "There it is--more than five thousand +dollars owing. Surely that's something." + +He ceased suddenly. Heyst, who had been all the time trying to look +as unconcerned as he could, made reassuring noises in his throat. +But Morrison was not only honest. He was honourable, too; and on +this stressful day, before this amazing emissary of Providence and +in the revulsion of his feelings, he made his great renunciation. +He cast off the abiding illusion of his existence. + +"No. No. They are not good. I'll never be able to squeeze them. +Never. I've been saying for years I would, but I give it up. I +never really believed I could. Don't reckon on that, Heyst. I have +robbed you." + +Poor Morrison actually laid his head on the cabin table, and +remained in that crushed attitude while Heyst talked to him +soothingly with the utmost courtesy. The Swede was as much +distressed as Morrison; for he understood the other's feelings +perfectly. No decent feeling was ever scorned by Heyst. But he was +incapable of outward cordiality of manner, and he felt acutely his +defect. Consummate politeness is not the right tonic for an +emotional collapse. They must have had, both of them, a fairly +painful time of it in the cabin of the brig. In the end Morrison, +casting desperately for an idea in the blackness of his despondency, +hit upon the notion of inviting Heyst to travel with him in his brig +and have a share in his trading ventures up to the amount of his +loan. + +It is characteristic of Heyst's unattached, floating existence that +he was in a position to accept this proposal. There is no reason to +think that he wanted particularly just then to go poking aboard the +brig into all the holes and corners of the Archipelago where +Morrison picked up most of his trade. Far from it; but he would +have consented to almost any arrangement in order to put an end to +the harrowing scene in the cabin. There was at once a great +transformation act: Morrison raising his diminished head, and +sticking the glass in his eye to looked affectionately at Heyst, a +bottle being uncorked, and so on. It was agreed that nothing should +be said to anyone of this transaction. Morrison, you understand, +was not proud of the episode, and he was afraid of being +unmercifully chaffed. + +"An old bird like me! To let myself be trapped by those damned +Portuguese rascals! I should never hear the last of it. We must +keep it dark." + +From quite other motives, among which his native delicacy was the +principal, Heyst was even more anxious to bind himself to silence. +A gentleman would naturally shrink from the part of heavenly +messenger that Morrison would force upon him. It made Heyst +uncomfortable, as it was. And perhaps he did not care that it +should be known that he had some means, whatever they might have +been--sufficient, at any rate, to enable him to lend money to +people. These two had a duet down there, like conspirators in a +comic opera, of "Sh--ssh, shssh! Secrecy! Secrecy!" It must have +been funny, because they were very serious about it. + +And for a time the conspiracy was successful in so far that we all +concluded that Heyst was boarding with the good-natured --some said: +sponging on the imbecile--Morrison, in his brig. But you know how +it is with all such mysteries. There is always a leak somewhere. +Morrison himself, not a perfect vessel by any means, was bursting +with gratitude, and under the stress he must have let out something +vague--enough to give the island gossip a chance. And you know how +kindly the world is in its comments on what it does not understand. +A rumour sprang out that Heyst, having obtained some mysterious hold +on Morrison, had fastened himself on him and was sucking him dry. +Those who had traced these mutters back to their origin were very +careful not to believe them. The originator, it seems, was a +certain Schomberg, a big, manly, bearded creature of the Teutonic +persuasion, with an ungovernable tongue which surely must have +worked on a pivot. Whether he was a Lieutenant of the Reserve, as +he declared, I don't know. Out there he was by profession a hotel- +keeper, first in Bangkok, then somewhere else, and ultimately in +Sourabaya. He dragged after him up and down that section of the +tropical belt a silent, frightened, little woman with long ringlets, +who smiled at one stupidly, showing a blue tooth. I don't know why +so many of us patronized his various establishments. He was a +noxious ass, and he satisfied his lust for silly gossip at the cost +of his customers. It was he who, one evening, as Morrison and Heyst +went past the hotel--they were not his regular patrons--whispered +mysteriously to the mixed company assembled on the veranda: + +"The spider and the fly just gone by, gentlemen." Then, very +important and confidential, his thick paw at the side of his mouth: +"We are among ourselves; well, gentlemen, all I can say is, I don't +you ever get mixed up with that Swede. Don't you ever get caught in +his web." + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + + +Human nature being what it is, having a silly side to it as well as +a mean side, there were not a few who pretended to be indignant on +no better authority than a general propensity to believe every evil +report; and a good many others who found it simply funny to call +Heyst the Spider--behind his back, of course. He was as serenely +unconscious of this as of his several other nicknames. But soon +people found other things to say of Heyst; not long afterwards he +came very much to the fore in larger affairs. He blossomed out into +something definite. He filled the public eye as the manager on the +spot of the Tropical Belt Coal Company with offices in London and +Amsterdam, and other things about it that sounded and looked +grandiose. The offices in the two capitals may have consisted--and +probably did--of one room in each; but at that distance, out East +there, all this had an air. We were more puzzled than dazzled, it +is true; but even the most sober-minded among us began to think that +there was something in it. The Tesmans appointed agents, a contract +for government mail-boats secured, the era of steam beginning for +the islands--a great stride forward--Heyst's stride! + +And all this sprang from the meeting of the cornered Morrison and of +the wandering Heyst, which may or may not have been the direct +outcome of a prayer. Morrison was not an imbecile, but he seemed to +have got himself into a state of remarkable haziness as to his exact +position towards Heyst. For, if Heyst had been sent with money in +his pocket by a direct decree of the Almighty in answer to +Morrison's prayer then there was no reason for special gratitude, +since obviously he could not help himself. But Morrison believed +both, in the efficacy of prayer and in the infinite goodness of +Heyst. He thanked God with awed sincerity for his mercy, and could +not thank Heyst enough for the service rendered as between man and +man. In this (highly creditable) tangle of strong feelings +Morrison's gratitude insisted on Heyst's partnership in the great +discovery. Ultimately we heard that Morrison had gone home through +the Suez Canal in order to push the magnificent coal idea personally +in London. He parted from his brig and disappeared from our ken; +but we heard that he had written a letter or letters to Heyst, +saying that London was cold and gloomy; that he did not like either +the men or things, that he was "as lonely as a crow in a strange +country." In truth, he pined after the Capricorn--I don't mean only +the tropic; I mean the ship too. Finally he went into Dorsetshire +to see his people, caught a bad cold, and died with extraordinary +precipitation in the bosom of his appalled family. Whether his +exertions in the City of London had enfeebled his vitality I don't +know; but I believe it was this visit which put life into the coal +idea. Be it as it may, the Tropical Belt Coal Company was born very +shortly after Morrison, the victim of gratitude and his native +climate, had gone to join his forefathers in a Dorsetshire +churchyard. + +Heyst was immensely shocked. He got the news in the Moluccas +through the Tesmans, and then disappeared for a time. It appears +that he stayed with a Dutch government doctor in Amboyna, a friend +of his who looked after him for a bit in his bungalow. He became +visible again rather suddenly, his eyes sunk in his head, and with a +sort of guarded attitude, as if afraid someone would reproach him +with the death of Morrison. + +Naive Heyst! As if anybody would . . . Nobody amongst us had any +interest in men who went home. They were all right; they did not +count any more. Going to Europe was nearly as final as going to +Heaven. It removed a man from the world of hazard and adventure. + +As a matter of fact, many of us did not hear of this death till +months afterwards--from Schomberg, who disliked Heyst gratuitously +and made up a piece of sinister whispered gossip: + +"That's what comes of having anything to do with that fellow. He +squeezes you dry like a lemon, then chucks you out--sends you home +to die. Take warning by Morrison!" + +Of course, we laughed at the innkeeper's suggestions of black +mystery. Several of us heard that Heyst was prepared to go to +Europe himself, to push on his coal enterprise personally; but he +never went. It wasn't necessary. The company was formed without +him, and his nomination of manager in the tropics came out to him by +post. + +From the first he had selected Samburan, or Round Island, for the +central station. Some copies of the prospectus issued in Europe, +having found their way out East, were passed from hand to hand. We +greatly admired the map which accompanied them for the edification +of the shareholders. On it Samburan was represented as the central +spot of the Eastern Hemisphere with its name engraved in enormous +capitals. Heavy lines radiated from it in all directions through +the tropics, figuring a mysterious and effective star--lines of +influence or lines of distance, or something of that sort. Company +promoters have an imagination of their own. There's no more +romantic temperament on earth than the temperament of a company +promoter. Engineers came out, coolies were imported, bungalows were +put up on Samburan, a gallery driven into the hillside, and actually +some coal got out. + +These manifestations shook the soberest minds. For a time everybody +in the islands was talking of the Tropical Belt Coal, and even those +who smiled quietly to themselves were only hiding their uneasiness. +Oh, yes; it had come, and anybody could see what would be the +consequences--the end of the individual trader, smothered under a +great invasion of steamers. We could not afford to buy steamers. +Not we. And Heyst was the manager. + +"You know, Heyst, enchanted Heyst." + +"Oh, come! He has been no better than a loafer around here as far +back as any of us can remember." + +"Yes, he said he was looking for facts. Well, he's got hold of one +that will do for all of us," commented a bitter voice. + +"That's what they call development--and be hanged to it!" muttered +another. + +Never was Heyst talked about so much in the tropical belt before. + +"Isn't he a Swedish baron or something?" + +"He, a baron? Get along with you!" + +For my part I haven't the slightest doubt that he was. While he was +still drifting amongst the islands, enigmatical and disregarded like +an insignificant ghost, he told me so himself on a certain occasion. +It was a long time before he materialized in this alarming way into +the destroyer of our little industry--Heyst the Enemy. + +It became the fashion with a good many to speak of Heyst as the +Enemy. He was very concrete, very visible now. He was rushing all +over the Archipelago, jumping in and out of local mail-packets as if +they had been tram-cars, here, there, and everywhere--organizing +with all his might. This was no mooning about. This was business. +And this sudden display of purposeful energy shook the incredulity +of the most sceptical more than any scientific demonstration of the +value of these coal-outcrops could have done. It was impressive. +Schomberg was the only one who resisted the infection. Big, manly +in a portly style, and profusely bearded, with a glass of beer in +his thick paw, he would approach some table where the topic of the +hour was being discussed, would listen for a moment, and then come +out with his invariable declaration: + +"All this is very well, gentlemen; but he can't throw any of his +coal-dust in my eyes. There's nothing in it. Why, there can't be +anything in it. A fellow like that for manager? Phoo!" + +Was it the clairvoyance of imbecile hatred, or mere stupid tenacity +of opinion, which ends sometimes by scoring against the world in a +most astonishing manner? Most of us can remember instances of +triumphant folly; and that ass Schomberg triumphed. The T.B.C. +Company went into liquidation, as I began by telling you. The +Tesmans washed their hands of it. The Government cancelled those +famous contracts, the talk died out, and presently it was remarked +here and there that Heyst had faded completely away. He had become +invisible, as in those early days when he used to make a bolt clear +out of sight in his attempts to break away from the enchantment of +"these isles," either in the direction of New Guinea or in the +direction of Saigon--to cannibals or to cafes. The enchanted Heyst! +Had he at last broken the spell? Had he died? We were too +indifferent to wonder overmuch. You see we had on the whole liked +him well enough. And liking is not sufficient to keep going the +interest one takes in a human being. With hatred, apparently, it is +otherwise. Schomberg couldn't forget Heyst. The keen, manly +Teutonic creature was a good hater. A fool often is. + +"Good evening, gentlemen. Have you got everything you want? So! +Good! You see? What was I always telling you? Aha! There was +nothing in it. I knew it. But what I would like to know is what +became of that--Swede." + +He put a stress on the word Swede as if it meant scoundrel. He +detested Scandinavians generally. Why? Goodness only knows. A +fool like that is unfathomable. He continued: + +"It's five months or more since I have spoken to anybody who has +seen him." + +As I have said, we were not much interested; but Schomberg, of +course, could not understand that. He was grotesquely dense. +Whenever three people came together in his hotel, he took good care +that Heyst should be with them. + +"I hope the fellow did not go and drown himself," he would add with +a comical earnestness that ought to have made us shudder; only our +crowd was superficial, and did not apprehend the psychology of this +pious hope. + +"Why? Heyst isn't in debt to you for drinks is he?" somebody asked +him once with shallow scorn. + +"Drinks! Oh, dear no!" + +The innkeeper was not mercenary. Teutonic temperament seldom is. +But he put on a sinister expression to tell us that Heyst had not +paid perhaps three visits altogether to his "establishment." This +was Heyst's crime, for which Schomberg wished him nothing less than +a long and tormented existence. Observe the Teutonic sense of +proportion and nice forgiving temper. + +At last, one afternoon, Schomberg was seen approaching a group of +his customers. He was obviously in high glee. He squared his manly +chest with great importance. + +"Gentlemen, I have news of him. Who? why, that Swede. He is still +on Samburan. He's never been away from it. The company is gone, +the engineers are gone, the clerks are gone, the coolies are gone, +everything's gone; but there he sticks. Captain Davidson, coming by +from the westward, saw him with his own eyes. Something white on +the wharf, so he steamed in and went ashore in a small boat. Heyst, +right enough. Put a book into his pocket, always very polite. Been +strolling on the wharf and reading. 'I remain in possession here,' +he told Captain Davidson. What I want to know is what he gets to +eat there. A piece of dried fish now and then--what? That's coming +down pretty low for a man who turned up his nose at my table +d'hote!" + +He winked with immense malice. A bell started ringing, and he led +the way to the dining-room as if into a temple, very grave, with the +air of a benefactor of mankind. His ambition was to feed it at a +profitable price, and his delight was to talk of it behind its back. +It was very characteristic of him to gloat over the idea of Heyst +having nothing decent to eat. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + + +A few of us who were sufficiently interested went to Davidson for +details. These were not many. He told us that he passed to the +north of Samburan on purpose to see what was going on. At first, it +looked as if that side of the island had been altogether abandoned. +This was what he expected. Presently, above the dense mass of +vegetation that Samburan presents to view, he saw the head of the +flagstaff without a flag. Then, while steaming across the slight +indentation which for a time was known officially as Black Diamond +Bay, he made out with his glass the white figure on the coaling- +wharf. It could be no one but Heyst. + +"I thought for certain he wanted to be taken off, so I steamed in. +He made no signs. However, I lowered a boat. I could not see +another living being anywhere. Yes. He had a book in his hand. He +looked exactly as we have always seen him--very neat, white shoes, +cork helmet. He explained to me that he had always had a taste for +solitude. It was the first I ever heard of it, I told him. He only +smiled. What could I say? He isn't the sort of man one can speak +familiarly to. There's something in him. One doesn't care to. + +"'But what's the object? Are you thinking of keeping possession of +the mine?' I asked him. + +"'Something of the sort,' he says. 'I am keeping hold.' + +"'But all this is as dead as Julius Caesar,' I cried. 'In fact, you +have nothing worth holding on to, Heyst.' + +"'Oh, I am done with facts,' says he, putting his hand to his helmet +sharply with one of his short bows." + +Thus dismissed, Davidson went on board his ship, swung her out, and +as he was steaming away he watched from the bridge Heyst walking +shoreward along the wharf. He marched into the long grass and +vanished--all but the top of his white cork helmet, which seemed to +swim in a green sea. Then that too disappeared, as if it had sunk +into the living depths of the tropical vegetation, which is more +jealous of men's conquests than the ocean, and which was about to +close over the last vestiges of the liquidated Tropical Belt Coal +Company--A. Heyst, manager in the East. + +Davidson, a good, simple fellow in his way, was strangely affected. +It is to be noted that he knew very little of Heyst. He was one of +those whom Heyst's finished courtesy of attitude and intonation most +strongly disconcerted. He himself was a fellow of fine feeling, I +think, though of course he had no more polish than the rest of us. +We were naturally a hail-fellow-well-met crowd, with standards of +our own--no worse, I daresay, than other people's; but polish was +not one of them. Davidson's fineness was real enough to alter the +course of the steamer he commanded. Instead of passing to the south +of Samburan, he made it his practice to take the passage along the +north shore, within about a mile of the wharf. + +"He can see us if he likes to see us," remarked Davidson. Then he +had an afterthought: "I say! I hope he won't think I am intruding, +eh?" + +We reassured him on the point of correct behaviour. The sea is open +to all. + +This slight deviation added some ten miles to Davidson's round trip, +but as that was sixteen hundred miles it did not matter much. + +"I have told my owner of it," said the conscientious commander of +the Sissie. + +His owner had a face like an ancient lemon. He was small and +wizened--which was strange, because generally a Chinaman, as he +grows in prosperity, puts on inches of girth and stature. To serve +a Chinese firm is not so bad. Once they become convinced you deal +straight by them, their confidence becomes unlimited. You can do no +wrong. So Davidson's old Chinaman squeaked hurriedly: + +"All right, all right, all right. You do what you like, captain--" + +And there was an end of the matter; not altogether, though. From +time to time the Chinaman used to ask Davidson about the white man. +He was still there, eh? + +"I never see him," Davidson had to confess to his owner, who would +peer at him silently through round, horn-rimmed spectacles, several +sizes too large for his little old face. "I never see him." + +To me, on occasions he would say: + +"I haven't a doubt he's there. He hides. It's very unpleasant." +Davidson was a little vexed with Heyst. "Funny thing," he went on. +"Of all the people I speak to, nobody ever asks after him but that +Chinaman of mine--and Schomberg," he added after a while. + +Yes, Schomberg, of course. He was asking everybody about +everything, and arranging the information into the most scandalous +shape his imagination could invent. From time to time he would step +up, his blinking, cushioned eyes, his thick lips, his very chestnut +beard, looking full of malice. + +"Evening, gentlemen. Have you got all you want? So! Good! Well, +I am told the jungle has choked the very sheds in Black Diamond Bay. +Fact. He's a hermit in the wilderness now. But what can this +manager get to eat there? It beats me." + +Sometimes a stranger would inquire with natural curiosity: + +"Who? What manager?" + +"Oh, a certain Swede,"--with a sinister emphasis, as if he were +saying "a certain brigand." "Well known here. He's turned hermit +from shame. That's what the devil does when he's found out." + +Hermit. This was the latest of the more or less witty labels +applied to Heyst during his aimless pilgrimage in this section of +the tropical belt, where the inane clacking of Schomberg's tongue +vexed our ears. + +But apparently Heyst was not a hermit by temperament. The sight of +his land was not invincibly odious to him. We must believe this, +since for some reason or other he did come out from his retreat for +a while. Perhaps it was only to see whether there were any letters +for him at the Tesmans. I don't know. No one knows. But this +reappearance shows that his detachment from the world was not +complete. And incompleteness of any sort leads to trouble. Axel +Heyst ought not to have cared for his letters--or whatever it was +that brought him out after something more than a year and a half in +Samburan. But it was of no use. He had not the hermit's vocation! +That was the trouble, it seems. + +Be this as it may, he suddenly reappeared in the world, broad chest, +bald forehead, long moustaches, polite manner, and all--the complete +Heyst, even to the kindly sunken eyes on which there still rested +the shadow of Morrison's death. Naturally, it was Davidson who had +given him a lift out of his forsaken island. There were no other +opportunities, unless some native craft were passing by--a very +remote and unsatisfactory chance to wait for. Yes, he came out with +Davidson, to whom he volunteered the statement that it was only for +a short time--a few days, no more. He meant to go back to Samburan. + +Davidson expressing his horror and incredulity of such foolishness, +Heyst explained that when the company came into being he had his few +belongings sent out from Europe. + +To Davidson, as to any of us, the idea of Heyst, the wandering +drifting, unattached Heyst, having any belongings of the sort that +can furnish a house was startlingly novel. It was grotesquely +fantastic. It was like a bird owning real property. + +"Belongings? Do you mean chairs and tables?" Davidson asked with +unconcealed astonishment. + +Heyst did mean that. "My poor father died in London. It has been +all stored there ever since," he explained. + +"For all these years?" exclaimed Davidson, thinking how long we all +had known Heyst flitting from tree to tree in a wilderness. + +"Even longer," said Heyst, who had understood very well. + +This seemed to imply that he had been wandering before he came under +our observation. In what regions? And what early age? Mystery. +Perhaps he was a bird that had never had a nest. + +"I left school early," he remarked once to Davidson, on the passage. +"It was in England. A very good school. I was not a shining +success there." + +The confessions of Heyst. Not one of us--with the probable +exception of Morrison, who was dead--had ever heard so much of his +history. It looks as if the experience of hermit life had the power +to loosen one's tongue, doesn't it? + +During that memorable passage, in the Sissie, which took about two +days, he volunteered other hints--for you could not call it +information--about his history. And Davidson was interested. He +was interested not because the hints were exciting but because of +that innate curiosity about our fellows which is a trait of human +nature. Davidson's existence, too, running the Sissie along the +Java Sea and back again, was distinctly monotonous and, in a sense, +lonely. He never had any sort of company on board. Native deck- +passengers in plenty, of course, but never a white man, so the +presence of Heyst for two days must have been a godsend. Davidson +was telling us all about it afterwards. Heyst said that his father +had written a lot of books. He was a philosopher. + +"Seems to me he must have been something of a crank, too," was +Davidson's comment. "Apparently he had quarrelled with his people +in Sweden. Just the sort of father you would expect Heyst to have. +Isn't he a bit of a crank himself? He told me that directly his +father died he lit out into the wide world on his own, and had been +on the move till he fetched up against this famous coal business. +Fits the son of the father somehow, don't you think?" + +For the rest, Heyst was as polite as ever. He offered to pay for +his passage; but when Davidson refused to hear of it he seized him +heartily by the hand, gave one of his courtly bows, and declared +that he was touched by his friendly proceedings. + +"I am not alluding to this trifling amount which you decline to +take," he went on, giving a shake to Davidson's hand. "But I am +touched by your humanity." Another shake. "Believe me, I am +profoundly aware of having been an object of it." Final shake of +the hand. All this meant that Heyst understood in a proper sense +the little Sissie's periodic appearance in sight of his hermitage. + +"He's a genuine gentleman," Davidson said to us. "I was really +sorry when he went ashore." + +We asked him where he had left Heyst. + +"Why, in Sourabaya--where else?" + +The Tesmans had their principal counting-house in Sourabaya. There +had long existed a connection between Heyst and the Tesmans. The +incongruity of a hermit having agents did not strike us, nor yet the +absurdity of a forgotten cast-off, derelict manager of a wrecked, +collapsed, vanished enterprise, having business to attend to. We +said Sourabaya, of course, and took it for granted that he would +stay with one of the Tesmans. One of us even wondered what sort of +reception he would get; for it was known that Julius Tesman was +unreasonably bitter about the Tropical Belt Coal fiasco. But +Davidson set us right. It was nothing of the kind. Heyst went to +stay in Schomberg's hotel, going ashore in the hotel launch. Not +that Schomberg would think of sending his launch alongside a mere +trader like the Sissie. But she had been meeting a coastal mail- +packet, and had been signalled to. Schomberg himself was steering +her. + +"You should have seen Schomberg's eyes bulge out when Heyst jumped +in with an ancient brown leather bag!" said Davidson. "He pretended +not to know who it was--at first, anyway. I didn't go ashore with +them. We didn't stay more than a couple of hours altogether. +Landed two thousand coconuts and cleared out. I have agreed to pick +him up again on my next trip in twenty days' time." + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + + +Davidson happened to be two days late on his return trip; no great +matter, certainly, but he made a point of going ashore at once, +during the hottest hour of the afternoon, to look for Heyst. +Schomberg's hotel stood back in an extensive enclosure containing a +garden, some large trees, and, under their spreading boughs, a +detached "hall available for concerts and other performances," as +Schomberg worded it in his advertisements. Torn, and fluttering +bills, intimating in heavy red capitals CONCERTS EVERY NIGHT, were +stuck on the brick pillars on each side of the gateway. + +The walk had been long and confoundedly sunny. Davidson stood +wiping his wet neck and face on what Schomberg called "the piazza." +Several doors opened on to it, but all the screens were down. Not a +soul was in sight, not even a China boy--nothing but a lot of +painted iron chairs and tables. Solitude, shade, and gloomy +silence--and a faint, treacherous breeze which came from under the +trees and quite unexpectedly caused the melting Davidson to shiver +slightly--the little shiver of the tropics which in Sourabaya, +especially, often means fever and the hospital to the incautious +white man. + +The prudent Davidson sought shelter in the nearest darkened room. +In the artificial dusk, beyond the levels of shrouded billiard- +tables, a white form heaved up from two chairs on which it had been +extended. The middle of the day, table d'hote tiffin once over, was +Schomberg's easy time. He lounged out, portly, deliberate, on the +defensive, the great fair beard like a cuirass over his manly chest. +He did not like Davidson, never a very faithful client of his. He +hit a bell on one of the tables as he went by, and asked in a +distant, Officer-in-Reserve manner: + +"You desire?" + +The good Davidson, still sponging his wet neck, declared with +simplicity that he had come to fetch away Heyst, as agreed. + +"Not here!" + +A Chinaman appeared in response to the bell. Schomberg turned to +him very severely: + +"Take the gentleman's order." + +Davidson had to be going. Couldn't wait--only begged that Heyst +should be informed that the Sissie would leave at midnight. + +"Not--here, I am telling you!" + +Davidson slapped his thigh in concern. + +"Dear me! Hospital, I suppose." A natural enough surmise in a very +feverish locality. + +The Lieutenant of the Reserve only pursed up his mouth and raised +his eyebrows without looking at him. It might have meant anything, +but Davidson dismissed the hospital idea with confidence. However, +he had to get hold of Heyst between this and midnight: + +"He has been staying here?" he asked. + +"Yes, he was staying here." + +"Can you tell me where he is now?" Davidson went on placidly. +Within himself he was beginning to grow anxious, having developed +the affection of a self-appointed protector towards Heyst. The +answer he got was: + +"Can't tell. It's none of my business," accompanied by majestic +oscillations of the hotel-keeper's head, hinting at some awful +mystery. + +Davidson was placidity itself. It was his nature. He did not +betray his sentiments, which were not favourable to Schomberg. + +"I am sure to find out at the Tesmans' office," he thought. But it +was a very hot hour, and if Heyst was down at the port he would have +learned already that the Sissie was in. It was even possible that +Heyst had already gone on board, where he could enjoy a coolness +denied to the town. Davidson, being stout, was much preoccupied +with coolness and inclined to immobility. He lingered awhile, as if +irresolute. Schomberg, at the door, looking out, affected perfect +indifference. He could not keep it up, though. Suddenly he turned +inward and asked with brusque rage: + +"You wanted to see him?" + +"Why, yes," said Davidson. "We agreed to meet--" + +"Don't you bother. He doesn't care about that now." + +"Doesn't he?" + +"Well, you can judge for yourself. He isn't here, is he? You take +my word for it. Don't you bother about him. I am advising you as a +friend." + +"Thank you," said, Davidson, inwardly startled at the savage tone. +"I think I will sit down for a moment and have a drink, after all." + +This was not what Schomberg had expected to hear. He called +brutally: + +"Boy!" + +The Chinaman approached, and after referring him to the white man by +a nod the hotel-keeper departed, muttering to himself. Davidson +heard him gnash his teeth as he went. + +Davidson sat alone with the billiard-tables as if there had been not +a soul staying in the hotel. His placidity was so genuine that he +was not unduly, fretting himself over the absence of Heyst, or the +mysterious manners Schomberg had treated him to. He was considering +these things in his own fairly shrewd way. Something had happened; +and he was loath to go away to investigate, being restrained by a +presentiment that somehow enlightenment would come to him there. A +poster of CONCERTS EVERY EVENING, like those on the gate, but in a +good state of preservation, hung on the wall fronting him. He +looked at it idly and was struck by the fact--then not so very +common--that it was a ladies' orchestra; "Zangiacomo's eastern tour- +-eighteen performers." The poster stated that they had had the +honour of playing their select repertoire before various colonial +excellencies, also before pashas, sheiks, chiefs, H. H. the Sultan +of Mascate, etc., etc. + +Davidson felt sorry for the eighteen lady-performers. He knew what +that sort of life was like, the sordid conditions and brutal +incidents of such tours led by such Zangiacomos who often were +anything but musicians by profession. While he was staring at the +poster, a door somewhere at his back opened, and a woman came in who +was looked upon as Schomberg's wife, no doubt with truth. As +somebody remarked cynically once, she was too unattractive to be +anything else. The opinion that he treated her abominably was based +on her frightened expression. Davidson lifted his hat to her. Mrs. +Schomberg gave him an inclination of her sallow head and +incontinently sat down behind a sort of raised counter, facing the +door, with a mirror and rows of bottles at her back. Her hair was +very elaborately done with two ringlets on the left side of her +scraggy neck; her dress was of silk, and she had come on duty for +the afternoon. For some reason or other Schomberg exacted this from +her, though she added nothing to the fascinations of the place. She +sat there in the smoke and noise, like an enthroned idol, smiling +stupidly over the billiards from time to time, speaking to no one, +and no one speaking to her. Schomberg himself took no more interest +in her than may be implied in a sudden and totally unmotived scowl. +Otherwise the very Chinamen ignored her existence. + +She had interrupted Davidson in his reflections. Being alone with +her, her silence and open-mouthed immobility made him uncomfortable. +He was easily sorry for people. It seemed rude not to take any +notice of her. He said, in allusion to the poster: + +"Are you having these people in the house?" + +She was so unused to being addressed by customers that at the sound +of his voice she jumped in her seat. Davidson was telling us +afterwards that she jumped exactly like a figure made of wood, +without losing her rigid immobility. She did not even move her +eyes; but she answered him freely, though her very lips seemed made +of wood. + +"They stayed here over a month. They are gone now. They played +every evening." + +"Pretty good, were they?" + +To this she said nothing; and as she kept on staring fixedly in +front of her, her silence disconcerted Davidson. It looked as if +she had not heard him--which was impossible. Perhaps she drew the +line of speech at the expression of opinions. Schomberg might have +trained her, for domestic reasons, to keep them to herself. But +Davidson felt in honour obliged to converse; so he said, putting his +own interpretation on this surprising silence: + +"I see--not much account. Such bands hardly ever are. An Italian +lot, Mrs. Schomberg, to judge by the name of the boss?" + +She shook her head negatively. + +"No. He is a German really; only he dyes his hair and beard black +for business. Zangiacomo is his business name." + +"That's a curious fact," said Davidson. His head being full of +Heyst, it occurred to him that she might be aware of other facts. +This was a very amazing discovery to anyone who looked at Mrs. +Schomberg. Nobody had ever suspected her of having a mind. I mean +even a little of it, I mean any at all. One was inclined to think +of her as an It--an automaton, a very plain dummy, with an +arrangement for bowing the head at times and smiling stupidly now +and then. Davidson viewed her profile with a flattened nose, a +hollow cheek, and one staring, unwinking, goggle eye. He asked +himself: Did that speak just now? Will it speak again? It was as +exciting, for the mere wonder of it, as trying to converse with a +mechanism. A smile played about the fat features of Davidson; the +smile of a man making an amusing experiment. He spoke again to her: + +"But the other members of that orchestra were real Italians, were +they not?" + +Of course, he didn't care. He wanted to see whether the mechanism +would work again. It did. It said they were not. They were of all +sorts, apparently. It paused, with the one goggle eye immovably +gazing down the whole length of the room and through the door +opening on to the "piazza." It paused, then went on in the same low +pitch: + +"There was even one English girl." + +"Poor devil!"--said Davidson, "I suppose these women are not much +better than slaves really. Was that fellow with the dyed beard +decent in his way?" + +The mechanism remained silent. The sympathetic soul of Davidson +drew its own conclusions. + +"Beastly life for these women!" he said. "When you say an English +girl, Mrs. Schomberg, do you really mean a young girl? Some of +these orchestra girls are no chicks." + +"Young enough," came the low voice out of Mrs. Schomberg's unmoved +physiognomy. + +Davidson, encouraged, remarked that he was sorry for her. He was +easily sorry for people. + +"Where did they go to from here?" he asked. + +"She did not go with them. She ran away." + +This was the pronouncement Davidson obtained next. It introduced a +new sort of interest. + +"Well! Well!" he exclaimed placidly; and then, with the air of a +man who knows life: "Who with?" he inquired with assurance. + +Mrs. Schomberg's immobility gave her an appearance of listening +intently. Perhaps she was really listening; but Schomberg must have +been finishing his sleep in some distant part of the house. The +silence was profound, and lasted long enough to become startling. +Then, enthroned above Davidson, she whispered at last: + +"That friend of yours." + +"Oh, you know I am here looking for a friend," said Davidson +hopefully. "Won't you tell me--" + +"I've told you" + +"Eh?" + +A mist seemed to roll away from before Davidson's eyes, disclosing +something he could not believe. + +"You can't mean it!" he cried. "He's not the man for it." But the +last words came out in a faint voice. Mrs. Schomberg never moved +her head the least bit. Davidson, after the shock which made him +sit up, went slack all over. + +"Heyst! Such a perfect gentleman!" he exclaimed weakly. + +Mrs. Schomberg did not seem to have heard him. This startling fact +did not tally somehow with the idea Davidson had of Heyst. He never +talked of women, he never seemed to think of them, or to remember +that they existed; and then all at once--like this! Running off +with a casual orchestra girl! + +"You might have knocked me down with a feather," Davidson told us +some time afterwards. + +By then he was taking an indulgent view of both the parties to that +amazing transaction. First of all, on reflection, he was by no +means certain that it prevented Heyst from being a perfect +gentleman, as before. He confronted our open grins or quiet smiles +with a serious round face. Heyst had taken the girl away to +Samburan; and that was no joking matter. The loneliness, the ruins +of the spot, had impressed Davidson's simple soul. They were +incompatible with the frivolous comments of people who had not seen +it. That black jetty, sticking out of the jungle into the empty +sea; these roof-ridges of deserted houses peeping dismally above the +long grass! Ough! The gigantic and funeral blackboard sign of the +Tropical Belt Coal Company, still emerging from a wild growth of +bushes like an inscription stuck above a grave figured by the tall +heap of unsold coal at the shore end of the wharf, added to the +general desolation. + +Thus the sensitive Davidson. The girl must have been miserable +indeed to follow such a strange man to such a spot. Heyst had, no +doubt, told her the truth. He was a gentleman. But no words could +do justice to the conditions of life on Samburan. A desert island +was nothing to it. Moreover, when you were cast away on a desert +island--why, you could not help yourself; but to expect a fiddle- +playing girl out of an ambulant ladies' orchestra to remain content +there for a day, for one single day, was inconceivable. She would +be frightened at the first sight of it. She would scream. + +The capacity for sympathy in these stout, placid men! Davidson was +stirred to the depths; and it was easy to see that it was about +Heyst that he was concerned. We asked him if he had passed that way +lately. + +"Oh, yes. I always do--about half a mile off." + +"Seen anybody about?" + +"No, not a soul. Not a shadow." + +"Did you blow your whistle?" + +"Blow the whistle? You think I would do such a thing?" + +He rejected the mere possibility of such an unwarrantable intrusion. +Wonderfully delicate fellow, Davidson! + +"Well, but how do you know that they are there?" he was naturally +asked. + +Heyst had entrusted Mrs. Schomberg with a message for Davidson--a +few lines in pencil on a scrap of crumpled paper. It was to the +effect: that an unforeseen necessity was driving him away before +the appointed time. He begged Davidson's indulgence for the +apparent discourtesy. The woman of the house--meaning Mrs. +Schomberg--would give him the facts, though unable to explain them, +of course. + +"What was there to explain?" wondered Davidson dubiously. + +"He took a fancy to that fiddle-playing girl, and--" + +"And she to him, apparently," I suggested. + +"Wonderfully quick work," reflected Davidson. "What do you think +will come of it?" + +"Repentance, I should say. But how is it that Mrs. Schomberg has +been selected for a confidante?" + +For indeed a waxwork figure would have seemed more useful than that +woman whom we all were accustomed to see sitting elevated above the +two billiard-tables--without expression, without movement, without +voice, without sight. + +"Why, she helped the girl to bolt," said Davidson turning at me his +innocent eyes, rounded by the state of constant amazement in which +this affair had left him, like those shocks of terror or sorrow +which sometimes leave their victim afflicted by nervous trembling. +It looked as though he would never get over it. + +"Mrs. Schomberg jerked Heyst's note, twisted like a pipe-light, into +my lap while I sat there unsuspecting," Davidson went on. "Directly +I had recovered my senses, I asked her what on earth she had to do +with it that Heyst should leave it with her. And then, behaving +like a painted image rather than a live woman, she whispered, just +loud enough for me to hear: + +"I helped them. I got her things together, tied them up in my own +shawl, and threw them into the compound out of a back window. I did +it." + +"That woman that you would say hadn't the pluck to lift her little +finger!" marvelled Davidson in his quiet, slightly panting voice. +"What do you think of that?" + +I thought she must have had some interest of her own to serve. She +was too lifeless to be suspected of impulsive compassion. It was +impossible to think that Heyst had bribed her. Whatever means he +had, he had not the means to do that. Or could it be that she was +moved by that disinterested passion for delivering a woman to a man +which in respectable spheres is called matchmaking?--a highly +irregular example of it! + +"It must have been a very small bundle," remarked Davidson further. + +"I imagine the girl must have been specially attractive," I said. + +"I don't know. She was miserable. I don't suppose it was more than +a little linen and a couple of those white frocks they wear on the +platform." + +Davidson pursued his own train of thought. He supposed that such a +thing had never been heard of in the history of the tropics. For +where could you find anyone to steal a girl out of an orchestra? No +doubt fellows here and there took a fancy to some pretty one--but it +was not for running away with her. Oh dear no! It needed a lunatic +like Heyst. + +"Only think what it means," wheezed Davidson, imaginative under his +invincible placidity. "Just only try to think! Brooding alone on +Samburan has upset his brain. He never stopped to consider, or he +couldn't have done it. No sane man . . . How is a thing like that +to go on? What's he going to do with her in the end? It's +madness." + +"You say that he's mad. Schomberg tells us that he must be starving +on his island; so he may end yet by eating her," I suggested. + +Mrs. Schomberg had had no time to enter into details, Davidson told +us. Indeed, the wonder was that they had been left alone so long. +The drowsy afternoon was slipping by. Footsteps and voices +resounded on the veranda--I beg pardon, the piazza; the scraping of +chairs, the ping of a smitten bell. Customers were turning up. +Mrs. Schomberg was begging Davidson hurriedly, but without looking +at him, to say nothing to anyone, when on a half-uttered word her +nervous whisper was cut short. Through a small inner door Schomberg +came in, his hair brushed, his beard combed neatly, but his eyelids +still heavy from his nap. He looked with suspicion at Davidson, and +even glanced at his wife; but he was baffled by the natural +placidity of the one and the acquired habit of immobility in the +other. + +"Have you sent out the drinks?" he asked surlily. + +She did not open her lips, because just then the head boy appeared +with a loaded tray, on his way out. Schomberg went to the door and +greeted the customers outside, but did not join them. He remained +blocking half the doorway, with his back to the room, and was still +there when Davidson, after sitting still for a while, rose to go. +At the noise he made Schomberg turned his head, watched him lift his +hat to Mrs. Schomberg and receive her wooden bow accompanied by a +stupid grin, and then looked away. He was loftily dignified. +Davidson stopped at the door, deep in his simplicity. + +"I am sorry you won't tell me anything about my friend's absence," +he said. "My friend Heyst, you know. I suppose the only course for +me now is to make inquiries down at the port. I shall hear +something there, I don't doubt." + +"Make inquiries of the devil!" replied Schomberg in a hoarse mutter. + +Davidson's purpose in addressing the hotel-keeper had been mainly to +make Mrs. Schomberg safe from suspicion; but he would fain have +heard something more of Heyst's exploit from another point of view. +It was a shrewd try. It was successful in a rather startling way, +because the hotel-keeper's point of view was horribly abusive. All +of a sudden, in the same hoarse sinister tone, he proceeded to call +Heyst many names, of which "pig-dog" was not the worst, with such +vehemence that he actually choked himself. Profiting from the +pause, Davidson, whose temperament could withstand worse shocks, +remonstrated in an undertone: + +"It's unreasonable to get so angry as that. Even if he had run off +with your cash-box--" + +The big hotel-keeper bent down and put his infuriated face close to +Davidson's. + +"My cash-box! My--he--look here, Captain Davidson! He ran off with +a girl. What do I care for the girl? The girl is nothing to me." + +He shot out an infamous word which made Davidson start. That's what +the girl was; and he reiterated the assertion that she was nothing +to him. What he was concerned for was the good name of his house. +Wherever he had been established, he had always had "artist parties" +staying in his house. One recommended him to the others; but what +would happen now, when it got about that leaders ran the risk in his +house--his house--of losing members of their troupe? And just now, +when he had spent seven hundred and thirty-four guilders in building +a concert-hall in his compound. Was that a thing to do in a +respectable hotel? The cheek, the indecency, the impudence, the +atrocity! Vagabond, impostor, swindler, ruffian, schwein-hund! + +He had seized Davidson by a button of his coat, detaining him in the +doorway, and exactly in the line of Mrs. Schomberg's stony gaze. +Davidson stole a glance in that direction and thought of making some +sort of reassuring sign to her, but she looked so bereft of senses, +and almost of life, perched up there, that it seemed not worth +while. He disengaged his button with firm placidity. Thereupon, +with a last stifled curse, Schomberg vanished somewhere within, to +try and compose his spirits in solitude. Davidson stepped out on +the veranda. The party of customers there had become aware of the +explosive interlude in the doorway. Davidson knew one of these men, +and nodded to him in passing; but his acquaintance called out: + +"Isn't he in a filthy temper? He's been like that ever since." + +The speaker laughed aloud, while all the others sat smiling. +Davidson stopped. + +"Yes, rather." His feelings were, he told us, those of bewildered +resignation; but of course that was no more visible to the others +than the emotions of a turtle when it withdraws into its shell. + +"It seems unreasonable," he murmured thoughtfully. + +"Oh, but they had a scrap!" the other said. + +"What do you mean? Was there a fight!--a fight with Heyst?" asked +Davidson, much perturbed, if somewhat incredulous. + +"Heyst? No, these two--the bandmaster, the fellow who's taking +these women about and our Schomberg. Signor Zangiacomo ran amuck in +the morning, and went for our worthy friend. I tell you, they were +rolling on the floor together on this very veranda, after chasing +each other all over the house, doors slamming, women screaming, +seventeen of them, in the dining-room; Chinamen up the trees. Hey, +John? You climb tree to see the fight, eh?" + +The boy, almond-eyed and impassive, emitted a scornful grunt, +finished wiping the table, and withdrew. + +"That's what it was--a real, go-as-you-please scrap. And Zangiacomo +began it. Oh, here's Schomberg. Say, Schomberg, didn't he fly at +you, when the girl was missed, because it was you who insisted that +the artists should go about the audience during the interval?" + +Schomberg had reappeared in the doorway. He advanced. His bearing +was stately, but his nostrils were extraordinarily expanded, and he +controlled his voice with apparent effort. + +"Certainly. That was only business. I quoted him special terms and +all for your sake, gentlemen. I was thinking of my regular +customers. There's nothing to do in the evenings in this town. I +think, gentlemen, you were all pleased at the opportunity of hearing +a little good music; and where's the harm of offering a grenadine, +or what not, to a lady artist? But that fellow--that Swede--he got +round the girl. He got round all the people out here. I've been +watching him for years. You remember how he got round Morrison." + +He changed front abruptly, as if on parade, and marched off. The +customers at the table exchanged glances silently. Davidson's +attitude was that of a spectator. Schomberg's moody pacing of the +billiard-room could be heard on the veranda. + +"And the funniest part is," resumed the man who had been speaking +before--an English clerk in a Dutch house--"the funniest part is +that before nine o'clock that same morning those two were driving +together in a gharry down to the port, to look for Heyst and the +girl. I saw them rushing around making inquiries. I don't know +what they would have done to the girl, but they seemed quite ready +to fall upon your Heyst, Davidson, and kill him on the quay." + +He had never, he said, seen anything so queer. Those two +investigators working feverishly to the same end were glaring at +each other with surprising ferocity. In hatred and mistrust they +entered a steam-launch, and went flying from ship to ship all over +the harbour, causing no end of sensation. The captains of vessels, +coming on shore later in the day, brought tales of a strange +invasion, and wanted to know who were the two offensive lunatics in +a steam-launch, apparently after a man and a girl, and telling a +story of which one could make neither head nor tail. Their +reception by the roadstead was generally unsympathetic, even to the +point of the mate of an American ship bundling them out over the +rail with unseemly precipitation. + +Meantime Heyst and the girl were a good few miles away, having gone +in the night on board one of the Tesman schooners bound to the +eastward. This was known afterwards from the Javanese boatmen whom +Heyst hired for the purpose at three o'clock in the morning. The +Tesman schooner had sailed at daylight with the usual land breeze, +and was probably still in sight in the offing at the time. However, +the two pursuers after their experience with the American mate, made +for the shore. On landing, they had another violent row in the +German language. But there was no second fight; and finally, with +looks of fierce animosity, they got together into a gharry-- +obviously with the frugal view of sharing expenses--and drove away, +leaving an astonished little crowd of Europeans and natives on the +quay. + +After hearing this wondrous tale, Davidson went away from the hotel +veranda, which was filling with Schomberg's regular customers. +Heyst's escapade was the general topic of conversation. Never +before had that unaccountable individual been the cause of so much +gossip, he judged. No! Not even in the beginnings of the Tropical +Belt Coal Company when becoming for a moment a public character was +he the object of a silly criticism and unintelligent envy for every +vagabond and adventurer in the islands. Davidson concluded that +people liked to discuss that sort of scandal better than any other. + +I asked him if he believed that this was such a great scandal after +all. + +"Heavens, no!" said that excellent man who, himself, was incapable +of any impropriety of conduct. "But it isn't a thing I would have +done myself; I mean even if I had not been married." + +There was no implied condemnation in the statement; rather something +like regret. Davidson shared my suspicion that this was in its +essence the rescue of a distressed human being. Not that we were +two romantics, tingeing the world to the hue of our temperament, but +that both of us had been acute enough to discover a long time ago +that Heyst was. + +"I shouldn't have had the pluck," he continued. "I see a thing all +round, as it were; but Heyst doesn't, or else he would have been +scared. You don't take a woman into a desert jungle without being +made sorry for it sooner or later, in one way or another; and Heyst +being a gentleman only makes it worse." + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + + +We said no more about Heyst on that occasion, and it so happened +that I did not meet Davidson again for some three months. When we +did come together, almost the first thing he said to me was: + +"I've seen him." + +Before I could exclaim, he assured me that he had taken no liberty, +that he had not intruded. He was called in. Otherwise he would not +have dreamed of breaking in upon Heyst's privacy. + +"I am certain you wouldn't," I assured him, concealing my amusement +at his wonderful delicacy. He was the most delicate man that ever +took a small steamer to and fro among the islands. But his +humanity, which was not less strong and praiseworthy, had induced +him to take his steamer past Samburan wharf (at an average distance +of a mile) every twenty-three days--exactly. Davidson was delicate, +humane, and regular. + +"Heyst called you in?" I asked, interested. + +Yes, Heyst had called him in as he was going by on his usual date. +Davidson was examining the shore through his glasses with his +unwearied and punctual humanity as he steamed past Samburan. + +I saw a man in white. It could only have been Heyst. He had +fastened some sort of enormous flag to a bamboo pole, and was waving +it at the end of the old wharf. + +Davidson didn't like to take his steamer alongside--for fear of +being indiscreet, I suppose; but he steered close inshore, stopped +his engines, and lowered a boat. He went himself in that boat, +which was manned, of course, by his Malay seamen. + +Heyst, when he saw the boat pulling towards him, dropped his +signalling-pole; and when Davidson arrived, he was kneeling down +engaged busily in unfastening the flag from it. + +"Was there anything wrong?" I inquired, Davidson having paused in +his narrative and my curiosity being naturally aroused. You must +remember that Heyst as the Archipelago knew him was not--what shall +I say--was not a signalling sort of man. + +"The very words that came out of my mouth," said Davidson, "before I +laid the boat against the piles. I could not help it!" + +Heyst got up from his knees and began carefully folding up the flag +thing, which struck Davidson as having the dimensions of a blanket. + +"No, nothing wrong," he cried. His white teeth flashed agreeably +below the coppery horizontal bar of his long moustaches. + +I don't know whether it was his delicacy or his obesity which +prevented Davidson from clambering upon the wharf. He stood up in +the boat, and, above him, Heyst stooped low with urbane smiles, +thanking him and apologizing for the liberty, exactly in his usual +manner. Davidson had expected some change in the man, but there was +none. Nothing in him betrayed the momentous fact that within that +jungle there was a girl, a performer in a ladies' orchestra, whom he +had carried straight off the concert platform into the wilderness. +He was not ashamed or defiant or abashed about it. He might have +been a shade confidential when addressing Davidson. And his words +were enigmatical. + +"I took this course of signalling to you," he said to Davidson, +"because to preserve appearances might be of the utmost importance. +Not to me, of course. I don't care what people may say, and of +course no one can hurt me. I suppose I have done a certain amount +of harm, since I allowed myself to be tempted into action. It +seemed innocent enough, but all action is bound to be harmful. It +is devilish. That is why this world is evil upon the whole. But I +have done with it! I shall never lift a little finger again. At +one time I thought that intelligent observation of facts was the +best way of cheating the time which is allotted to us whether we +want it or not; but now I, have done with observation, too." + +Imagine poor, simple Davidson being addressed in such terms +alongside an abandoned, decaying wharf jutting out of tropical bush. +He had never heard anybody speak like this before; certainly not +Heyst, whose conversation was concise, polite, with a faint ring of +playfulness in the cultivated tones of his voice. + +"He's gone mad," Davidson thought to himself. + +But, looking at the physiognomy above him on the wharf, he was +obliged to dismiss the notion of common, crude lunacy. It was truly +most unusual talk. Then he remembered--in his surprise he had lost +sight of it--that Heyst now had a girl there. This bizarre +discourse was probably the effect of the girl. Davidson shook off +the absurd feeling, and asked, wishing to make clear his +friendliness, and not knowing what else to say: + +"You haven't run short of stores or anything like that?" + +Heyst smiled and shook his head: + +"No, no. Nothing of the kind. We are fairly well off here. +Thanks, all the same. If I have taken the liberty to detain you, it +is I not from any uneasiness for myself and my--companion. The +person I was thinking of when I made up my mind to invoke your +assistance is Mrs. Schomberg." + +"I have talked with her," interjected Davidson. + +"Oh! You? Yes, I hoped she would find means to--" + +"But she didn't tell me much," interrupted Davidson, who was not +averse from hearing something--he hardly knew what. + +"H'm--Yes. But that note of mine? Yes? She found an opportunity +to give it to you? That's good, very good. She's more resourceful +than one would give her credit for." + +"Women often are--" remarked Davidson. The strangeness from which +he had suffered, merely because his interlocutor had carried off a +girl, wore off as the minutes went by. "There's a lot of +unexpectedness about women," he generalized with a didactic aim +which seemed to miss its mark; for the next thing Heyst said was: + +"This is Mrs. Schomberg's shawl." He touched the stuff hanging over +his arm. "An Indian thing, I believe," he added, glancing at his +arm sideways. + +"It isn't of particular value," said Davidson truthfully. + +"Very likely. The point is that it belongs to Schomberg's wife. +That Schomberg seems to be an unconscionable ruffian--don't you +think so?" + +Davidson smiled faintly. + +"We out here have got used to him," he said, as if excusing a +universal and guilty toleration of a manifest nuisance. "I'd hardly +call him that. I only know him as a hotel-keeper." + +"I never knew him even as that--not till this time, when you were so +obliging as to take me to Sourabaya, I went to stay there from +economy. The Netherlands House is very expensive, and they expect +you to bring your own servant with you. It's a nuisance." + +"Of course, of course," protested Davidson hastily. + +After a short silence Heyst returned to the matter of the shawl. He +wanted to send it back to Mrs. Schomberg. He said that it might be +very awkward for her if she were unable, if asked, to produce it. +This had given him, Heyst, much uneasiness. She was terrified of +Schomberg. Apparently she had reason to be. + +Davidson had remarked that, too. Which did not prevent her, he +pointed out, from making a fool of him, in a way, for the sake of a +stranger. + +"Oh! You know!" said Heyst. "Yes, she helped me--us." + +"She told me so. I had quite a talk with her," Davidson informed +him. "Fancy anyone having a talk with Mrs. Schomberg! If I were to +tell the fellows they wouldn't believe me. How did you get round +her, Heyst? How did you think of it? Why, she looks too stupid to +understand human speech and too scared to shoo a chicken away. Oh, +the women, the women! You don't know what there may be in the +quietest of them." + +"She was engaged in the task of defending her position in life," +said Heyst. "It's a very respectable task." + +"Is that it? I had some idea it was that," confessed Davidson. + +He then imparted to Heyst the story of the violent proceedings +following on the discovery of his flight. Heyst's polite attention +to the tale took on a sombre cast; but he manifested no surprise, +and offered no comment. When Davidson had finished he handed down +the shawl into the boat, and Davidson promised to do his best to +return it to Mrs. Schomberg in some secret fashion. Heyst expressed +his thanks in a few simple words, set off by his manner of finished +courtesy. Davidson prepared to depart. They were not looking at +each other. Suddenly Heyst spoke: + +"You understand that this was a case of odious persecution, don't +you? I became aware of it and--" + +It was a view which the sympathetic Davidson was capable of +appreciating. + +"I am not surprised to hear it," he said placidly. "Odious enough, +I dare say. And you, of course--not being a married man--were free +to step in. Ah, well!" + +He sat down in the stern-sheets, and already had the steering lines +in his hands when Heyst observed abruptly: + +"The world is a bad dog. It will bite you if you give it a chance; +but I think that here we can safely defy the fates." + +When relating all this to me, Davidson's only comment was: + +"Funny notion of defying the fates--to take a woman in tow!" + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + + +Some considerable time afterwards--we did not meet very often--I +asked Davidson how he had managed about the shawl and heard that he +had tackled his mission in a direct way, and had found it easy +enough. At the very first call he made in Samarang he rolled the +shawl as tightly as he could into the smallest possible brown-paper +parcel, which he carried ashore with him. His business in the town +being transacted, he got into a gharry with the parcel and drove to +the hotel. With his precious experience, he timed his arrival +accurately for the hour of Schomberg's siesta. Finding the place +empty as on the former occasion, he marched into the billiard-room, +took a seat at the back, near the sort of dais which Mrs. Schomberg +would in due course come to occupy, and broke the slumbering silence +of the house by thumping a bell vigorously. Of course a Chinaman +appeared promptly. Davidson ordered a drink and sat tight. + +"I would have ordered twenty drinks one after another, if +necessary," he said--Davidson's a very abstemious man--"rather than +take that parcel out of the house again. Couldn't leave it in a +corner without letting the woman know it was there. It might have +turned out worse for her than not bringing the thing back at all." + +And so he waited, ringing the bell again and again, and swallowing +two or three iced drinks which he did not want. Presently, as he +hoped it would happen, Mrs. Schomberg came in, silk dress, long +neck, ringlets, scared eyes, and silly grin--all complete. Probably +that lazy beast had sent her out to see who was the thirsty customer +waking up the echoes of the house at this quiet hour. Bow, nod--and +she clambered up to her post behind the raised counter, looking so +helpless, so inane, as she sat there, that if it hadn't been for the +parcel, Davidson declared, he would have thought he had merely +dreamed all that had passed between them. He ordered another drink, +to get the Chinaman out of the room, and then seized the parcel, +which was reposing on a chair near him, and with no more than a +mutter--"this is something of yours"--he rammed it swiftly into a +recess in the counter, at her feet. There! The rest was her +affair. And just in time, too. Schomberg turned up, yawning +affectedly, almost before Davidson had regained his seat. He cast +about suspicious and irate glances. An invincible placidity of +expression helped Davidson wonderfully at the moment, and the other, +of course, could have no grounds for the slightest suspicion of any +sort of understanding between his wife and this customer. + +As to Mrs. Schomberg, she sat there like a joss. Davidson was lost +in admiration. He believed, now, that the woman had been putting it +on for years. She never even winked. It was immense! The insight +he had obtained almost frightened him; he couldn't get over his +wonder at knowing more of the real Mrs. Schomberg than anybody in +the Islands, including Schomberg himself. She was a miracle of +dissimulation. No wonder Heyst got the girl away from under two +men's noses, if he had her to help with the job! + +The greatest wonder, after all, was Heyst getting mixed up with +petticoats. The fellow's life had been open to us for years and +nothing could have been more detached from feminine associations. +Except that he stood drinks to people on suitable occasions, like +any other man, this observer of facts seemed to have no connection +with earthly affairs and passions. The very courtesy of his manner, +the flavour of playfulness in the voice set him apart. He was like +a feather floating lightly in the workaday atmosphere which was the +breath of our nostrils. For this reason whenever this looker-on +took contact with things he attracted attention. First, it was the +Morrison partnership of mystery, then came the great sensation of +the Tropical Belt Coal where indeed varied interests were involved: +a real business matter. And then came this elopement, this +incongruous phenomenon of self-assertion, the greatest wonder of +all, astonishing and amusing. + +Davidson admitted to me that, the hubbub was subsiding; and the +affair would have been already forgotten, perhaps, if that ass +Schomberg had not kept on gnashing his teeth publicly about it. It +was really provoking that Davidson should not be able to give one +some idea of the girl. Was she pretty? He didn't know. He had +stayed the whole afternoon in Schomberg's hotel, mainly for the +purpose of finding out something about her. But the story was +growing stale. The parties at the tables on the veranda had other, +fresher, events to talk about and Davidson shrank from making direct +inquiries. He sat placidly there, content to be disregarded and +hoping for some chance word to turn up. I shouldn't wonder if the +good fellow hadn't been dozing. It's difficult to give you an +adequate idea of Davidson's placidity. + +Presently Schomberg, wandering about, joined a party that had taken +the table next to Davidson's. + +"A man like that Swede, gentlemen, is a public danger," he began. +"I remember him for years. I won't say anything of his spying-- +well, he used to say himself he was looking for out-of-the-way facts +and what is that if not spying? He was spying into everybody's +business. He got hold of Captain Morrison, squeezed him dry, like +you would an orange, and scared him off to Europe to die there. +Everybody knows that Captain Morrison had a weak chest. Robbed +first and murdered afterwards! I don't mince words--not I. Next he +gets up that swindle of the Belt Coal. You know all about it. And +now, after lining his pockets with other people's money, he kidnaps +a white girl belonging to an orchestra which is performing in my +public room for the benefit of my patrons, and goes off to live like +a prince on that island, where nobody can get at him. A damn silly +girl . . . It's disgusting--tfui!" + +He spat. He choked with rage--for he saw visions, no doubt. He +jumped up from his chair, and went away to flee from them--perhaps. +He went into the room where Mrs. Schomberg sat. Her aspect could +not have been very soothing to the sort of torment from which he was +suffering. + +Davidson did not feel called upon to defend Heyst. His proceeding +was to enter into conversation with one and another, casually, and +showing no particular knowledge of the affair, in order to discover +something about the girl. Was she anything out of the way? Was she +pretty? She couldn't have been markedly so. She had not attracted +special notice. She was young--on that everybody agreed. The +English clerk of Tesmans remembered that she had a sallow face. He +was respectable and highly proper. He was not the sort to associate +with such people. Most of these women were fairly battered +specimens. Schomberg had them housed in what he called the +Pavilion, in the grounds, where they were hard at it mending and +washing their white dresses, and could be seen hanging them out to +dry between the trees, like a lot of washerwomen. They looked very +much like middle-aged washerwomen on the platform, too. But the +girl had been living in the main building along with the boss, the +director, the fellow with the black beard, and a hard-bitten, oldish +woman who took the piano and was understood to be the fellow's wife. + +This was not a very satisfactory result. Davidson stayed on, and +even joined the table d'hote dinner, without gleaning any more +information. He was resigned. + +"I suppose," he wheezed placidly, "I am bound to see her some day." + +He meant to take the Samburan channel every trip, as before of +course. + +"Yes," I said. "No doubt you will. Some day Heyst will be +signalling to you again; and I wonder what it will be for." + +Davidson made no reply. He had his own ideas about that, and his +silence concealed a good deal of thought. We spoke no more of +Heyst's girl. Before we separated, he gave me a piece of unrelated +observation. + +"It's funny," he said, "but I fancy there's some gambling going on +in the evening at Schomberg's place, on the quiet. I've noticed men +strolling away in twos and threes towards that hall where the +orchestra used to play. The windows must be specially well +shuttered, because I could not spy the smallest gleam of light from +that direction; but I can't believe that those beggars would go in +there only to sit and think of their sins in the dark." + +"That's strange. It's incredible that Schomberg should risk that +sort of thing," I said. + + + + +PART TWO + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + + +As we know, Heyst had gone to stay in Schomberg's hotel in complete +ignorance that his person was odious to that worthy. When he +arrived, Zangiacomo's Ladies' Orchestra had been established there +for some time. + +The business which had called him out from his seclusion in his lost +corner of the Eastern seas was with the Tesmans, and it had +something to do with money. He transacted it quickly, and then +found himself with nothing to do while he awaited Davidson, who was +to take him back to his solitude; for back to his solitude Heyst +meant to go. He whom we used to refer to as the Enchanted Heyst was +suffering from thorough disenchantment. Not with the islands, +however. The Archipelago has a lasting fascination. It is not easy +to shake off the spell of island life. Heyst was disenchanted with +life as a whole. His scornful temperament, beguiled into action, +suffered from failure in a subtle way unknown to men accustomed to +grapple with the realities of common human enterprise. It was like +the gnawing pain of useless apostasy, a sort of shame before his own +betrayed nature; and in addition, he also suffered from plain, +downright remorse. He deemed himself guilty of Morrison's death. A +rather absurd feeling, since no one could possibly have foreseen the +horrors of the cold, wet summer lying in wait for poor Morrison at +home. + +It was not in Heyst's character to turn morose; but his mental state +was not compatible with a sociable mood. He spent his evenings +sitting apart on the veranda of Schomberg's hotel. The lamentations +of string instruments issued from the building in the hotel +compound, the approaches to which were decorated with Japanese paper +lanterns strung up between the trunks of several big trees. Scraps +of tunes more or less plaintive reached his ears. They pursued him +even into his bedroom, which opened into an upstairs veranda. The +fragmentary and rasping character of these sounds made their +intrusion inexpressibly tedious in the long run. Like most +dreamers, to whom it is given sometimes to hear the music of the +spheres, Heyst, the wanderer of the Archipelago, had a taste for +silence which he had been able to gratify for years. The islands +are very quiet. One sees them lying about, clothed in their dark +garments of leaves, in a great hush of silver and azure, where the +sea without murmurs meets the sky in a ring of magic stillness. A +sort of smiling somnolence broods over them; the very voices of +their people are soft and subdued, as if afraid to break some +protecting spell. + +Perhaps this was the very spell which had enchanted Heyst in the +early days. For him, however, that was broken. He was no longer +enchanted, though he was still a captive of the islands. He had no +intention to leave them ever. Where could he have gone to, after +all these years? Not a single soul belonging to him lived anywhere +on earth. Of this fact--not such a remote one, after all--he had +only lately become aware; for it is failure that makes a man enter +into himself and reckon up his resources. And though he had made up +his mind to retire from the world in hermit fashion, yet he was +irrationally moved by this sense of loneliness which had come to him +in the hour of renunciation. It hurt him. Nothing is more painful +than the shock of sharp contradictions that lacerate our +intelligence and our feelings. + +Meantime Schomberg watched Heyst out of the comer of his eye. +Towards the unconscious object of his enmity he preserved a distant +lieutenant-of-the-Reserve demeanour. Nudging certain of his +customers with his elbow, he begged them to observe what airs "that +Swede" was giving himself. + +"I really don't know why he has come to stay in my house. This +place isn't good enough for him. I wish to goodness he had gone +somewhere else to show off his superiority. Here I have got up this +series of concerts for you gentlemen, just to make things a little +brighter generally; and do you think he'll condescend to step in and +listen to a piece or two of an evening? Not he. I know him of old. +There he sits at the dark end of the piazza, all the evening long-- +planning some new swindle, no doubt. For two-pence I would ask him +to go and look for quarters somewhere else; only one doesn't like to +treat a white man like that out in the tropics. I don't know how +long he means to stay, but I'm willing to bet a trifle that he'll +never work himself up to the point of spending the fifty cents of +entrance money for the sake of a little good music." + +Nobody cared to bet, or the hotel-keeper would have lost. One +evening Heyst was driven to desperation by the rasped, squeaked, +scraped snatches of tunes pursuing him even to his hard couch, with +a mattress as thin as a pancake and a diaphanous mosquito net. He +descended among the trees, where the soft glow of Japanese lanterns +picked out parts of their great rugged trunks, here and there, in +the great mass of darkness under the lofty foliage. More lanterns, +of the shape of cylindrical concertinas, hanging in a row from a +slack string, decorated the doorway of what Schomberg called +grandiloquently "my concert-hall." In his desperate mood Heyst +ascended three steps, lifted a calico curtain, and went in. + +The uproar in that small, barn-like structure, built of imported +pine boards, and raised clear of the ground, was simply stunning. +An instrumental uproar, screaming, grunting, whining, sobbing, +scraping, squeaking some kind of lively air; while a grand piano, +operated upon by a bony, red-faced woman with bad-tempered nostrils, +rained hard notes like hail through the tempest of fiddles. The +small platform was filled with white muslin dresses and crimson +sashes slanting from shoulders provided with bare arms, which sawed +away without respite. Zangiacomo conducted. He wore a white mess- +jacket, a black dress waistcoat, and white trousers. His longish, +tousled hair and his great beard were purple-black. He was +horrible. The heat was terrific. There were perhaps thirty people +having drinks at several little tables. Heyst, quite overcome by +the volume of noise, dropped into a chair. In the quick time of +that music, in the varied, piercing clamour of the strings, in the +movements of the bare arms, in the low dresses, the coarse faces, +the stony eyes of the executants, there was a suggestion of +brutality--something cruel, sensual and repulsive. + +"This is awful!" Heyst murmured to himself. + +But there is an unholy fascination in systematic noise. He did not +flee from it incontinently, as one might have expected him to do. +He remained, astonished at himself for remaining, since nothing +could have been more repulsive to his tastes, more painful to his +senses, and, so to speak, more contrary to his genius, than this +rude exhibition of vigour. The Zangiacomo band was not making +music; it was simply murdering silence with a vulgar, ferocious +energy. One felt as if witnessing a deed of violence; and that +impression was so strong that it seemed marvellous to see the people +sitting so quietly on their chairs, drinking so calmly out of their +glasses, and giving no signs of distress, anger, or fear. Heyst +averted his gaze from the unnatural spectacle of their indifference. + +When the piece of music came to an end the relief was so great that +he felt slightly dizzy, as if a chasm of silence had yawned at his +feet. When he raised his eyes, the audience, most perversely, was +exhibiting signs of animation and interest in their faces, and the +women in white muslin dresses were coming down in pairs from the +platform into the body of Schomberg's "concert-hall." They +dispersed themselves all over the place. The male creature with the +hooked nose and purple-black beard disappeared somewhere. This was +the interval during which, as the astute Schomberg had stipulated, +the members of the orchestra were encouraged to favour the members +of the audience with their company--that is, such members as seemed +inclined to fraternize with the arts in a familiar and generous +manner; the symbol of familiarity and generosity consisting in +offers of refreshment. + +The procedure struck Heyst as highly incorrect. However, the +impropriety of Schomberg's ingenious scheme was defeated by the +circumstance that most of the women were no longer young, and that +none of them had ever been beautiful. Their more or less worn +checks were slightly rouged, but apart from that fact, which might +have been simply a matter of routine, they did not seem to take the +success of the scheme unduly to heart. The impulse to fraternize +with the arts being obviously weak in the audience, some of the +musicians sat down listlessly at unoccupied tables, while others +went on perambulating the central passage: arm in arm, glad enough, +no doubt, to stretch their legs while resting their arms. Their +crimson sashes gave a factitious touch of gaiety to the smoky +atmosphere of the concert-hall; and Heyst felt a sudden pity for +these beings, exploited, hopeless, devoid of charm and grace, whose +fate of cheerless dependence invested their coarse and joyless +features with a touch of pathos. + +Heyst was temperamentally sympathetic. To have them passing and +repassing close to his little table was painful to him. He was +preparing to rise and go out when he noticed that two white muslin +dresses and crimson sashes had not yet left the platform. One of +these dresses concealed the raw-boned frame of the woman with the +bad-tempered curve to her nostrils. She was no less a personage +than Mrs. Zangiacomo. She had left the piano, and, with her back to +the hall, was preparing the parts for the second half of the +concert, with a brusque, impatient action of her ugly elbow. This +task done, she turned, and, perceiving the other white muslin dress +motionless on a chair in the second row, she strode towards it +between the music-stands with an aggressive and masterful gait. On +the lap of that dress there lay, unclasped and idle, a pair of small +hands, not very white, attached to well-formed arms. The next +detail Heyst was led to observe was the arrangement of the hair--two +thick, brown tresses rolled round an attractively shaped head. + +"A girl, by Jove!" he exclaimed mentally. + +It was evident that she was a girl. It was evident in the outline +of the shoulders, in the slender white bust springing up, barred +slantwise by the crimson sash, from the bell-shaped spread of muslin +skirt hiding the chair on which she sat averted a little from the +body of the hall. Her feet, in low white shoes, were crossed +prettily. + +She had captured Heyst's awakened faculty of observation; he had the +sensation of a new experience. That was because his faculty of +observation had never before been captured by any feminine creature +in that marked and exclusive fashion. He looked at her anxiously, +as no man ever looks at another man; and he positively forgot where +he was. He had lost touch with his surroundings. The big woman, +advancing, concealed the girl from his sight for a moment. She bent +over the seated youthful figure, in passing it very close, as if to +drop a word into its ear. Her lips did certainly move. But what +sort of word could it have been to make the girl jump up so swiftly? +Heyst, at his table, was surprised into a sympathetic start. He +glanced quickly round. Nobody was looking towards the platform; and +when his eyes swept back there again, the girl, with the big woman +treading at her heels, was coming down the three steps from the +platform to the floor of the hall. There she paused, stumbled one +pace forward, and stood still again, while the other--the escort, +the dragoon, the coarse big woman of the piano--passed her roughly, +and, marching truculently down the centre aisle between the chairs +and tables, went out to rejoin the hook-nosed Zangiacomo somewhere +outside. During her extraordinary transit, as if everything in the +hall were dirt under her feet, her scornful eyes met the upward +glance of Heyst, who looked away at once towards the girl. She had +not moved. Her arms hung down; her eyelids were lowered. + +Heyst laid down his half-smoked cigar and compressed his lips. Then +he got up. It was the same sort of impulse which years ago had made +him cross the sandy street of the abominable town of Delli in the +island of Timor and accost Morrison, practically a stranger to him +then, a man in trouble, expressively harassed, dejected, lonely. + +It was the same impulse. But he did not recognize it. He was not +thinking of Morrison then. It may be said that, for the first time +since the final abandonment of the Samburan coal mine, he had +completely forgotten the late Morrison. It is true that to a +certain extent he had forgotten also where he was. Thus, unchecked +by any sort of self consciousness, Heyst walked up the central +passage. + +Several of the women, by this time, had found anchorage here and +there among the occupied tables. They talked to the men, leaning on +their elbows, and suggesting funnily--if it hadn't been for the +crimson sashes--in their white dresses an assembly of middle-aged +brides with free and easy manners and hoarse voices. The murmuring +noise of conversations carried on with some spirit filled +Schomberg's concert-room. Nobody remarked Heyst's movements; for +indeed he was not the only man on his legs there. He had been +confronting the girl for some time before she became aware of his +presence. She was looking down, very still, without colour, without +glances, without voice, without movement. It was only when Heyst +addressed her in his courteous tone that she raised her eyes. + +"Excuse me," he said in English, "but that horrible female has done +something to you. She has pinched you, hasn't she? I am sure she +pinched you just now, when she stood by your chair." + +The girl received this overture with the wide, motionless stare of +profound astonishment. Heyst, vexed with himself, suspected that +she did not understand what he said. One could not tell what +nationality these women were, except that they were of all sorts. +But she was astonished almost more by the near presence of the man +himself, by his largely bald head, by the white brow, the sunburnt +cheeks, the long, horizontal moustaches of crinkly bronze hair, by +the kindly expression of the man's blue eyes looking into her own. +He saw the stony amazement in hers give way to a momentary alarm, +which was succeeded by an expression of resignation. + +"I am sure she pinched your arm most cruelly," he murmured, rather +disconcerted now at what he had done. + +It was a great comfort to hear her say: + +"It wouldn't have been the first time. And suppose she did--what +are you going to do about it?" + +"I don't know," he said with a faint, remote playfulness in his tone +which had not been heard in it lately, and which seemed to catch her +ear pleasantly. "I am grieved to say that I don't know. But can I +do anything? What would you wish me to do? Pray command me." + +Again, the greatest astonishment became visible in her face; for she +now perceived how different he was from the other men in the room. +He was as different from them as she was different from the other +members of the ladies' orchestra. + +"Command you?" she breathed, after a time, in a bewildered tone. +"Who are you?" she asked a little louder. + +"I am staying in this hotel for a few days. I just dropped in +casually here. This outrage--" + +"Don't you try to interfere," she said so earnestly that Heyst +asked, in his faintly playful tone: + +"Is it your wish that I should leave you?" + +"I haven't said that," the girl answered. "She pinched me because I +didn't get down here quick enough--" + +"I can't tell you how indignant I am--" said Heyst. "But since you +are down here now," he went on, with the ease of a man of the world +speaking to a young lady in a drawing-room, "hadn't we better sit +down?" + +She obeyed his inviting gesture, and they sat down on the nearest +chairs. They looked at each other across a little round table with +a surprised, open gaze, self-consciousness growing on them so slowly +that it was a long time before they averted their eyes; and very +soon they met again, temporarily, only to rebound, as it were. At +last they steadied in contact, but by that time, say some fifteen +minutes from the moment when they sat down, the "interval" came to +an end. + +So much for their eyes. As to the conversation, it had been +perfectly insignificant because naturally they had nothing to say to +each other. Heyst had been interested by the girl's physiognomy. +Its expression was neither simple nor yet very clear. It was not +distinguished--that could not be expected--but the features had more +fineness than those of any other feminine countenance he had ever +had the opportunity to observe so closely. There was in it +something indefinably audacious and infinitely miserable--because +the temperament and the existence of that girl were reflected in it. +But her voice! It seduced Heyst by its amazing quality. It was a +voice fit to utter the most exquisite things, a voice which would +have made silly chatter supportable and the roughest talk +fascinating. Heyst drank in its charm as one listens to the tone of +some instrument without heeding the tune. + +"Do you sing as well as play?" he asked her abruptly. + +"Never sang a note in my life," she said, obviously surprised by the +irrelevant question; for they had not been discoursing of sweet +sounds. She was clearly unaware of her voice. "I don't remember +that I ever had much reason to sing since I was little," she added. + +That inelegant phrase, by the mere vibrating, warm nobility of the +sound, found its way into Heyst's heart. His mind, cool, alert, +watched it sink there with a sort of vague concern at the absurdity +of the occupation, till it rested at the bottom, deep down, where +our unexpressed longings lie. + +"You are English, of course?" he said. + +"What do you think?" she answered in the most charming accents. +Then, as if thinking that it was her turn to place a question: "Why +do you always smile when you speak?" + +It was enough to make anyone look grave, but her good faith was so +evident that Heyst recovered himself at once. + +"It's my unfortunate manner--" he said with his delicate, polished +playfulness. "It is very objectionable to you?" + +She was very serious. + +"No. I only noticed it. I haven't come across so many pleasant +people as all that, in my life." + +"It's certain that this woman who plays the piano is infinitely more +disagreeable than any cannibal I have ever had to do with." + +"I believe you!" She shuddered. "How did you come to have anything +to do with cannibals?" + +"It would be too long a tale," said Heyst with a faint smile. +Heyst's smiles were rather melancholy, and accorded badly with his +great moustaches, under which his mere playfulness lurked as +comfortable as a shy bird in its native thicket. "Much too long. +How did you get amongst this lot here?" + +"Bad luck," she answered briefly. + +"No doubt, no doubt," Heyst assented with slight nods. Then, still +indignant at the pinch which he had divined rather than actually +seen inflicted: "I say, couldn't you defend yourself somehow?" + +She had risen already. The ladies of the orchestra were slowly +regaining their places. Some were already seated, idle stony-eyed, +before the music-stands. Heyst was standing up, too. + +"They are too many for me," she said. + +These few words came out of the common experience of mankind; yet by +virtue of her voice, they thrilled Heyst like a revelation. His +feelings were in a state of confusion, but his mind was clear. + +"That's bad. But it isn't actual ill-usage that this girl is +complaining of," he thought lucidly after she left him. + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + + +That was how it began. How it was that it ended, as we know it did +end, is not so easy to state precisely. It is very clear that Heyst +was not indifferent, I won't say to the girl, but to the girl's +fate. He was the same man who had plunged after the submerged +Morrison whom he hardly knew otherwise than by sight and through the +usual gossip of the islands. But this was another sort of plunge +altogether, and likely to lead to a very different kind of +partnership. + +Did he reflect at all? Probably. He was sufficiently reflective. +But if he did, it was with insufficient knowledge. For there is no +evidence that he paused at any time between the date of that evening +and the morning of the flight. Truth to say, Heyst was not one of +those men who pause much. Those dreamy spectators of the world's +agitation are terrible once the desire to act gets hold of them. +They lower their heads and charge a wall with an amazing serenity +which nothing but an indisciplined imagination can give. + +He was not a fool. I suppose he knew--or at least he felt--where +this was leading him. But his complete inexperience gave him the +necessary audacity. The girl's voice was charming when she spoke to +him of her miserable past, in simple terms, with a sort of +unconscious cynicism inherent in the truth of the ugly conditions of +poverty. And whether because he was humane or because her voice +included all the modulations of pathos, cheerfulness, and courage in +its compass, it was not disgust that the tale awakened in him, but +the sense of an immense sadness. + +On a later evening, during the interval between the two parts of the +concert, the girl told Heyst about herself. She was almost a child +of the streets. Her father was a musician in the orchestras of +small theatres. Her mother ran away from him while she was little, +and the landladies of various poor lodging-houses had attended +casually to her abandoned childhood. It was never positive +starvation and absolute rags, but it was the hopeless grip of +poverty all the time. It was her father who taught her to play the +violin. It seemed that he used to get drunk sometimes, but without +pleasure, and only because he was unable to forget his fugitive +wife. After he had a paralytic stroke, falling over with a crash in +the well of a music-hall orchestra during the performance, she had +joined the Zangiacomo company. He was now in a home for incurables. + +"And I am here," she finished, "with no one to care if I make a hole +in the water the next chance I get or not." + +Heyst told her that he thought she could do a little better than +that, if it was only a question of getting out of the world. She +looked at him with special attention, and with a puzzled expression +which gave to her face an air of innocence. + +This was during one of the "intervals" between the two parts of the +concert. She had come down that time without being incited thereto +by a pinch from the awful Zangiacomo woman. It is difficult to +suppose that she was seduced by the uncovered intellectual forehead +and the long reddish moustaches of her new friend. New is not the +right word. She had never had a friend before; and the sensation of +this friendliness going out to her was exciting by its novelty +alone. Besides, any man who did not resemble Schomberg appeared for +that very reason attractive. She was afraid of the hotel-keeper, +who, in the daytime, taking advantage of the fact that she lived in +the hotel itself, and not in the Pavilion with the other "artists" +prowled round her, mute, hungry, portentous behind his great beard, +or else assailed her in quiet corners and empty passages with deep, +mysterious murmurs from behind, which, not withstanding their clear +import, sounded horribly insane somehow. + +The contrast of Heyst's quiet, polished manner gave her special +delight and filled her with admiration. She had never seen anything +like that before. If she had, perhaps, known kindness in her life, +she had never met the forms of simple courtesy. She was interested +by it as a very novel experience, not very intelligible, but +distinctly pleasurable. + +"I tell you they are too many for me," she repeated, sometimes +recklessly, but more often shaking her head with ominous dejection. + +She had, of course, no money at all. The quantities of "black men" +all about frightened her. She really had no definite idea where she +was on the surface of the globe. The orchestra was generally taken +from the steamer to some hotel, and kept shut up there till it was +time to go on board another steamer. She could not remember the +names she heard. + +"How do you call this place again?" she used to ask Heyst. + +"Sourabaya," he would say distinctly, and would watch the +discouragement at the outlandish sound coming into her eyes, which +were fastened on his face. + +He could not defend himself from compassion. He suggested that she +might go to the consul, but it was his conscience that dictated this +advice, not his conviction. She had never heard of the animal or of +its uses. A consul! What was it? Who was he? What could he do? +And when she learned that perhaps he could be induced to send her +home, her head dropped on her breast. + +"What am I to do when I get there?" she murmured with an intonation +so just, with an accent so penetrating--the charm of her voice did +not fail her even in whispering--that Heyst seemed to see the +illusion of human fellowship on earth vanish before the naked truth +of her existence, and leave them both face to face in a moral desert +as arid as the sands of Sahara, without restful shade, without +refreshing water. + +She leaned slightly over the little table, the same little table at +which they had sat when they first met each other; and with no other +memories but of the stones in the streets her childhood had known, +in the distress of the incoherent, confused, rudimentary impressions +of her travels inspiring her with a vague terror of the world she +said rapidly, as one speaks in desperation: + +"YOU do something! You are a gentleman. It wasn't I who spoke to +you first, was it? I didn't begin, did I? It was you who came +along and spoke to me when I was standing over there. What did you +want to speak to me for? I don't care what it is, but you must do +something." + +Her attitude was fierce and entreating at the same time--clamorous, +in fact though her voice had hardly risen above a breath. It was +clamorous enough to be noticed. Heyst, on purpose, laughed aloud. +She nearly choked with indignation at this brutal heartlessness. + +"What did you mean, then, by saying 'command me!'?" she almost +hissed. + +Something hard in his mirthless stare, and a quiet final "All +right," steadied her. + +"I am not rich enough to buy you out," he went on, speaking with an +extraordinary detached grin, "even if it were to be done; but I can +always steal you." + +She looked at him profoundly, as though these words had a hidden and +very complicated meaning. + +"Get away now," he said rapidly, "and try to smile as you go." + +She obeyed with unexpected readiness; and as she had a set of very +good white teeth, the effect of the mechanical, ordered smile was +joyous, radiant. It astonished Heyst. No wonder, it flashed +through his mind, women can deceive men so completely. The faculty +was inherent in them; they seemed to be created with a special +aptitude. Here was a smile the origin of which was well known to +him; and yet it had conveyed a sensation of warmth, had given him a +sort of ardour to live which was very new to his experience. + +By this time she was gone from the table, and had joined the other +"ladies of the orchestra." They trooped towards the platform, +driven in truculently by the haughty mate of Zangiacomo, who looked +as though she were restraining herself with difficulty from punching +their backs. Zangiacomo followed, with his great, pendulous dyed +beard and short mess-jacket, with an aspect of hang-dog +concentration imparted by his drooping head and the uneasiness of +his eyes, which were set very close together. He climbed the steps +last of all, turned about, displaying his purple beard to the hall, +and tapped with his bow. Heyst winced in anticipation of the +horrible racket. It burst out immediately unabashed and awful. At +the end of the platform the woman at the piano, presenting her cruel +profile, her head tilted back, banged the keys without looking at +the music. + +Heyst could not stand the uproar for more than a minute. He went +out, his brain racked by the rhythm of some more or less Hungarian +dance music. The forests inhabited by the New Guinea cannibals +where he had encountered the most exciting of his earlier futile +adventures were silent. And this adventure, not in its execution, +perhaps, but in its nature, required even more nerve than anything +he had faced before. Walking among the paper lanterns suspended to +trees he remembered with regret the gloom and the dead stillness of +the forests at the back of Geelvink Bay, perhaps the wildest, the +unsafest, the most deadly spot on earth from which the sea can be +seen. Oppressed by his thoughts, he sought the obscurity and peace +of his bedroom; but they were not complete. The distant sounds of +the concert reached his ear, faint indeed, but still disturbing. +Neither did he feel very safe in there; for that sentiment depends +not on extraneous circumstances but on our inward conviction. He +did not attempt to go to sleep; he did not even unbutton the top +button of his tunic. He sat in a chair and mused. Formerly, in +solitude and in silence, he had been used to think clearly and +sometimes even profoundly, seeing life outside the flattering +optical delusion of everlasting hope, of conventional self- +deceptions, of an ever-expected happiness. But now he was troubled; +a light veil seemed to hang before his mental vision; the awakening +of a tenderness, indistinct and confused as yet, towards an unknown +woman. + +Gradually silence, a real silence, had established itself round him. +The concert was over; the audience had gone; the concert-hall was +dark; and even the Pavilion, where the ladies' orchestra slept after +its noisy labours, showed not a gleam of light. Heyst suddenly felt +restless in all his limbs, as this reaction from the long immobility +would not be denied, he humoured it by passing quietly along the +back veranda and out into the grounds at the side of the house, into +the black shadows under the trees, where the extinguished paper +lanterns were gently swinging their globes like withered fruit. + +He paced there to and fro for a long time, a calm, meditative ghost +in his white drill-suit, revolving in his head thoughts absolutely +novel, disquieting, and seductive; accustoming his mind to the +contemplation of his purpose, in order that by being faced steadily +it should appear praiseworthy and wise. For the use of reason is to +justify the obscure desires that move our conduct, impulses, +passions, prejudices, and follies, and also our fears. + +He felt that he had engaged himself by a rash promise to an action +big with incalculable consequences. And then he asked himself if +the girl had understood what he meant. Who could tell? He was +assailed by all sorts of doubts. Raising his head, he perceived +something white flitting between the trees. It vanished almost at +once; but there could be no mistake. He was vexed at being detected +roaming like this in the middle of the night. Who could that be? +It never occurred to him that perhaps the girl, too, would not be +able to sleep. He advanced prudently. Then he saw the white, +phantom-like apparition again; and the next moment all his doubts as +to the state of her mind were laid at rest, because he felt her +clinging to him after the manner of supplicants all the world over. +Her whispers were so incoherent that he could not understand +anything; but this did not prevent him from being profoundly moved. +He had no illusions about her; but his sceptical mind was dominated +by the fulness of his heart. + +"Calm yourself, calm yourself," he murmured in her ear, returning +her clasp at first mechanically, and afterwards with a growing +appreciation of her distressed humanity. The heaving of her breast +and the trembling of all her limbs, in the closeness of his embrace, +seemed to enter his body, to infect his very heart. While she was +growing quieter in his arms, he was becoming more agitated, as if +there were only a fixed quantity of violent emotion on this earth. +The very night seemed more dumb, more still, and the immobility of +the vague, black shapes, surrounding him more perfect. + +"It will be all right," he tried to reassure her, with a tone of +conviction, speaking into her ear, and of necessity clasping her +more closely than before. + +Either the words or the action had a very good effect. He heard a +light sigh of relief. She spoke with a calmed ardour. + +"Oh, I knew it would be all right from the first time you spoke to +me! Yes, indeed, I knew directly you came up to me that evening. I +knew it would be all right, if you only cared to make it so; but of +course I could not tell if you meant it. 'Command me,' you said. +Funny thing for a man like you to say. Did you really mean it? You +weren't making fun of me?" + +He protested that he had been a serious person all his life. + +"I believe you," she said ardently. He was touched by this +declaration. "It's the way you have of speaking as if you were +amused with people," she went on. "But I wasn't deceived. I could +see you were angry with that beast of a woman. And you are clever. +You spotted something at once. You saw it in my face, eh? It isn't +a bad face--say? You'll never be sorry. Listen--I'm not twenty +yet. It's the truth, and I can't be so bad looking, or else--I will +tell you straight that I have been worried and pestered by fellows +like this before. I don't know what comes to them--" + +She was speaking hurriedly. She choked, and then exclaimed, with an +accent of despair: + +"What is it? What's the matter?" + +Heyst had removed his arms from her suddenly, and had recoiled a +little. "Is it my fault? I didn't even look at them, I tell you +straight. Never! Have I looked at you? Tell me. It was you that +began it." + +In truth, Heyst had shrunk from the idea of competition with fellows +unknown, with Schomberg the hotel-keeper. The vaporous white figure +before him swayed pitifully in the darkness. He felt ashamed of his +fastidiousness. + +"I am afraid we have been detected," he murmured. "I think I saw +somebody on the path between the house and the bushes behind you." + +He had seen no one. It was a compassionate lie, if there ever was +one. His compassion was as genuine as his shrinking had been, and +in his judgement more honourable. + +She didn't turn her head. She was obviously relieved. + +"Would it be that brute?" she breathed out, meaning Schomberg, of +course. "He's getting too forward with me now. What can you +expect? Only this evening, after supper, he--but I slipped away. +You don't mind him, do you? Why, I could face him myself now that I +know you care for me. A girl can always put up a fight. You +believe me? Only it isn't easy to stand up for yourself when you +feel there's nothing and nobody at your back. There's nothing so +lonely in the world as a girl who has got to look after herself. +When I left poor dad in that home--it was in the country, near a +village--I came out of the gates with seven shillings and threepence +in my old purse, and my railway ticket. I tramped a mile, and got +into a train--" + +She broke off, and was silent for a moment. + +"Don't you throw me over now," she went on. "If you did, what +should I do? I should have to live, to be sure, because I'd be +afraid to kill myself, but you would have done a thousand times +worse than killing a body. You told me you had been always alone, +you had never had a dog even. Well, then, I won't be in anybody's +way if I live with you--not even a dog's. And what else did you +mean when you came up and looked at me so close?" + +"Close? Did I?" he murmured unstirring before her in the profound +darkness. "So close as that?" + +She had an outbreak of anger and despair in subdued tones. + +"Have you forgotten, then? What did you expect to find? I know +what sort of girl I am; but all the same I am not the sort that men +turn their backs on--and you ought to know it, unless you aren't +made like the others. Oh, forgive me! You aren't like the others; +you are like no one in the world I ever spoke to. Don't you care +for me? Don't you see--?" + +What he saw was that, white and spectral, she was putting out her +arms to him out of the black shadows like an appealing ghost. He +took her hands, and was affected, almost surprised, to find them so +warm, so real, so firm, so living in his grasp. He drew her to him, +and she dropped her head on his shoulder with a deep-sigh. + +"I am dead tired," she whispered plaintively. + +He put his arms around her, and only by the convulsive movements of +her body became aware that she was sobbing without a sound. +Sustaining her, he lost himself in the profound silence of the +night. After a while she became still, and cried quietly. Then, +suddenly, as if waking up, she asked: + +"You haven't seen any more of that somebody you thought was spying +about?" + +He started at her quick, sharp whisper, and answered that very +likely he had been mistaken. + +"If it was anybody at all," she reflected aloud, "it wouldn't have +been anyone but that hotel woman--the landlord's wife." + +"Mrs. Schomberg," Heyst said, surprised. + +"Yes. Another one that can't sleep o' nights. Why? Don't you see +why? Because, of course, she sees what's going on. That beast +doesn't even try to keep it from her. If she had only the least bit +of spirit! She knows how I feel, too, only she's too frightened +even to look him in the face, let alone open her mouth. He would +tell her to go hang herself." + +For some time Heyst said nothing. A public, active contest with the +hotel-keeper was not to be thought of. The idea was horrible. +Whispering gently to the girl, he tried to explain to her that as +things stood, an open withdrawal from the company would be probably +opposed. She listened to his explanation anxiously, from time to +time pressing the hand she had sought and got hold of in the dark. + +"As I told you, I am not rich enough to buy you out so I shall steal +you as soon as I can arrange some means of getting away from here. +Meantime it would be fatal to be seen together at night. We mustn't +give ourselves away. We had better part at once. I think I was +mistaken just now; but if, as you say, that poor Mrs. Schomberg +can't sleep of nights, we must be more careful. She would tell the +fellow." + +The girl had disengaged herself from his loose hold while he talked, +and now stood free of him, but still clasping his hand firmly. + +"Oh, no," she said with perfect assurance. "I tell you she daren't +open her mouth to him. And she isn't as silly as she looks. She +wouldn't give us away. She knows a trick worth two of that. She'll +help--that's what she'll do, if she dares do anything at all." + +"You seem to have a very clear view of the situation," said Heyst, +and received a warm, lingering kiss for this commendation. + +He discovered that to-part from her was not such an easy matter as +he had supposed it would be. + +"Upon my word," he said before they separated, "I don't even know +your name." + +"Don't you? They call me Alma. I don't know why. Silly name! +Magdalen too. It doesn't matter; you can call me by whatever name +you choose. Yes, you give me a name. Think of one you would like +the sound of--something quite new. How I should like to forget +everything that has gone before, as one forgets a dream that's done +with, fright and all! I would try." + +"Would you really?" he asked in a murmur. "But that's not +forbidden. I understand that women easily forget whatever in their +past diminishes them in their eyes." + +"It's your eyes that I was thinking of, for I'm sure I've never +wished to forget anything till you came up to me that night and +looked me through and through. I know I'm not much account; but I +know how to stand by a man. I stood by father ever since I could +understand. He wasn't a bad chap. Now that I can't be of any use +to him, I would just as soon forget all that and make a fresh start. +But these aren't things that I could talk to you about. What could +I ever talk to you about?" + +"Don't let it trouble you," Heyst said. "Your voice is enough. I +am in love with it, whatever it says." + +She remained silent for a while, as if rendered breathless by this +quiet statement. + +"Oh! I wanted to ask you--" + +He remembered that she probably did not know his name, and expected +the question to be put to him now; but after a moment of hesitation +she went on: + +"Why was it that you told me to smile this evening in the concert- +room there--you remember?" + +"I thought we were being observed. A smile is the best of masks. +Schomberg was at a table next but one to us, drinking with some +Dutch clerks from the town. No doubt he was watching us--watching +you, at least. That's why I asked you to smile." + +"Ah, that's why. It never came into my head!" + +"And you did it very well, too--very readily, as if you had +understood my intention." + +"Readily!" she repeated. "Oh, I was ready enough to smile then. +That's the truth. It was the first time for years I may say that I +felt disposed to smile. I've not had many chances to smile in my +life, I can tell you; especially of late." + +"But you do it most charmingly--in a perfectly fascinating way." + +He paused. She stood still, waiting for more with the stillness of +extreme delight, wishing to prolong the sensation. + +"It astonished me," he added. "It went as straight to my heart as +though you had smiled for the purpose of dazzling me. I felt as if +I had never seen a smile before in my life. I thought of it after I +left you. It made me restless." + +"It did all that?" came her voice, unsteady, gentle, and +incredulous. + +"If you had not smiled as you did, perhaps I should not have come +out here tonight," he said, with his playful earnestness of tone. +"It was your triumph." + +He felt her lips touch his lightly, and the next moment she was +gone. Her white dress gleamed in the distance, and then the opaque +darkness of the house seemed to swallow it. Heyst waited a little +before he went the same way, round the comer, up the steps of the +veranda, and into his room, where he lay down at last--not to sleep, +but to go over in his mind all that had been said at their meeting. + +"It's exactly true about that smile," he thought. There he had +spoken the truth to her; and about her voice, too. For the rest-- +what must be must be. + +A great wave of heat passed over him. He turned on his back, flung +his arms crosswise on the broad, hard bed, and lay still, open-eyed +under the mosquito net, till daylight entered his room, brightened +swiftly, and turned to unfailing sunlight. He got up then, went to +a small looking-glass hanging on the wall, and stared at himself +steadily. It was not a new-born vanity which induced this long +survey. He felt so strange that he could not resist the suspicion +of his personal appearance having changed during the night. What he +saw in the glass, however, was the man he knew before. It was +almost a disappointment--a belittling of his recent experience. And +then he smiled at his naiveness; for, being over five and thirty +years of age, he ought to have known that in most cases the body is +the unalterable mask of the soul, which even death itself changes +but little, till it is put out of sight where no changes matter any +more, either to our friends or to our enemies. + +Heyst was not conscious of either friends or of enemies. It was the +very essence of his life to be a solitary achievement, accomplished +not by hermit-like withdrawal with its silence and immobility, but +by a system of restless wandering, by the detachment of an +impermanent dweller amongst changing scenes. In this scheme he had +perceived the means of passing through life without suffering and +almost without a single care in the world--invulnerable because +elusive. + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + + +For fifteen years Heyst had wandered, invariably courteous and +unapproachable, and in return was generally considered a "queer +chap." He had started off on these travels of his after the death +of his father, an expatriated Swede who died in London, dissatisfied +with his country and angry with all the world, which had +instinctively rejected his wisdom. + +Thinker, stylist, and man of the world in his time, the elder Heyst +had begun by coveting all the joys, those of the great and those of +the humble, those of the fools and those of the sages. For more +than sixty years he had dragged on this painful earth of ours the +most weary, the most uneasy soul that civilization had ever +fashioned to its ends of disillusion and regret. One could not +refuse him a measure of greatness, for he was unhappy in a way +unknown to mediocre souls. His mother Heyst had never known, but he +kept his father's pale, distinguished face in affectionate memory. +He remembered him mainly in an ample blue dressing-gown in a large +house of a quiet London suburb. For three years, after leaving +school at the age of eighteen, he had lived with the elder Heyst, +who was then writing his last book. In this work, at the end of his +life, he claimed for mankind that right to absolute moral and +intellectual liberty of which he no longer believed them worthy. + +Three years of such companionship at that plastic and impressionable +age were bound to leave in the boy a profound mistrust of life. The +young man learned to reflect, which is a destructive process, a +reckoning of the cost. It is not the clear-sighted who lead the +world. Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm +mental fog, which the pitiless cold blasts of the father's analysis +had blown away from the son. + +"I'll drift," Heyst had said to himself deliberately. + +He did not mean intellectually or sentimentally or morally. He +meant to drift altogether and literally, body and soul, like a +detached leaf drifting in the wind-currents under the immovable +trees of a forest glade; to drift without ever catching on to +anything. + +"This shall be my defence against life," he had said to himself with +a sort of inward consciousness that for the son of his father there +was no other worthy alternative. + +He became a waif and stray, austerely, from conviction, as others do +through drink, from vice, from some weakness of character--with +deliberation, as others do in despair. This, stripped of its facts, +had been Heyst's life up to that disturbing night. Next day, when +he saw the girl called Alma, she managed to give him a glance of +frank tenderness, quick as lightning and leaving a profound +impression, a secret touch on the heart. It was in the grounds of +the hotel, about tiffin time, while the Ladies of the orchestra were +strolling back to their pavilion after rehearsal, or practice, or +whatever they called their morning musical exercises in the hall. +Heyst, returning from the town, where he had discovered that there +would be difficulties in the way of getting away at once, was +crossing the compound, disappointed and worried. He had walked +almost unwittingly into the straggling group of Zangiacomo's +performers. It was a shock to him, on coming out of his brown +study, to find the girl so near to him, as if one waking suddenly +should see the figure of his dream turned into flesh and blood. She +did not raise her shapely head, but her glance was no dream thing. +It was real, the most real impression of his detached existence--so +far. + +Heyst had not acknowledged it in any way, though it seemed to him +impossible that its effect on him should not be visible to anyone +who happened to be looking on. And there were several men on the +veranda, steady customers of Schomberg's table d'hote, gazing in his +direction--at the ladies of the orchestra, in fact. Heyst's dread +arose, not out of shame or timidity, but from his fastidiousness. +On getting amongst them, however, he noticed no signs of interest or +astonishment in their faces, any more than if they had been blind +men. Even Schomberg himself, who had to make way for him at the top +of the stairs, was completely unperturbed, and continued the +conversation he was carrying on with a client. + +Schomberg, indeed, had observed "that Swede" talking with the girl +in the intervals. A crony of his had nudged him; and he had thought +that it was so much the better; the silly fellow would keep +everybody else off. He was rather pleased than otherwise and +watched them out of the corner of his eye with a malicious enjoyment +of the situation--a sort of Satanic glee. For he had little doubt +of his personal fascination, and still less of his power to get hold +of the girl, who seemed too ignorant to know how to help herself, +and who was worse than friendless, since she had for some reason +incurred the animosity of Mrs. Zangiacomo, a woman with no +conscience. The aversion she showed him as far as she dared (for it +is not always safe for the helpless to display the delicacy of their +sentiments), Schomberg pardoned on the score of feminine +conventional silliness. He had told Alma, as an argument, that she +was a clever enough girl to see that she could do no better than to +put her trust in a man of substance, in the prime of life, who knew +his way about. But for the excited trembling of his voice, and the +extraordinary way in which his eyes seemed to be starting out of his +crimson, hirsute countenance, such speeches had every character of +calm, unselfish advice--which, after the manner of lovers, passed +easily into sanguine plans for the future. + +"We'll soon get rid of the old woman," he whispered to her +hurriedly, with panting ferocity. "Hang her! I've never cared for +her. The climate don't suit her; I shall tell her to go to her +people in Europe. She will have to go, too! I will see to it. +Eins, zwei, march! And then we shall sell this hotel and start +another somewhere else." + +He assured her that he didn't care what he did for her sake; and it +was true. Forty-five is the age of recklessness for many men, as if +in defiance of the decay and death waiting with open arms in the +sinister valley at the bottom of the inevitable hill. Her shrinking +form, her downcast eyes, when she had to listen to him, cornered at +the end of an empty corridor, he regarded as signs of submission to +the overpowering force of his will, the recognition of his personal +fascinations. For every age is fed on illusions, lest men should +renounce life early and the human race come to an end. + +It's easy to imagine Schomberg's humiliation, his shocked fury, when +he discovered that the girl who had for weeks resisted his attacks, +his prayers, and his fiercest protestations, had been snatched from +under his nose by "that Swede," apparently without any trouble worth +speaking of. He refused to believe the fact. He would have it, at +first, that the Zangiacomos, for some unfathomable reason, had +played him a scurvy trick, but when no further doubt was possible, +he changed his view of Heyst. The despised Swede became for +Schomberg the deepest, the most dangerous, the most hateful of +scoundrels. He could not believe that the creature he had coveted +with so much force and with so little effect, was in reality tender, +docile to her impulse, and had almost offered herself to Heyst +without a sense of guilt, in a desire of safety, and from a profound +need of placing her trust where her woman's instinct guided her +ignorance. Nothing would serve Schomberg but that she must have +been circumvented by some occult exercise of force or craft, by the +laying of some subtle trap. His wounded vanity wondered ceaselessly +at the means "that Swede" had employed to seduce her away from a man +like him--Schomberg--as though those means were bound to have been +extraordinary, unheard of, inconceivable. He slapped his forehead +openly before his customers; he would sit brooding in silence or +else would burst out unexpectedly declaiming against Heyst without +measure, discretion, or prudence, with swollen features and an +affectation of outraged virtue which could not have deceived the +most childlike of moralists for a moment--and greatly amused his +audience. + +It became a recognized entertainment to go and hear his abuse of +Heyst, while sipping iced drinks on the veranda of the hotel. It +was, in a manner, a more successful draw than the Zangiacomo +concerts had ever been--intervals and all. There was never any +difficulty in starting the performer off. Anybody could do it, by +almost any distant allusion. As likely as not he would start his +endless denunciations in the very billiard-room where Mrs. Schomberg +sat enthroned as usual, swallowing her sobs, concealing her tortures +of abject humiliation and terror under her stupid, set, everlasting +grin, which, having been provided for her by nature, was an +excellent mask, in as much as nothing--not even death itself, +perhaps--could tear it away. + +But nothing lasts in this world, at least without changing its +physiognomy. So, after a few weeks, Schomberg regained his outward +calm, as if his indignation had dried up within him. And it was +time. He was becoming a bore with his inability to talk of anything +else but Heyst's unfitness to be at large, Heyst's wickedness, his +wiles, his astuteness, and his criminality. Schomberg no longer +pretended to despise him. He could not have done it. After what +had happened he could not pretend, even to himself. But his +bottled-up indignation was fermenting venomously. At the time of +his immoderate loquacity one of his customers, an elderly man, had +remarked one evening: + +"If that ass keeps on like this, he will end by going crazy." + +And this belief was less than half wrong. Schomberg had Heyst on +the brain. Even the unsatisfactory state of his affairs, which had +never been so unpromising since he came out East directly after the +Franco-Prussian War, he referred to some subtly noxious influence of +Heyst. It seemed to him that he could never be himself again till +he had got even with that artful Swede. He was ready to swear that +Heyst had ruined his life. The girl so unfairly, craftily, basely +decoyed away would have inspired him to success in a new start. +Obviously Mrs. Schomberg, whom he terrified by savagely silent moods +combined with underhand, poisoned glances, could give him no +inspiration. He had grown generally neglectful, but with a +partiality for reckless expedients, as if he did not care when and +how his career as a hotel-keeper was to be brought to an end. This +demoralized state accounted for what Davidson had observed on his +last visit to the Schomberg establishment, some two months after +Heyst's secret departure with the girl to the solitude of Samburan. + +The Schomberg of a few years ago--the Schomberg of the Bangkok days, +for instance, when he started the first of his famed table d'hote +dinners--would never have risked anything of the sort. His genius +ran to catering, "white man for white men" and to the inventing, +elaborating, and retailing of scandalous gossip with asinine unction +and impudent delight. But now his mind was perverted by the pangs +of wounded vanity and of thwarted passion. In this state of moral +weakness Schomberg allowed himself to be corrupted. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + + +The business was done by a guest who arrived one fine morning by +mail-boat--immediately from Celebes, having boarded her in Macassar, +but generally, Schomberg understood, from up China Sea way; a +wanderer clearly, even as Heyst was, but not alone and of quite +another kind. + +Schomberg, looking up from the stern-sheets of his steam-launch, +which he used for boarding passenger ships on arrival, discovered a +dark sunken stare plunging down on him over the rail of the first- +class part of the deck. He was no great judge of physiognomy. +Human beings, for him, were either the objects of scandalous gossip +or else recipients of narrow strips of paper, with proper bill-heads +stating the name of his hotel--"W. Schomberg, proprietor, accounts +settled weekly." + +So in the clean-shaven, extremely thin face hanging over the mail- +boat's rail Schomberg saw only the face of a possible "account." +The steam-launches of other hotels were also alongside, but he +obtained the preference. + +"You are Mr. Schomberg, aren't you?" the face asked quite +unexpectedly. + +"I am at your service," he answered from below; for business is +business, and its forms and formulas must be observed, even if one's +manly bosom is tortured by that dull rage which succeeds the fury of +baffled passion, like the glow of embers after a fierce blaze. + +Presently the possessor of the handsome but emaciated face was +seated beside Schomberg in the stern-sheets of the launch. His body +was long and loose-jointed, his slender fingers, intertwined, +clasped the leg resting on the knee, as he lolled back in a careless +yet tense attitude. On the other side of Schomberg sat another +passenger, who was introduced by the clean-shaven man as - + +"My secretary. He must have the room next to mine." + +"We can manage that easily for you." + +Schomberg steered with dignity, staring straight ahead, but very +much interested by these two promising "accounts." Their +belongings, a couple of large leather trunks browned by age and a +few smaller packages, were piled up in the bows. A third +individual--a nondescript, hairy creature--had modestly made his way +forward and had perched himself on the luggage. The lower part of +his physiognomy was over-developed; his narrow and low forehead, +unintelligently furrowed by horizontal wrinkles, surmounted wildly +hirsute cheeks and a flat nose with wide, baboon-like nostrils. +There was something equivocal in the appearance of his shaggy, hair- +smothered humanity. He, too, seemed to be a follower of the clean- +shaven man, and apparently had travelled on deck with native +passengers, sleeping under the awnings. His broad, squat frame +denoted great strength. Grasping the gunwales of the launch, he +displayed a pair of remarkably long arms, terminating in thick, +brown hairy paws of simian aspect. + +"What shall we do with the fellow of mine?" the chief of the party +asked Schomberg. "There must be a boarding-house somewhere near the +port--some grog-shop where they could let him have a mat to sleep +on?" + +Schomberg said there was a place kept by a Portuguese half-caste. + +"A servant of yours?" he asked. + +"Well, he hangs on to me. He is an alligator-hunter. I picked him +up in Colombia, you know. Ever been in Colombia?" + +"No," said Schomberg, very much surprised. "An alligator-hunter? +Funny trade! Are you coming from Colombia, then?" + +"Yes, but I have been coming for a long time. I come from a good +many places. I am travelling west, you see." + +"For sport, perhaps?" suggested Schomberg. + +"Yes. Sort of sport. What do you say to chasing the sun?" + +"I see--a gentleman at large," said Schomberg, watching a sailing +canoe about to cross his bow, and ready to clear it by a touch of +the helm. + +The other passenger made himself heard suddenly. + +"Hang these native craft! They always get in the way." + +He was a muscular, short man with eyes that gleamed and blinked, a +harsh voice, and a round, toneless, pock-marked face ornamented by a +thin, dishevelled moustache, sticking out quaintly under the tip of +a rigid nose. Schomberg made the reflection that there was nothing +secretarial about him. Both he and his long, lank principal wore +the usual white suit of the tropics, cork helmets, pipe-clayed white +shoes--all correct. The hairy nondescript creature perched on their +luggage in the bow had a check shirt and blue dungaree trousers. He +gazed in their direction from forward in an expectant, trained- +animal manner. + +"You spoke to me first," said Schomberg in his manly tones. "You +were acquainted with my name. Where did you hear of me, gentlemen, +may I ask?" + +"In Manila," answered the gentleman at large, readily. "From a man +with whom I had a game of cards one evening in the Hotel Castille." + +"What man? I've no friends in Manila that I know of," wondered +Schomberg with a severe frown. + +"I can't tell you his name. I've clean forgotten it; but don't you +worry. He was anything but a friend of yours. He called you all +the names he could think of. He said you set a lot of scandal going +about him once, somewhere--in Bangkok, I think. Yes, that's it. +You were running a table d'hote in Bangkok at one time, weren't +you?" + +Schomberg, astounded by the turn of the information, could only +throw out his chest more and exaggerate his austere Lieutenant-of- +the-Reserve manner. A table d'hote? Yes, certainly. He always-- +for the sake of white men. And here in this place, too? Yes, in +this place, too. + +"That's all right, then." The stranger turned his black, cavernous, +mesmerizing glance away from the bearded Schomberg, who sat gripping +the brass tiller in a sweating palm. "Many people in the evening at +your place?" + +Schomberg had recovered somewhat. + +"Twenty covers or so, take one day with another," he answered +feelingly, as befitted a subject on which he was sensitive. "Ought +to be more, if only people would see that it's for their own good. +Precious little profit I get out of it. You are partial to tables +d'hote, gentlemen?" + +The new guest made answer that he liked a hotel where one could find +some local people in the evening. It was infernally dull otherwise. +The secretary, in sign of approval, emitted a grunt of astonishing +ferocity, as if proposing to himself to eat the local people. All +this sounded like a longish stay, thought Schomberg, satisfied under +his grave air; till, remembering the girl snatched away from him by +the last guest who had made a prolonged stay in his hotel, he ground +his teeth so audibly that the other two looked at him in wonder. +The momentary convulsion of his florid physiognomy seemed to strike +them dumb. They exchanged a quick glance. Presently the clean- +shaven man fired out another question in his curt, unceremonious +manner: + +"You have no women in your hotel, eh?" + +"Women!" Schomberg exclaimed indignantly, but also as if a little +frightened. "What on earth do you mean by women? What women? +There's Mrs. Schomberg, of course," he added, suddenly appeased, +with lofty indifference. + +"If she knows how to keep her place, then it will do. I can't stand +women near me. They give me the horrors," declared the other. +"They are a perfect curse!" + +During this outburst the secretary wore a savage grin. The chief +guest closed his sunken eyes, as if exhausted, and leaned the back +of his head against the stanchion of the awning. In this pose, his +long, feminine eyelashes were very noticeable, and his regular +features, sharp line of the jaw, and well-cut chin were brought into +prominence, giving him a used-up, weary, depraved distinction. He +did not open his eyes till the steam-launch touched the quay. Then +he and the other man got ashore quickly, entered a carriage, and +drove away to the hotel, leaving Schomberg to look after their +luggage and take care of their strange companion. The latter, +looking more like a performing bear abandoned by his show men than a +human being, followed all Schomberg's movements step by step, close +behind his back, muttering to himself in a language that sounded +like some sort of uncouth Spanish. The hotel-keeper felt +uncomfortable till at last he got rid of him at an obscure den where +a very clean, portly Portuguese half-caste, standing serenely in the +doorway, seemed to understand exactly how to deal with clients of +every kind. He took from the creature the strapped bundle it had +been hugging closely through all its peregrinations in that strange +town, and cut short Schomberg's attempts at explanation by a most +confident - + +"I comprehend very well, sir." + +"It's more than I do," thought Schomberg, going away thankful at +being relieved of the alligator-hunter's company. He wondered what +these fellows were, without being able to form a guess of sufficient +probability. Their names he learned that very day by direct inquiry +"to enter in my books," he explained in his formal military manner, +chest thrown out, beard very much in evidence. + +The shaven man, sprawling in a long chair, with his air of withered +youth, raised his eyes languidly. + +"My name? Oh, plain Mr. Jones--put that down--a gentleman at large. +And this is Ricardo." The pock-marked man, lying prostrate in +another long chair, made a grimace, as if something had tickled the +end of his nose, but did not come out of his supineness. "Martin +Ricardo, secretary. You don't want any more of our history, do you? +Eh, what? Occupation? Put down, well--tourists. We've been called +harder names before now; it won't hurt our feelings. And that +fellow of mine--where did you tuck him away? Oh, he will be all +right. When he wants anything he'll take it. He's Peter. Citizen +of Colombia. Peter, Pedro--I don't know that he ever had any other +name. Pedro, alligator hunter. Oh, yes--I'll pay his board with +the half-caste. Can't help myself. He's so confoundedly devoted to +me that if I were to give him the sack he would be at my throat. +Shall I tell you how I killed his brother in the wilds of Colombia? +Well, perhaps some other time--it's a rather long story. What I +shall always regret is that I didn't kill him, too. I could have +done it without any extra trouble then; now it's too late. Great +nuisance; but he's useful sometimes. I hope you are not going to +put all this in your book?" + +The offhand, hard manner and the contemptuous tone of "plain Mr. +Jones" disconcerted Schomberg utterly. He had never been spoken to +like this in his life. He shook his head in silence and withdrew, +not exactly scared--though he was in reality of a timid disposition +under his manly exterior--but distinctly mystified and impressed. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + + +Three weeks later, after putting his cash-box away in the safe which +filled with its iron bulk a corner of their room, Schomberg turned +towards his wife, but without looking at her exactly, and said: + +"I must get rid of these two. It won't do!" + +Mrs. Schomberg had entertained that very opinion from the first; but +she had been broken years ago into keeping her opinions to herself. +Sitting in her night attire in the light of a single candle, she was +careful not to make a sound, knowing from experience that her very +assent would be resented. With her eyes she followed the figure of +Schomberg, clad in his sleeping suit, and moving restlessly about +the room. + +He never glanced her way, for the reason that Mrs. Schomberg, in her +night attire, looked the most unattractive object in existence-- +miserable, insignificant, faded, crushed, old. And the contrast +with the feminine form he had ever in his mind's eye made his wife's +appearance painful to his aesthetic sense. + +Schomberg walked about swearing and fuming for the purpose of +screwing his courage up to the sticking point. + +"Hang me if I ought not to go now, at once, this minute, into his +bedroom, and tell him to be off--him and that secretary of his-- +early in the morning. I don't mind a round game of cards, but to +make a decoy of my table d'hote--my blood boils! He came here +because some lying rascal in Manila told him I kept a table d'hote." + +He said these things, not for Mrs. Schomberg's information, but +simply thinking aloud, and trying to work his fury up to a point +where it would give him courage enough to face "plain Mr. Jones." + +"Impudent overbearing, swindling sharper," he went on. "I have a +good mind to--" + +He was beside himself in his lurid, heavy, Teutonic manner, so +unlike the picturesque, lively rage of the Latin races; and though +his eyes strayed about irresolutely, yet his swollen, angry features +awakened in the miserable woman over whom he had been tyrannizing +for years a fear for his precious carcass, since the poor creature +had nothing else but that to hold on to in the world. She knew him +well; but she did not know him altogether. The last thing a woman +will consent to discover in a man whom she loves, or on whom she +simply depends, is want of courage. And, timid in her comer, she +ventured to say pressingly: + +"Be careful, Wilhelm! Remember the knives and revolvers in their +trunks." + +In guise of thanks for that anxious reminder, he swore horribly in +the direction of her shrinking person. In her scanty nightdress, +and barefooted, she recalled a mediaeval penitent being reproved for +her sins in blasphemous terms. Those lethal weapons were always +present to Schomberg's mind. Personally, he had never seen them. +His part, ten days after his guests' arrival, had been to lounge in +manly, careless attitudes on the veranda--keeping watch--while Mrs. +Schomberg, provided with a bunch of assorted keys, her discoloured +teeth chattering and her globular eyes absolutely idiotic with +fright, was "going through" the luggage of these strange clients. +Her terrible Wilhelm had insisted on it. + +"I'll be on the look-out, I tell you," he said. "I shall give you a +whistle when I see them coming back. You couldn't whistle. And if +he were to catch you at it, and chuck you out by the scruff of the +neck, it wouldn't hurt you much; but he won't touch a woman. Not +he! He has told me so. Affected beast. I must find out something +about their little game, and so there's an end of it. Go in! Go +now! Quick march!" + +It had been an awful job; but she did go in, because she was much +more afraid of Schomberg than of any possible consequences of the +act. Her greatest concern was lest no key of the bunch he had +provided her with should fit the locks. It would have been such a +disappointment for Wilhelm. However, the trunks, she found, had +been left open; but her investigation did not last long. She was +frightened of firearms, and generally of all weapons, not from +personal cowardice, but as some women are, almost superstitiously, +from an abstract horror of violence and murder. She was out again +on the veranda long before Wilhelm had any occasion for a warning +whistle. The instinctive, motiveless fear being the most difficult +to overcome, nothing could induce her to return to her +investigations, neither threatening growls nor ferocious hisses, nor +yet a poke or two in the ribs. + +"Stupid female!" muttered the hotel-keeper, perturbed by the notion +of that armoury in one of his bedrooms. This was from no abstract +sentiment, with him it was constitutional. "Get out of my sight," +he snarled. "Go and dress yourself for the table d'hote." + +Left to himself, Schomberg had meditated. What the devil did this +mean? His thinking processes were sluggish and spasmodic; but +suddenly the truth came to him. + +"By heavens, they are desperadoes!" he thought. + +Just then he beheld "plain Mr. Jones" and his secretary with the +ambiguous name of Ricardo entering the grounds of the hotel. They +had been down to the port on some business, and now were returning; +Mr. Jones lank, spare, opening his long legs with angular regularity +like a pair of compasses, the other stepping out briskly by his +side. Conviction entered Schomberg's heart. They WERE two +desperadoes--no doubt about it. But as the funk which he +experienced was merely a general sensation, he managed to put on his +most severe Officer-of-the-Reserve manner, long before they had +closed with him. + +"Good morning, gentlemen." + +Being answered with derisive civility, he became confirmed in his +sudden conviction of their desperate character. The way Mr. Jones +turned his hollow eyes on one, like an incurious spectre, and the +way the other, when addressed, suddenly retracted his lips and +exhibited his teeth without looking round--here was evidence enough +to settle that point. Desperadoes! They passed through the +billiard-room, inscrutably mysterious, to the back of the house, to +join their violated trunks. + +"Tiffin bell will ring in five minutes, gentlemen." Schomberg +called after them, exaggerating the deep manliness of his tone. + +He had managed to upset himself very much. He expected to see them +come back infuriated and begin to bully him with an odious lack of +restraint. Desperadoes! However they didn't; they had not noticed +anything unusual about their trunks and Schomberg recovered his +composure and said to himself that he must get rid of this deadly +incubus as soon as practicable. They couldn't possibly want to stay +very long; this was not the town--the colony--for desperate +characters. He shrank from action. He dreaded any kind of +disturbance--"fracas" he called it--in his hotel. Such things were +not good for business. Of course, sometimes one had to have a +"fracas;" but it had been a comparatively trifling task to seize the +frail Zangiacomo--whose bones were no larger than a chicken's--round +the ribs, lift him up bodily, dash him to the ground, and fall on +him. It had been easy. The wretched, hook-nosed creature lay +without movement, buried under its purple beard. + +Suddenly, remembering the occasion of that "fracas," Schomberg +groaned with the pain as of a hot coal under his breastbone, and +gave himself up to desolation. Ah, if he only had that girl with +him he would have been masterful and resolute and fearless--fight +twenty desperadoes--care for nobody on earth! Whereas the +possession of Mrs. Schomberg was no incitement to a display of manly +virtues. Instead of caring for no one, he felt that he cared for +nothing. Life was a hollow sham; he wasn't going to risk a shot +through his lungs or his liver in order to preserve its integrity. +It had no savour--damn it! + +In his state of moral decomposition, Schomberg, master as he was of +the art of hotel-keeping, and careful of giving no occasion for +criticism to the powers regulating that branch of human activity, +let things take their course; though he saw very well where that +course was tending. It began first with a game or two after dinner- +-for the drinks, apparently--with some lingering customer, at one of +the little tables ranged against the walls of the billiard-room. +Schomberg detected the meaning of it at once. "That's what it was! +This was what they were! And, moving about restlessly (at that time +his morose silent period had set in), he cast sidelong looks at the +game; but he said nothing. It was not worth while having a row with +men who were so overbearing. Even when money appeared in connection +with these postprandial games, into which more and more people were +being drawn, he still refrained from raising the question; he was +reluctant to draw unduly the attention of "plain Mr. Jones" and of +the equivocal Ricardo, to his person. One evening, however, after +the public rooms of the hotel had become empty, Schomberg made an +attempt to grapple with the problem in an indirect way. + +In a distant corner the tired China boy dozed on his heels, his back +against the wall. Mrs. Schomberg had disappeared, as usual, between +ten and eleven. Schomberg walked about slowly in and out of the +room and the veranda, thoughtful, waiting for his two guests to go +to bed. Then suddenly he approached them, militarily, his chest +thrown out, his voice curt and soldierly. + +"Hot night, gentlemen." + +Mr Jones, lolling back idly in a chair, looked up. Ricardo, as +idle, but more upright, made no sign. + +"Won't you have a drink with me before retiring?" went on Schomberg, +sitting down by the little table. + +"By all means," said Mr. Jones lazily. + +Ricardo showed his teeth in a strange, quick grin. Schomberg felt +painfully how difficult it was to get in touch with these men, both +so quiet, so deliberate, so menacingly unceremonious. He ordered +the Chinaman to bring in the drinks. His purpose was to discover +how long these guests intended to stay. Ricardo displayed no +conversational vein, but Mr. Jones appeared communicative enough. +His voice somehow matched his sunken eyes. It was hollow without +being in the least mournful; it sounded distant, uninterested, as +though he were speaking from the bottom of a well. Schomberg +learned that he would have the privilege of lodging and boarding +these gentlemen for at least a month more. He could not conceal his +discomfiture at this piece of news. + +"What's the matter? Don't you like to have people in your house?" +asked plain Mr. Jones languidly. "I should have thought the owner +of a hotel would be pleased." + +He lifted his delicate and beautifully pencilled eyebrows. +Schomberg muttered something about the locality being dull and +uninteresting to travellers--nothing going on--too quiet altogether, +but he only provoked the declaration that quiet had its charm +sometimes, and even dullness was welcome as a change. + +"We haven't had time to be dull for the last three years," added +plain Mr. Jones, his eyes fixed darkly on Schomberg whom he further +more invited to have another drink, this time with him, and not to +worry himself about things he did not understand; and especially not +to be inhospitable--which in a hotel-keeper is highly +unprofessional. + +"I don't understand," grumbled Schomberg. "Oh, yes, I understand +perfectly well. I--" + +"You are frightened," interrupted Mr. Jones. "What is the matter?" + +"I don't want any scandal in my place. That's what's the matter." + +Schomberg tried to face the situation bravely, but that steady, +black stare affected him. And when he glanced aside uncomfortably, +he met Ricardo's grin uncovering a lot of teeth, though the man +seemed absorbed in his thoughts all the time. + +"And, moreover," went on Mr. Jones in that distant tone of his, "you +can't help yourself. Here we are and here we stay. Would you try +to put us out? I dare say you could do it; but you couldn't do it +without getting hurt--very badly hurt. We can promise him that, +can't we, Martin?" + +The secretary retracted his lips and looked up sharply at Schomberg, +as if only too anxious to leap upon him with teeth and claws. + +Schomberg managed to produce a deep laugh. + +"Ha! Ha! Ha!" + +Mr Jones closed his eyes wearily, as if the light hurt them, and +looked remarkably like a corpse for a moment. This was bad enough; +but when he opened them again, it was almost a worse trial for +Schomberg's nerves. The spectral intensity of that glance, fixed on +the hotel-keeper (and this was most frightful) without any definite +expression, seemed to dissolve the last grain of resolution in his +character. + +"You don't think, by any chance, that you have to do with ordinary +people, do you?" inquired Mr. Jones, in his lifeless manner, which +seemed to imply some sort of menace from beyond the grave. + +"He's a gentleman," testified Martin Ricardo with a sudden snap of +the lips, after which his moustaches stirred by themselves in an +odd, feline manner. + +"Oh, I wasn't thinking of that," said plain Mr. Jones, while +Schomberg, dumb and planted heavily in his chair looked from one to +the other, leaning forward a little. "Of course I am that; but +Ricardo attaches too much importance to a social advantage. What I +mean, for instance, is that he, quiet and inoffensive as you see him +sitting here, would think nothing of setting fire to this house of +entertainment of yours. It would blaze like a box of matches. +Think of that! It wouldn't advance your affairs much, would it?-- +whatever happened to us." + +"Come, come gentlemen," remonstrated Schomberg, in a murmur. "This +is very wild talk!" + +"And you have been used to deal with tame people, haven't you? But +we aren't tame. We once kept a whole angry town at bay for two +days, and then we got away with our plunder. It was in Venezuela. +Ask Martin here--he can tell you." + +Instinctively Schomberg looked at Ricardo, who only passed the tip +of his tongue over his lips with an uncanny sort of gusto, but did +not offer to begin. + +"Well, perhaps it would be a rather long story," Mr. Jones conceded +after a short silence. + +"I have no desire to hear it, I am sure," said Schomberg. "This +isn't Venezuela. You wouldn't get away from here like that. But +all this is silly talk of the worst sort. Do you mean to say you +would make deadly trouble for the sake of a few guilders that you +and that other"--eyeing Ricardo suspiciously, as one would look at a +strange animal--"gentleman can win of an evening? Isn't as if my +customers were a lot of rich men with pockets full of cash. I +wonder you take so much trouble and risk for so little money." + +Schomberg's argument was met by Mr. Jones's statement that one must +do something to kill time. Killing time was not forbidden. For the +rest, being in a communicative mood, Mr. Jones said languidly and in +a voice indifferent, as if issuing from a tomb, that he depended on +himself, as if the world were still one great, wild jungle without +law. Martin was something like that, too--for reasons of his own. + +All these statements Ricardo confirmed by short, inhuman grins. +Schomberg lowered his eyes, for the sight of these two men +intimidated him; but he was losing patience. + +"Of course, I could see at once that you were two desperate +characters--something like what you say. But what would you think +if I told you that I am pretty near as desperate as you two +gentlemen? 'Here's that Schomberg has an easy time running his +hotel,' people think; and yet it seems to me I would just as soon +let you rip me open and burn the whole show as not. There!" + +A low whistle was heard. It came from Ricardo, and was derisive. +Schomberg, breathing heavily, looked on the floor. He was really +desperate. Mr. Jones remained languidly sceptical. + +"Tut, tut! You have a tolerable business. You are perfectly tame; +you--" He paused, then added in a tone of disgust: "You have a +wife." + +Schomberg tapped the floor angrily with his foot and uttered an +indistinct, laughing curse. + +"What do you mean by flinging that damned trouble at my head?" he +cried. "I wish you would carry her off with you some where to the +devil! I wouldn't run after you." + +The unexpected outburst affected Mr. Jones strangely. He had a +horrified recoil, chair and all, as if Schomberg had thrust a +wriggling viper in his face. + +"What's this infernal nonsense?" he muttered thickly. "What do you +mean? How dare you?" + +Ricardo chuckled audibly. + +"I tell you I am desperate," Schomberg repeated. "I am as desperate +as any man ever was. I don't care a hang what happens to me!" + +"Well, then"--Mr. Jones began to speak with a quietly threatening +effect, as if the common words of daily use had some other deadly +meaning to his mind--"well, then, why should you make yourself +ridiculously disagreeable to us? If you don't care, as you say, you +might just as well let us have the key of that music-shed of yours +for a quiet game; a modest bank--a dozen candles or so. It would be +greatly appreciated by your clients, as far as I can judge from the +way they betted on a game of ecarte I had with that fair, baby-faced +man--what's his name? They just yearn for a modest bank. And I am +afraid Martin here would take it badly if you objected; but of +course you won't. Think of the calls for drinks!" + +Schomberg, raising his eyes, at last met the gleams in two dark +caverns under Mr. Jones's devilish eyebrows, directed upon him +impenetrably. He shuddered as if horrors worse than murder had been +lurking there, and said, nodding towards Ricardo: + +"I dare say he wouldn't think twice about sticking me, if he had you +at his back! I wish I had sunk my launch, and gone to the bottom +myself in her, before I boarded the steamer you came by. Ah, well, +I've been already living in hell for weeks, so you don't make much +difference. I'll let you have the concert-room--and hang the +consequences. But what about the boy on late duty? If he sees the +cards and actual money passing, he will be sure to blab, and it will +be all over the town in no time." + +A ghastly smile stirred the lips of Mr. Jones. + +"Ah, I see you want to make a success of it. Very good. That's the +way to get on. Don't let it disturb you. You chase all the +Chinamen to bed early, and we'll get Pedro here every evening. He +isn't the conventional waiter's cut, but he will do to run to and +fro with the tray, while you sit here from nine to eleven serving +out drinks and gathering the money." + +"There will be three of them now," thought the unlucky Schomberg. + +But Pedro, at any rate, was just a simple, straightforward brute, if +a murderous one. There was no mystery about him, nothing uncanny, +no suggestion of a stealthy, deliberate wildcat turned into a man, +or of an insolent spectre on leave from Hades, endowed with skin and +bones and a subtle power of terror. Pedro with his fangs, his +tangled beard, and queer stare of his little bear's eyes was, by +comparison, delightfully natural. Besides, Schomberg could no +longer help himself. + +"That will do very well," he asserted mournfully. "But if you +gentlemen, if you had turned up here only three months ago--ay, less +than three months ago--you would have found somebody very different +from what I am now to talk to you. It's true. What do you think of +that?" + +"I scarcely know what to think. I should think it was a lie. You +were probably as tame three months ago as you are now. You were +born tame, like most people in the world." + +Mr Jones got up spectrally, and Ricardo imitated him with a snarl +and a stretch. Schomberg, in a brown study, went on, as if to +himself: + +"There has been an orchestra here--eighteen women." + +Mr Jones let out an exclamation of dismay, and looked about as if +the walls around him and the whole house had been infected with +plague. Then he became very angry, and swore violently at Schomberg +for daring to bring up such subjects. The hotel-keeper was too much +surprised to get up. He gazed from his chair at Mr. Jones's anger, +which had nothing spectral in it but was not the more comprehensible +for that. + +"What's the matter?" he stammered out. "What subject? Didn't you +hear me say it was an orchestra? There's nothing wrong in that. +Well, there was a girl amongst them--" Schomberg's eyes went stony; +he clasped his hands in front of his breast with such force that his +knuckles came out white. "Such a girl! Tame, am I? I would have +kicked everything to pieces about me for her. And she, of course . +. . I am in the prime of life . . . then a fellow bewitched her--a +vagabond, a false, bring, swindling, underhand, stick-at-nothing +brute. Ah!" + +His entwined fingers cracked as he tore his hands apart, flung out +his arms, and leaned his forehead on them in a passion of fury. The +other two looked at his shaking back--the attenuated Mr. Jones with +mingled scorn and a sort of fear, Ricardo with the expression of a +cat which sees a piece of fish in the pantry out of reach. +Schomberg flung himself backwards. He was dry-eyed, but he gulped +as if swallowing sobs. + +"No wonder you can do with me what you like. You have no idea--just +let me tell you of my trouble--" + +"I don't want to know anything of your beastly trouble," said Mr. +Jones, in his most lifelessly positive voice. + +He stretched forth an arresting hand, and, as Schomberg remained +open-mouthed, he walked out of the billiard-room in all the +uncanniness of his thin shanks. Ricardo followed at his leader's +heels; but he showed his teeth to Schomberg over his shoulder. + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + + +From that evening dated those mysterious but significant phenomena +in Schomberg's establishment which attracted Captain Davidson's +casual notice when he dropped in, placid yet astute, in order to +return Mrs. Schomberg's Indian shawl. And strangely enough, they +lasted some considerable time. It argued either honesty and bad +luck or extraordinary restraint on the part of "plain Mr. Jones and +Co." in their discreet operations with cards. + +It was a curious and impressive sight, the inside of Schomberg's +concert-hall, encumbered at one end by a great stack of chairs piled +up on and about the musicians' platform, and lighted at the other by +two dozen candles disposed about a long trestle table covered with +green cloth. In the middle, Mr. Jones, a starved spectre turned +into a banker, faced Ricardo, a rather nasty, slow-moving cat turned +into a croupier. By contrast, the other faces round that table, +anything between twenty and thirty, must have looked like collected +samples of intensely artless, helpless humanity--pathetic in their +innocent watch for the small turns of luck which indeed might have +been serious enough for them. They had no notice to spare for the +hairy Pedro, carrying a tray with the clumsiness of a creature +caught in the woods and taught to walk on its hind legs. + +As to Schomberg, he kept out of the way. He remained in the +billiard-room, serving out drinks to the unspeakable Pedro with an +air of not seeing the growling monster, of not knowing where the +drinks went, of ignoring that there was such a thing as a music-room +over there under the trees within fifty yards of the hotel. He +submitted himself to the situation with a low-spirited stoicism +compounded of fear and resignation. Directly the party had broken +up, (he could see dark shapes of the men drifting singly and in +knots through the gate of the compound), he would withdraw out of +sight behind a door not quit closed, in order to avoid meeting his +two extraordinary guests; but he would watch through the crack their +contrasted forms pass through the billiard-room and disappear on +their way to bed. Then he would hear doors being slammed upstairs; +and a profound silence would fall upon the whole house, upon his +hotel appropriated, haunted by those insolently outspoken men +provided with a whole armoury of weapons in their trunks. A +profound silence. Schomberg sometimes could not resist the notion +that he must be dreaming. Shuddering, he would pull himself +together, and creep out, with movements strangely inappropriate to +the Lieutenant-of-the-Reserve bearing by which he tried to keep up +his self-respect before the world. + +A great loneliness oppressed him. One after another he would +extinguish the lamps, and move softly towards his bedroom, where +Mrs. Schomberg waited for him--no fit companion for a man of his +ability and "in the prime of life." But that life, alas, was +blighted. He felt it; and never with such force as when on opening +the door he perceived that woman sitting patiently in a chair, her +toes peeping out under the edge of her night-dress, an amazingly +small amount of hair on her head drooping on the long stalk of +scraggy neck, with that everlasting scared grin showing a blue tooth +and meaning nothing--not even real fear. For she was used to him. + +Sometimes he was tempted to screw the head off the stalk. He +imagined himself doing it--with one hand, a twisting movement. Not +seriously, of course. Just a simple indulgence for his exasperated +feelings. He wasn't capable of murder. He was certain of that. +And, remembering suddenly the plain speeches of Mr. Jones, he would +think: "I suppose I am too tame for that"--quite unaware that he +had murdered the poor woman morally years ago. He was too +unintelligent to have the notion of such a crime. Her bodily +presence was bitterly offensive, because of its contrast with a very +different feminine image. And it was no use getting rid of her. +She was a habit of years, and there would be nothing to put in her +place. At any rate, he could talk to that idiot half the night if +he chose. + +That night he had been vapouring before her as to his intention to +face his two guests and, instead of that inspiration he needed, had +merely received the usual warning: "Be careful, Wilhelm." He did +not want to be told to be careful by an imbecile female. What he +needed was a pair of woman's arms which, flung round his neck, would +brace him up for the encounter. Inspire him, he called it to +himself. + +He lay awake a long time; and his slumbers, when they came, were +unsatisfactory and short. The morning light had no joy for his +eyes. He listened dismally to the movements in the house. The +Chinamen were unlocking and flinging wide the doors of the public +rooms which opened on the veranda. Horrors! Another poisoned day +to get through somehow! The recollection of his resolve made him +feel actually sick for a moment. First of all the lordly, abandoned +attitudes of Mr. Jones disconcerted him. Then there was his +contemptuous silence. Mr. Jones never addressed himself to +Schomberg with any general remarks, never opened his lips to him +unless to say "Good morning"--two simple words which, uttered by +that man, seemed a mockery of a threatening character. And, lastly, +it was not a frank physical fear he inspired--for as to that, even a +cornered rat will fight--but a superstitious shrinking awe, +something like an invincible repugnance to seek speech with a wicked +ghost. That it was a daylight ghost surprisingly angular in his +attitudes, and for the most part spread out on three chairs, did not +make it any easier. Daylight only made him a more weird, a more +disturbing and unlawful apparition. Strangely enough in the evening +when he came out of his mute supineness, this unearthly side of him +was less obtrusive. At the gaming-table, when actually handling the +cards, it was probably sunk quite out of sight; but Schomberg, +having made up his mind in ostrich-like fashion to ignore what was +going on, never entered the desecrated music-room. He had never +seen Mr. Jones in the exercise of his vocation--or perhaps it was +only his trade. + +"I will speak to him tonight," Schomberg said to himself, while he +drank his morning tea, in pyjamas, on the veranda, before the rising +sun had topped the trees of the compound, and while the undried dew +still lay silvery on the grass, sparkled on the blossoms of the +central flower-bed, and darkened the yellow gravel of the drive. +"That's what I'll do. I won't keep out of sight tonight. I shall +come out and catch him as he goes to bed carrying the cash-box." + +After all, what was the fellow but common desperado? Murderous? +Oh, yes; murderous enough, perhaps--and the muscles of Schomberg's +stomach had a quivering contraction under his airy attire. But even +a common desperado would think twice or, more likely, a hundred +times, before openly murdering an inoffensive citizen in a +civilized, European-ruled town. He jerked his shoulders. Of +course! He shuddered again, and paddled back to his room to dress +himself. His mind was made up, and he would think no more about it; +but still he had his doubts. They grew and unfolded themselves with +the progress of the day, as some plants do. At times they made him +perspire more than usual, and they did away with the possibility of +his afternoon siesta. After turning over on his couch more than a +dozen times, he gave up this mockery of repose, got up, and went +downstairs. + +It was between three and four o'clock, the hour of profound peace. +The very flowers seemed to doze on their stalks set with sleepy +leaves. Not even the air stirred, for the sea-breeze was not due +till later. The servants were out of sight, catching naps in the +shade somewhere behind the house. Mrs. Schomberg in a dim up-stair +room with closed jalousies, was elaborating those two long pendant +ringlets which were such a feature of her hairdressing for her +afternoon duties. At that time no customers ever troubled the +repose of the establishment. Wandering about his premises in +profound solitude, Schomberg recoiled at the door of the billiard- +room, as if he had seen a snake in his path. All alone with the +billiards, the bare little tables, and a lot of untenanted chairs, +Mr. Secretary Ricardo sat near the wall, performing with lightning +rapidity something that looked like tricks with his own personal +pack of cards, which he always carried about in his pocket. +Schomberg would have backed out quietly if Ricardo had not turned +his head. Having been seen, the hotel-keeper elected to walk in as +the lesser risk of the two. The consciousness of his inwardly +abject attitude towards these men caused him always to throw his +chest out and assume a severe expression. Ricardo watched his +approach, clasping the pack of cards in both hands. + +"You want something, perhaps?" suggested Schomberg in his +lieutenant-of-the-Reserve voice. + +Ricardo shook his head in silence and looked expectant. With him +Schomberg exchanged at least twenty words every day. He was +infinitely more communicative than his patron. At times he looked +very much like an ordinary human being of his class; and he seemed +to be in an amiable mood at that moment. Suddenly spreading some +ten cards face downward in the form of a fan, he thrust them towards +Schomberg. + +"Come, man, take one quick!" + +Schomberg was so surprised that he took one hurriedly, after a very +perceptible start. The eyes of Martin Ricardo gleamed +phosphorescent in the half-light of the room screened from the heat +and glare of the tropics. + +"That's the king of hearts you've got," he chuckled, showing his +teeth in a quick flash. + +Schomberg, after looking at the card, admitted that it was, and laid +it down on the table. + +"I can make you take any card I like nine times out of ten," exulted +the secretary, with a strange curl of his lips and a green flicker +in his raised eyes. + +Schomberg looked down at him dumbly. For a few seconds neither of +them stirred; then Ricardo lowered his glance, and, opening his +fingers, let the whole pack fall on the table. Schomberg sat down. +He sat down because of the faintness in his legs, and for no other +reason. His mouth was dry. Having sat down, he felt that he must +speak. He squared his shoulders in parade style. + +"You are pretty good at that sort of thing," he said. + +"Practice makes perfect," replied the secretary. + +His precarious amiability made it impossible for Schomberg to get +away. Thus, from his very timidity, the hotel-keeper found himself +engaged in a conversation the thought of which filled him with +apprehension. It must be said, in justice to Schomberg, that he +concealed his funk very creditably. The habit of throwing out his +chest and speaking in a severe voice stood him in good stead. With +him, too, practice made perfect; and he would probably have kept it +up to the end, to the very last moment, to the ultimate instant of +breaking strain which would leave him grovelling on the floor. To +add to his secret trouble, he was at a loss what to say. He found +nothing else but the remark: + +"I suppose you are fond of cards." + +"What would you expect?" asked Ricardo in a simple, philosophical +tone. "It is likely I should not be?" Then, with sudden fire: +"Fond of cards? Ay, passionately!" + +The effect of this outburst was augmented by the quiet lowering of +the eyelids, by a reserved pause as though this had been a +confession of another kind of love. Schomberg cudgelled his brains +for a new topic, but he could not find one. His usual scandalous +gossip would not serve this turn. That desperado did not know +anyone anywhere within a thousand miles. Schomberg was almost +compelled to keep to the subject. + +"I suppose you've always been so--from your early youth." + +Ricardo's eyes remained cast down. His fingers toyed absently with +the pack on the table. + +"I don't know that it was so early. I first got in the way of it +playing for tobacco--in forecastles of ships, you know--common +sailor games. We used to spend whole watches below at it, round a +chest, under a slush lamp. We would hardly spare the time to get a +bite of salt horse--neither eat nor sleep. We could hardly stand +when the watches were mustered on deck. Talk of gambling!" He +dropped the reminiscent tone to add the information, "I was bred to +the sea from a boy, you know." + +Schomberg had fallen into a reverie, but without losing the sense of +impending calamity. The next words he heard were: + +"I got on all right at sea, too. Worked up to be mate. I was mate +of a schooner--a yacht, you might call her--a special good berth +too, in the Gulf of Mexico, a soft job that you don't run across +more than once in a lifetime. Yes, I was mate of her when I left +the sea to follow him." + +Ricardo tossed up his chin to indicate the room above; from which +Schomberg, his wits painfully aroused by this reminder of Mr. +Jones's existence, concluded that the latter had withdrawn into his +bedroom. Ricardo, observing him from under lowered eyelids, went +on: + +"It so happened that we were shipmates." + +"Mr Jones, you mean? Is he a sailor too?" + +Ricardo raised his eyelids at that. + +"He's no more Mr. Jones than you are," he said with obvious pride. +"He a sailor! That just shows your ignorance. But there! A +foreigner can't be expected to know any better. I am an Englishman, +and I know a gentleman at sight. I should know one drunk, in the +gutter, in jail, under the gallows. There's a something--it isn't +exactly the appearance, it's a--no use me trying to tell you. You +ain't an Englishman, and if you were, you wouldn't need to be told." + +An unsuspected stream of loquacity had broken its dam somewhere deep +within the man, had diluted his fiery blood and softened his +pitiless fibre. Schomberg experienced mingled relief and +apprehension, as if suddenly an enormous savage cat had begun to +wind itself about his legs in inexplicable friendliness. No prudent +man under such circumstances would dare to stir. Schomberg didn't +stir. Ricardo assumed an easy attitude, with an elbow on the table. +Schomberg squared his shoulders afresh. + +"I was employed, in that there yacht--schooner, whatever you call +it--by ten gentlemen at once. That surprises you, eh? Yes, yes, +ten. Leastwise there were nine of them gents good enough in their +way, and one downright gentleman, and that was . . . " + +Ricardo gave another upward jerk of his chin as much as to say: He! +The only one. + +"And no mistake," he went on. "I spotted him from the first day. +How? Why? Ay, you may ask. Hadn't seen that many gentlemen in my +life. Well, somehow I did. If you were an Englishman, you would--" + +"What was your yacht?" Schomberg interrupted as impatiently as he +dared; for this harping on nationality jarred on his already tried +nerves. "What was the game?" + +"You have a headpiece on you! Game! 'Xactly. That's what it was-- +the sort of silliness gentlemen will get up among themselves to play +at adventure. A treasure-hunting expedition. Each of them put down +so much money, you understand, to buy the schooner. Their agent in +the city engaged me and the skipper. The greatest secrecy and all +that. I reckon he had a twinkle in his eye all the time--and no +mistake. But that wasn't our business. Let them bust their money +as they like. The pity of it was that so little of it came our way. +Just fair pay and no more. And damn any pay, much or little, +anyhow--that's what I say!" + +He blinked his eyes greenishly in the dim light. The heat seemed to +have stilled everything in the world but his voice. He swore at +large, abundantly, in snarling undertones, it was impossible to say +why, then calmed down as inexplicably, and went on, as a sailor +yarns. + +"At first there were only nine of them adventurous sparks, then, +just a day or two before the sailing date, he turned up. Heard of +it somehow, somewhere--I would say from some woman, if I didn't know +him as I do. He would give any woman a ten-mile berth. He can't +stand them. Or maybe in a flash bar. Or maybe in one of them grand +clubs in Pall Mall. Anyway, the agent netted him in all right--cash +down, and only about four and twenty hours for him to get ready; but +he didn't miss his ship. Not he! You might have called it a pier- +head jump--for a gentleman. I saw him come along. Know the West +India Docks, eh?" + +Schomberg did not know the West India Docks. Ricardo looked at him +pensively for a while, and then continued, as if such ignorance had +to be disregarded. + +"Our tug was already alongside. Two loafers were carrying his +dunnage behind him. I told the dockman at our moorings to keep all +fast for a minute. The gangway was down already; but he made +nothing of it. Up he jumps, one leap, swings his long legs over the +rail, and there he is on board. They pass up his swell dunnage, and +he puts his hand in his trousers pocket and throws all his small +change on the wharf for them chaps to pick up. They were still +promenading that wharf on all fours when we cast off. It was only +then that he looked at me--quietly, you know; in a slow way. He +wasn't so thin then as he is now; but I noticed he wasn't so young +as he looked--not by a long chalk. He seemed to touch me inside +somewhere. I went away pretty quick from there; I was wanted +forward anyhow. I wasn't frightened. What should I be frightened +for? I only felt touched--on the very spot. But Jee-miny, if +anybody had told me we should be partners before the year was out-- +well, I would have--" + +He swore a variety of strange oaths, some common, others quaintly +horrible to Schomberg's ears, and all mere innocent exclamations of +wonder at the shifts and changes of human fortune. Schomberg moved +slightly in his chair. But the admirer and partner of "plain Mr. +Jones" seemed to have forgotten Schomberg's existence for the +moment. The stream of ingenuous blasphemy--some of it in bad +Spanish--had run dry, and Martin Ricardo, connoisseur in gentlemen, +sat dumb with a stony gaze as if still marvelling inwardly at the +amazing elections, conjunctions, and associations of events which +influence man's pilgrimage on this earth. + +At last Schomberg spoke tentatively: + +"And so the--the gentleman, up there, talked you over into leaving a +good berth?" + +Ricardo started. + +"Talked me over! Didn't need to talk me over. Just beckoned to me, +and that was enough. By that time we were in the Gulf of Mexico. +One night we were lying at anchor, close to a dry sandbank--to this +day I am not sure where it was--off the Colombian coast or +thereabouts. We were to start digging the next morning, and all +hands had turned in early, expecting a hard day with the shovels. +Up he comes, and in his quiet, tired way of speaking--you can tell a +gentleman by that as much as by anything else almost--up he comes +behind me and says, just like that into my ear, in a manner: 'Well, +what do you think of our treasure hunt now?' + +"I didn't even turn my head; 'xactly as I stood, I remained, and I +spoke no louder than himself: + +"'If you want to know, sir, it's nothing but just damned tom- +foolery.' + +"We had, of course, been having short talks together at one time or +another during the passage. I dare say he had read me like a book. +There ain't much to me, except that I have never been tame, even +when walking the pavement and cracking jokes and standing drinks to +chums--ay, and to strangers, too. I would watch them lifting their +elbows at my expense, or splitting their side at my fun--I CAN be +funny when I like, you bet!" + +A pause for self-complacent contemplation of his own fun and +generosity checked the flow of Ricardo's speech. Schomberg was +concerned to keep within bounds the enlargement of his eyes, which +he seemed to feel growing bigger in his head. + +"Yes, yes," he whispered hastily. + +"I would watch them and think: 'You boys don't know who I am. If +you did--!' With girls, too. Once I was courting a girl. I used +to kiss her behind the ear and say to myself: 'If you only knew +who's kissing you, my dear, you would scream and bolt!' Ha! ha! +Not that I wanted to do them any harm; but I felt the power in +myself. Now, here we sit, friendly like, and that's all right. You +aren't in my way. But I am not friendly to you. I just don't care. +Some men do say that; but I really don't. You are no more to me one +way or another than that fly there. Just so. I'd squash you or +leave you alone. I don't care what I do." + +If real force of character consists in overcoming our sudden +weaknesses, Schomberg displayed plenty of that quality. At the +mention of the fly, he re-enforced the severe dignity of his +attitude as one inflates a collapsing toy balloon with a great +effort of breath. The easy-going, relaxed attitude of Ricardo was +really appalling. + +"That's so," he went on. "I am that sort of fellow. You wouldn't +think it, would you? No. You have to be told. So I am telling +you, and I dare say you only half believe it. But you can't say to +yourself that I am drunk, stare at me as you may. I haven't had +anything stronger than a glass of iced water all day. Takes a real +gentleman to see through a fellow. Oh, yes--he spotted me. I told +you we had a few talks at sea about one thing or another. And I +used to watch him down the skylight, playing cards in the cuddy with +the others. They had to pass the time away somehow. By the same +token he caught me at it once, and it was then that I told him I was +fond of cards--and generally lucky in gambling, too. Yes, he had +sized me up. Why not? A gentleman's just like any other man--and +something more." + +It flashed through Schomberg's mind: that these two were indeed +well matched in their enormous dissimilarity, identical souls in +different disguises. + +"Says he to me"--Ricardo started again in a gossiping manner--'I'm +packed up. It's about time to go, Martin.' + +"It was the first time he called me Martin. Says I: + +"'Is that it, sir?' + +"'You didn't think I was after that sort of treasure, did you? I +wanted to clear out from home quietly. It's a pretty expensive way +of getting a passage across, but it has served my turn.' + +"I let him know very soon that I was game for anything, from pitch +and toss to wilful murder, in his company. + +"'Wilful murder?' says he in his quiet way. 'What the deuce is +that? What are you talking about? People do get killed sometimes +when they get in one's way, but that's self-defence--you +understand?' + +"I told him I did. And then I said I would run below for a minute, +to ram a few of my things into a sailor's bag I had. I've never +cared for a lot of dunnage; I believed in going about flying light +when I was at sea. I came back and found him strolling up and down +the deck, as if he were taking a breath of fresh air before turning +in, like any other evening. + +"'Ready?' + +"'Yes, sir.' + +"He didn't even look at me. We had had a boat in the water astern +ever since we came to anchor in the afternoon. He throws the stump +of his cigar overboard. + +"'Can you get the captain out on deck?' he asks. + +"That was the last thing in the world I should have thought of +doing. I lost my tongue for a moment. + +"'I can try,' says I. + +"'Well, then, I am going below. You get him up and keep him with +you till I come back on deck. Mind! Don't let him go below till I +return.' + +"I could not help asking why he told me to rouse a sleeping man, +when we wanted everybody on board to sleep sweetly till we got clear +of the schooner. He laughs a little and says that I didn't see all +the bearings of this business. + +"'Mind,' he says, 'don't let him leave you till you see me come up +again.' He puts his eyes close to mine. 'Keep him with you at all +costs.' + +"'And that means?' says I. + +"'All costs to him--by every possible or impossible means. I don't +want to be interrupted in my business down below. He would give me +lots of trouble. I take you with me to save myself trouble in +various circumstances; and you've got to enter on your work right +away.' + +"'Just so, sir,' says I; and he slips down the companion. + +"With a gentleman you know at once where you are; but it was a +ticklish job. The skipper was nothing to me one way or another, any +more than you are at this moment, Mr. Schomberg. You may light your +cigar or blow your brains out this minute, and I don't care a hang +which you do, both or neither. To bring the skipper up was easy +enough. I had only to stamp on the deck a few times over his head. +I stamped hard. But how to keep him up when he got there? + +"'Anything the matter; Mr. Ricardo?' I heard his voice behind me. + +"There he was, and I hadn't thought of anything to say to him; so I +didn't turn round. The moonlight was brighter than many a day I +could remember in the North Sea. + +"'Why did you call me? What are you staring at out there, Mr. +Ricardo?' + +"He was deceived by my keeping my back to him. I wasn't staring at +anything, but his mistake gave me a notion. + +"'I am staring at something that looks like a canoe over there,' I +said very slowly. + +"The skipper got concerned at once. It wasn't any danger from the +inhabitants, whoever they were. + +"'Oh, hang it!' says he. 'That's very unfortunate.' He had hoped +that the schooner being on the coast would not get known so very +soon. 'Dashed awkward, with the business we've got in hand, to have +a lot of niggers watching operations. But are you certain this is a +canoe?' + +"'It may be a drift-log,' I said; 'but I thought you had better have +a look with your own eyes. You may make it out better than I can.' + +"His eyes weren't anything as good as mine. But he says: + +"'Certainly. Certainly. You did quite right.' + +"And it's a fact I had seen some drift-logs at sunset. I saw what +they were then and didn't trouble my head about them, forgot all +about it till that very moment. Nothing strange in seeing drift- +logs off a coast like that; and I'm hanged if the skipper didn't +make one out in the wake of the moon. Strange what a little thing a +man's life hangs on sometimes--a single word! Here you are, sitting +unsuspicious before me, and you may let out something unbeknown to +you that would settle your hash. Not that I have any ill-feeling. +I have no feelings. If the skipper had said, 'O, bosh!' and had +turned his back on me, he would not have gone three steps towards +his bed; but he stood there and stared. And now the job was to get +him off the deck when he was no longer wanted there. + +"'We are just trying to make out if that object there is a canoe or +a log,' says he to Mr. Jones. + +"Mr Jones had come up, lounging as carelessly as when he went below. +While the skipper was jawing about boats and drifting logs. I asked +by signs, from behind, if I hadn't better knock him on the head and +drop him quietly overboard. The night was slipping by, and we had +to go. It couldn't be put off till next night no more. No. No +more. And do you know why?" + +Schomberg made a slight negative sign with his head. This direct +appeal annoyed him, jarred on the induced quietude of a great talker +forced into the part of a listener and sunk in it as a man sinks +into slumber. Mr. Ricardo struck a note of scorn. + +"Don't know why? Can't you guess? No? Because the boss had got +hold of the skipper's cash-box by then. See?" + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + + +"A common thief!" + +Schomberg bit his tongue just too late, and woke up completely as he +saw Ricardo retract his lips in a cat-like grin; but the companion +of "plain Mr. Jones" didn't alter his comfortable, gossiping +attitude. + +"Garn! What if he did want to see his money back, like any tame +shopkeeper, hash-seller, gin-slinger, or ink-spewer does? Fancy a +mud turtle like you trying to pass an opinion on a gentleman! A +gentleman isn't to be sized up so easily. Even I ain't up to it +sometimes. For instance, that night, all he did was to waggle his +finger at me. The skipper stops his silly chatter, surprised. + +"'Eh? What's the matter?' asks he. + +"The matter! It was his reprieve--that's what was the matter. + +"'O, nothing, nothing,' says my gentleman. 'You are perfectly +right. A log--nothing but a log.' + +"Ha, ha! Reprieve, I call it, because if the skipper had gone on +with his silly argument much longer he would have had to be knocked +out of the way. I could hardly hold myself in on account of the +precious minutes. However, his guardian angel put it into his head +to shut up and go back to his bed. I was ramping mad about the lost +time." + +"'Why didn't you let me give him one on his silly coconut sir?' I +asks. + +"'No ferocity, no ferocity,' he says, raising his finger at me as +calm as you please. + +"You can't tell how a gentleman takes that sort of thing. They +don't lost their temper. It's bad form. You'll never see him lose +his temper--not for anybody to see anyhow. Ferocity ain't good +form, either--that much I've learned by this time, and more, too. +I've had that schooling that you couldn't tell by my face if I meant +to rip you up the next minute--as of course I could do in less than +a jiffy. I have a knife up the leg of my trousers." + +"You haven't!" exclaimed Schomberg incredulously. + +Mr Ricardo was as quick as lightning in changing his lounging, idle +attitude for a stooping position, and exhibiting the weapon with one +jerk at the left leg of his trousers. Schomberg had just a view of +it, strapped to a very hairy limb, when Mr. Ricardo, jumping up, +stamped his foot to get the trouser-leg down, and resumed his +careless pose with one elbow on the table. + +"It's a more handy way to carry a tool than you would think," he +went on, gazing abstractedly into Schomberg's wide-open eyes. +"Suppose some little difference comes up during a game. Well, you +stoop to pick up a dropped card, and when you come up--there you are +ready to strike, or with the thing up you sleeve ready to throw. Or +you just dodge under the table when there's some shooting coming. +You wouldn't believe the damage a fellow with a knife under the +table can do to ill-conditioned skunks that want to raise trouble, +before they begin to understand what the screaming's about, and make +a bolt--those that can, that is." + +The roses of Schomberg's cheek at the root of his chestnut beard +faded perceptibly. Ricardo chuckled faintly. + +"But no ferocity--no ferocity! A gentleman knows. What's the good +of getting yourself into a state? And no shirking necessity, +either. No gentleman ever shirks. What I learn I don't forget. +Why! We gambled on the plains, with a damn lot of cattlemen in +ranches; played fair, mind--and then had to fight for our winnings +afterwards as often as not. We've gambled on the hills and in the +valleys and on the sea-shore, and out of sight of land--mostly fair. +Generally it's good enough. We began in Nicaragua first, after we +left that schooner and her fool errand. There were one hundred and +twenty-seven sovereigns and some Mexican dollars in that skipper's +cash-box. Hardly enough to knock a man on the head for from behind, +I must confess; but that the skipper had a narrow escape the +governor himself could not deny afterwards. + +"'Do you want me to understand, sir, that you mind there being one +life more or less on this earth?' I asked him, a few hours after we +got away. + +"'Certainly not,' says he. + +"'Well, then, why did you stop me?' + +"'There's a proper way of doing things. You'll have to learn to be +correct. There's also unnecessary exertion. That must be avoided, +too--if only for the look of the thing.' A gentleman's way of +putting things to you--and no mistake! + +"At sunrise we got into a creek, to lie hidden in case the treasure +hunt party had a mind to take a spell hunting for us. And dash me +if they didn't! We saw the schooner away out, running to leeward, +with ten pairs of binoculars sweeping the sea, no doubt on all +sides. I advised the governor to give her time to beat back again +before we made a start. So we stayed up that creek something like +ten days, as snug as can be. On the seventh day we had to kill a +man, though--the brother of this Pedro here. They were alligator- +hunters, right enough. We got our lodgings in their hut. Neither +the boss nor I could habla Espanol--speak Spanish, you know--much +then. Dry bank, nice shade, jolly hammocks, fresh fish, good game, +everything lovely. The governor chucked them a few dollars to begin +with; but it was like boarding with a pair of savage apes, anyhow. +By and by we noticed them talking a lot together. They had twigged +the cash-box, and the leather portmanteaus, and my bag--a jolly lot +of plunder to look at. They must have been saying to each other: + +"'No one's ever likely to come looking for these two fellows, who +seem to have fallen from the moon. Let's cut their throats.' + +"Why, of course! Clear as daylight. I didn't need to spy one of +them sharpening a devilish long knife behind some bushes, while +glancing right and left with his wild eyes, to know what was in the +wind. Pedro was standing by, trying the edge of another long knife. +They thought we were away on our lookout at the mouth of the river, +as was usual with us during the day. Not that we expected to see +much of the schooner, but it was just as well to make certain, if +possible; and then it was cooler out of the woods, in the breeze. +Well, the governor was there right enough, lying comfortable on a +rug, where he could watch the offing, but I had gone back to the hut +to get a chew of tobacco out of my bag. I had not broken myself of +the habit then, and I couldn't be happy unless I had a lump as big +as a baby's fist in my cheek." + +At the cannibalistic comparison, Schomberg muttered a faint, sickly +"don't." Ricardo hitched himself up in his seat and glanced down +his outstretched legs complacently. + +"I am tolerably light on my feet, as a general thing," he went on. +"Dash me if I don't think I could drop a pinch of salt on a +sparrow's tail, if I tried. Anyhow, they didn't hear me. I watched +them two brown, hairy brutes not ten yards off. All they had on was +white linen drawers rolled up on their thighs. Not a word they said +to each other. Antonio was down on his thick hams, busy rubbing a +knife on a flat stone; Pedro was leaning against a small tree and +passing his thumb along the edge of his blade. I got away quieter +than a mouse, you bet." + +"I didn't say anything to the boss then. He was leaning on his +elbow on his rug, and didn't seem to want to be spoken to. He's +like that--sometimes that familiar you might think he would eat out +of your hand, and at others he would snub you sharper than a devil-- +but always quiet. Perfect gentleman, I tell you. I didn't bother +him, then; but I wasn't likely to forget them two fellows, so +businesslike with their knives. At that time we had only one +revolver between us two--the governor's six-shooter, but loaded only +in five chambers; and we had no more cartridges. He had left the +box behind in a drawer in his cabin. Awkward! I had nothing but an +old clasp-knife--no good at all for anything serious. + +"In the evening we four sat round a bit of fire outside the +sleeping-shed, eating broiled fish off plantain leaves, with roast +yams for bread--the usual thing. The governor and I were on one +side, and these two beauties cross-legged on the other, grunting a +word or two to each other, now and then, hardly human speech at all, +and their eyes down, fast on the ground. For the last three days we +couldn't get them to look us in the face. Presently I began to talk +to the boss quietly, just as I am talking to you now, careless like, +and I told him all I had observed. He goes on picking up pieces of +fish and putting them into his mouth as calm as anything. It's a +pleasure to have anything to do with a gentleman. Never looked +across at them once. + +"'And now,' says I, yawning on purpose, 'we've got to stand watch at +night, turn about, and keep our eyes skinned all day, too, and mind +we don't get jumped upon suddenly.' + +"'It's perfectly intolerable,' says the governor. 'And you with no +weapon of any sort!' + +"'I mean to stick pretty close to you, sir, from this on, if you +don't mind,' says I. + +"He just nods the least bit, wipes his fingers on the plantain leaf, +puts his hand behind his back, as if to help himself to rise from +the ground, snatches his revolver from under his jacket and plugs a +bullet plumb centre into Mr. Antonio's chest. See what it is to +have to do with a gentleman. No confounded fuss, and things done +out of hand. But he might have tipped me a wink or something. I +nearly jumped out of my skin. Scared ain't in it! I didn't even +know who had fired. Everything had been so still just before that +the bang of the shot seemed the loudest noise I had ever heard. The +honourable Antonio pitches forward--they always do, towards the +shot; you must have noticed that yourself--yes, he pitches forward +on to the embers, and all that lot of hair on his face and head +flashes up like a pinch of gunpowder. Greasy, I expect; always +scraping the fat off them alligators' hides--" + +"Look here," exclaimed Schomberg violently, as if trying to burst +some invisible bonds, "do you mean to say that all this happened?" + +"No," said Ricardo coolly. "I am making it all up as I go along, +just to help you through the hottest part of the afternoon. So down +he pitches his nose on the red embers, and up jumps our handsome +Pedro and I at the same time, like two Jacks-in-the-box. He starts +to bolt away, with his head over his shoulder, and I, hardly knowing +what I was doing, spring on his back. I had the sense to get my +hands round his neck at once, and it's about all I could do to lock +my fingers tight under his jaw. You saw the beauty's neck, didn't +you? Hard as iron, too. Down we both went. Seeing this the +governor puts his revolver in his pocket. + +"'Tie his legs together, sir,' I yell. 'I'm trying to strangle +him.' + +"There was a lot of their fibre-lines lying about. I gave him a +last squeeze and then got up. + +"'I might have shot you,' says the governor, quite concerned. + +"'But you are glad to have saved a cartridge, sir,' I tell him. + +"My jump did save it. It wouldn't have done to let him get away in +the dark like that, and have the beauty dodging around in the +bushes, perhaps, with the rusty flint-lock gun they had. The +governor owned up that the jump was the correct thing. + +"'But he isn't dead,' says he, bending over him. + +"Might as well hope to strangle an ox. We made haste to tie his +elbows back, and then, before he came to himself, we dragged him to +a small tree, sat him up, and bound him to it, not by the waist but +by the neck--some twenty turns of small line round his throat and +the trunk, finished off with a reef-knot under his ear. Next thing +we did was to attend to the honourable Antonio, who was making a +great smell frizzling his face on the red coals. We pushed and +rolled him into the creek, and left the rest to the alligators. + +"I was tired. That little scrap took it out of me something awful. +The governor hadn't turned a hair. That's where a gentleman has the +pull of you. He don't get excited. No gentleman does--or hardly +ever. I fell asleep all of a sudden and left him smoking by the +fire I had made up, his railway rug round his legs, as calm as if he +were sitting in a first-class carriage. We hardly spoke ten words +to each other after it was over, and from that day to this we have +never talked of the business. I wouldn't have known he remembered +it if he hadn't alluded to it when talking with you the other day-- +you know, with regard to Pedro." + +"It surprised you, didn't it? That's why I am giving you this yarn +of how he came to be with us, like a sort of dog--dashed sight more +useful, though. You know how he can trot around with trays? Well, +he could bring down an ox with his fist, at a word from the boss, +just as cleverly. And fond of the governor! Oh, my word! More +than any dog is of any man." + +Schomberg squared his chest. + +"Oh, and that's one of the things I wanted to mention to Mr. Jones," +he said. "It's unpleasant to have that fellow round the house so +early. He sits on the stairs at the back for hours before he is +needed here, and frightens people so that the service suffers. The +Chinamen--" + +Ricardo nodded and raised his hand. + +"When I first saw him he was fit to frighten a grizzly bear, let +alone a Chinaman. He's become civilized now to what he once was. +Well, that morning, first thing on opening my eyes, I saw him +sitting there, tied up by the neck to the tree. He was blinking. +We spend the day watching the sea, and we actually made out the +schooner working to windward, which showed that she had given us up. +Good! When the sun rose again, I took a squint at our Pedro. He +wasn't blinking. He was rolling his eyes, all white one minute and +black the next, and his tongue was hanging out a yard. Being tied +up short by the neck like this would daunt the arch devil himself-- +in time--in time, mind! I don't know but that even a real gentleman +would find it difficult to keep a stiff lip to the end. Presently +we went to work getting our boat ready. I was busying myself +setting up the mast, when the governor passes the remark: + +"'I think he wants to say something.' + +"I had heard a sort of croaking going on for some time, only I +wouldn't take any notice; but then I got out of the boat and went up +to him, with some water. His eyes were red--red and black and half +out of his head. He drank all the water I gave him, but he hadn't +much to say for himself. I walked back to the governor. + +"'He asks for a bullet in his head before we go,' I said. I wasn't +at all pleased. + +"'Oh, that's out of the question altogether,' says the governor. + +"He was right there. Only four shots left, and ninety miles of wild +coast to put behind us before coming to the first place where you +could expect to buy revolver cartridges. + +"'Anyhow,' I tells him, 'he wants to be killed some way or other, as +a favour.' + +"And then I go on setting up the boat's mast. I didn't care much +for the notion of butchering a man bound hand and foot and fastened +by the neck besides. I had a knife then--the honourable Antonio's +knife; and that knife is this knife. + +Ricardo gave his leg a resounding slap. + +"First spoil in my new life," he went on with harsh joviality. "The +dodge of carrying it down there I learned later. I carried it stuck +in my belt that day. No, I hadn't much stomach for the job; but +when you work with a gentleman of the real right sort you may depend +on your feelings being seen through your skin. Says the governor +suddenly: + +"'It may even be looked upon as his right'--you hear a gentleman +speaking there?--'but what do you think of taking him with us in the +boat?' + +"And the governor starts arguing that the beggar would be useful in +working our way along the coast. We could get rid of him before +coming to the first place that was a little civilized. I didn't +want much talking over. Out I scrambled from the boat. + +"'Ay, but will he be manageable, sir?' + +"'Oh, yes. He's daunted. Go on, cut him loose--I take the +responsibility.' + +"'Right you are, sir.' + +"He sees me come along smartly with his brother's knife in my hand-- +I wasn't thinking how it looked from his side of the fence, you +know--and jiminy, it nearly killed him! He stared like a crazed +bullock and began to sweat and twitch all over, something amazing. +I was so surprised, that I stopped to look at him. The drops were +pouring over his eyebrows, down his beard, off his nose--and he +gurgled. Then it struck me that he couldn't see what was in my +mind. By favour or by right he didn't like to die when it came to +it; not in that way, anyhow. When I stepped round to get at the +lashing, he let out a sort of soft bellow. Thought I was going to +stick him from behind, I guess. I cut all the turns with one slash, +and he went over on his side, flop, and started kicking with his +tied legs. Laugh! I don't know what there was so funny about it, +but I fairly shouted. What between my laughing and his wriggling, I +had a job in cutting him free. As soon as he could feel his limbs +he makes for the bank, where the governor was standing, crawls up to +him on his hands and knees, and embraces his legs. Gratitude, eh? +You could see that being allowed to live suited that chap down to +the ground. The governor gets his legs away from him gently and +just mutters to me: + +"'Let's be off. Get him into the boat.' + +"It was not difficult," continued Ricardo, after eyeing Schomberg +fixedly for a moment. "He was ready enough to get into the boat, +and--here he is. He would let himself be chopped into small pieces- +-with a smile, mind; with a smile!--for the governor. I don't know +about him doing that much for me; but pretty near, pretty near. I +did the tying up and the untying, but he could see who was the boss. +And then he knows a gentleman. A dog knows a gentleman--any dog. +It's only some foreigners that don't know; and nothing can teach +them, either." + +"And you mean to say," asked Schomberg, disregarding what might have +been annoying for himself in the emphasis of the final remark, "you +mean to say that you left steady employment at good wages for a life +like this?" + +"There!" began Ricardo quietly. "That's just what a man like you +would say. You are that tame! I follow a gentleman. That ain't +the same thing as to serve an employer. They give you wages as +they'd fling a bone to a dog, and they expect you to be grateful. +It's worse than slavery. You don't expect a slave that's bought for +money to be grateful. And if you sell your work--what is it but +selling your own self? You've got so many days to live and you sell +them one after another. Hey? Who can pay me enough for my life? +Ay! But they throw at you your week's money and expect you to say +'thank you' before you pick it up." + +He mumbled some curses, directed at employers generally, as it +seemed, then blazed out: + +"Work be damned! I ain't a dog walking on its hind legs for a bone; +I am a man who's following a gentleman. There's a difference which +you will never understand, Mr. Tame Schomberg." + +He yawned slightly. Schomberg, preserving a military stiffness +reinforced by a slight frown, had allowed his thoughts to stray +away. They were busy detailing the image of a young girl--absent-- +gone--stolen from him. He became enraged. There was that rascal +looking at him insolently. If the girl had not been shamefully +decoyed away from him, he would not have allowed anyone to look at +him insolently. He would have made nothing of hitting that rogue +between the eyes. Afterwards he would have kicked the other without +hesitation. He saw himself doing it; and in sympathy with this +glorious vision Schomberg's right foot, and arm moved convulsively. + +At this moment he came out of his sudden reverie to note with alarm +the wide-awake curiosity of Mr. Ricardo's stare. + +"And so you go like this about the world, gambling," he remarked +inanely, to cover his confusion. But Ricardo's stare did not change +its character, and he continued vaguely: + +"Here and there and everywhere." He pulled himself together, +squared his shoulders. "Isn't it very precarious?" he said firmly. + +The word precarious--seemed to be effective, because Ricardo's eyes +lost their dangerously interested expression. + +"No, not so bad," Ricardo said, with indifference. "It's my opinion +that men will gamble as long as they have anything to put on a card. +Gamble? That's nature. What's life itself? You never know what +may turn up. The worst of it is that you never can tell exactly +what sort of cards you are holding yourself. What's trumps?--that +is the question. See? Any man will gamble if only he's given a +chance, for anything or everything. You too--" + +"I haven't touched a card now for twenty years," said Schomberg in +an austere tone. + +"Well, if you got your living that way you would be no worse than +you are now, selling drinks to people--beastly beer and spirits, +rotten stuff fit to make an old he-goat yell if you poured it down +its throat. Pooh! I can't stand the confounded liquor. Never +could. A whiff of neat brandy in a glass makes me feel sick. +Always did. If everybody was like me, liquor would be going a- +begging. You think it's funny in a man, don't you?" + +Schomberg made a vague gesture of toleration. Ricardo hitched up +his chair and settled his elbow afresh on the table. + +"French siros I must say I do like. Saigon's the place for them. I +see you have siros in the bar. Hang me if I ain't getting dry, +conversing like this with you. Come, Mr. Schomberg, be hospitable, +as the governor says." + +Schomberg rose and walked with dignity to the counter. His +footsteps echoed loudly on the floor of polished boards. He took +down a bottle, labelled "Sirop de Groseille." The little sounds he +made, the clink of glass, the gurgling of the liquid, the pop of the +soda-water cork had a preternatural sharpness. He came back +carrying a pink and glistening tumbler. Mr. Ricardo had followed +his movements with oblique, coyly expectant yellow eyes, like a cat +watching the preparation of a saucer of milk, and the satisfied +sound after he had drunk might have been a slightly modified form of +purring, very soft and deep in his throat. It affected Schomberg +unpleasantly as another example of something inhuman in those men +wherein lay the difficulty of dealing with them. A spectre, a cat, +an ape--there was a pretty association for a mere man to remonstrate +with, he reflected with an inward shudder; for Schomberg had been +overpowered, as it were, by his imagination, and his reason could +not react against that fanciful view of his guests. And it was not +only their appearance. The morals of Mr. Ricardo seemed to him to +be pretty much the morals of a cat. Too much. What sort of +argument could a mere man offer to a . . . or to a spectre, either! +What the morals of a spectre could be, Schomberg had no idea. +Something dreadful, no doubt. Compassion certainly had no place in +them. As to the ape--well, everybody knew what an ape was. It had +no morals. Nothing could be more hopeless. + +Outwardly, however, having picked up the cigar which he had laid +aside to get the drink, with his thick fingers, one of them +ornamented by a gold ring, Schomberg smoked with moody composure. +Facing him, Ricardo blinked slowly for a time, then closed his eyes +altogether, with the placidity of the domestic cat dozing on the +hearth-rug. In another moment he opened them very wide, and seemed +surprised to see Schomberg there. + +"You're having a very slack time today, aren't you?" he observed. +"But then this whole town is confoundedly slack, anyhow; and I've +never faced such a slack party at a table before. Come eleven +o'clock, they begin to talk of breaking up. What's the matter with +them? Want to go to bed so early, or what?" + +"I reckon you don't lose a fortune by their wanting to go to bed," +said Schomberg, with sombre sarcasm. + +"No," admitted Ricardo, with a grin that stretched his thin mouth +from ear to ear, giving a sudden glimpse of his white teeth. "Only, +you see, when I once start, I would play for nuts, for parched peas, +for any rubbish. I would play them for their souls. But these +Dutchmen aren't any good. They never seem to get warmed up +properly, win or lose. I've tried them both ways, too. Hang them +for a beggarly, bloodless lot of animated cucumbers!" + +"And if anything out of the way was to happen, they would be just as +cool in locking you and your gentleman up," Schomberg snarled +unpleasantly. + +"Indeed!" said Ricardo slowly, taking Schomberg's measure with his +eyes. "And what about you?" + +"You talk mighty big," burst out the hotel-keeper. "You talk of +ranging all over the world, and doing great things, and taking +fortune by the scruff of the neck, but here you stick at this +miserable business!" + +"It isn't much of a lay--that's a fact," admitted Ricardo +unexpectedly. + +Schomberg was red in the face with audacity. + +"I call it paltry," he spluttered. + +"That's how it looks. Can't call it anything else." Ricardo seemed +to be in an accommodating mood. "I should be ashamed of it myself, +only you see the governor is subject to fits--" + +"Fits!" Schomberg cried out, but in a low tone. "You don't say so!" +He exulted inwardly, as if this disclosure had in some way +diminished the difficulty of the situation. "Fits! That's a +serious thing, isn't it? You ought to take him to the civil +hospital--a lovely place." + +Ricardo nodded slightly, with a faint grin. + +"Serious enough. Regular fits of laziness, I call them. Now and +then he lays down on me like this, and there's no moving him. If +you think I like it, you're a long way out. Generally speaking, I +can talk him over. I know how to deal with a gentleman. I am no +daily-bread slave. But when he has said, 'Martin, I am bored,' then +look out! There's nothing to do but to shut up, confound it!" + +Schomberg, very much cast down, had listened open-mouthed. + +"What's the cause of it?" he asked. "Why is he like this? I don't +understand." + +"I think I do," said Ricardo. "A gentleman, you know, is not such a +simple person as you or I; and not so easy to manage, either. If +only I had something to lever him out with!" + +"What do you mean, to lever him out with?" muttered Schomberg +hopelessly. + +Ricardo was impatient with this denseness. + +"Don't you understand English? Look here! I couldn't make this +billiard table move an inch if I talked to it from now till the end +of days--could I? Well, the governor is like that, too, when the +fits are on him. He's bored. Nothing's worthwhile, nothing's good +enough, that's mere sense. But if I saw a capstan bar lying about +here, I would soon manage to shift that billiard table of yours a +good many inches. And that's all there is to it." + +He rose noiselessly, stretched himself, supple and stealthy, with +curious sideways movements of his head and unexpected elongations of +his thick body, glanced out of the corners of his eyes in the +direction of the door, and finally leaned back against the table, +folding his arms on his breast comfortably, in a completely human +attitude. + +"That's another thing you can tell a gentleman by--his freakishness. +A gentleman ain't accountable to nobody, any more than a tramp on +the roads. He ain't got to keep time. The governor got like this +once in a one-horse Mexican pueblo on the uplands, away from +everywhere. He lay all day long in a dark room--" + +"Drunk?" This word escaped Schomberg by inadvertence at which he +became frightened. But the devoted secretary seemed to find it +natural. + +"No, that never comes on together with this kind of fit. He just +lay there full length on a mat, while a ragged, bare-legged boy that +he had picked up in the street sat in the patio, between two +oleanders near the open door of his room, strumming on a guitar and +singing tristes to him from morning to night. You know tristes-- +twang, twang, twang, aouh, hoo! Chroo, yah!" + +Schomberg uplifted his hands in distress. This tribute seemed to +flatter Ricardo. His mouth twitched grimly. + +"Like that--enough to give colic to an ostrich, eh? Awful. Well, +there was a cook there who loved me--an old fat, Negro woman with +spectacles. I used to hide in the kitchen and turn her to, to make +me dulces--sweet things, you know, mostly eggs and sugar--to pass +the time away. I am like a kid for sweet things. And, by the way, +why don't you ever have a pudding at your tablydott, Mr. Schomberg? +Nothing but fruit, morning, noon, and night. Sickening! What do +you think a fellow is--a wasp?" + +Schomberg disregarded the injured tone. + +"And how long did that fit, as you call it, last?" he asked +anxiously. + +"Weeks, months, years, centuries, it seemed to me," returned Mr. +Ricardo with feeling. "Of an evening the governor would stroll out +into the sala and fritter his life away playing cards with the juez +of the place--a little Dago with a pair of black whiskers--ekarty, +you know, a quick French game, for small change. And the +comandante, a one-eyed, half-Indian, flat-nosed ruffian, and I, we +had to stand around and bet on their hands. It was awful!" + +"Awful," echoed Schomberg, in a Teutonic throaty tone of despair. +"Look here, I need your rooms." + +"To be sure. I have been thinking that for some time past," said +Ricardo indifferently. + +"I was mad when I listened to you. This must end!" + +"I think you are mad yet," said Ricardo, not even unfolding his arms +or shifting his attitude an inch. He lowered his voice to add: +"And if I thought you had been to the police, I would tell Pedro to +catch you round the waist and break your fat neck by jerking your +head backward--snap! I saw him do it to a big buck nigger who was +flourishing a razor in front of the governor. It can be done. You +hear a low crack, that's all--and the man drops down like a limp +rag." + +Not even Ricardo's head, slightly inclined on the left shoulder, had +moved; but when he ceased the greenish irises which had been staring +out of doors glided into the corners of his eyes nearest to +Schomberg and stayed there with a coyly voluptuous expression. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + + +Schomberg felt desperation, that lamentable substitute for courage, +ooze out of him. It was not so much the threat of death as the +weirdly circumstantial manner of its declaration which affected him. +A mere "I'll murder you," however ferocious in tone, and earnest, in +purpose, he could have faced; but before this novel mode of speech +and procedure, his imagination being very sensitive to the unusual, +he collapsed as if indeed his moral neck had been broken--snap! + +"Go to the police? Of course not. Never dreamed of it. Too late +now. I've let myself be mixed up in this. You got my consent while +I wasn't myself. I explained it to you at the time." + +Ricardo's eye glided gently off Schomberg to stare far away. + +"Ay! Some trouble with a girl. But that's nothing to us." + +"Naturally. What I say is, what's the good of all that savage talk +to me?" A bright argument occurred to him. "It's out of +proportion; for even if I were fool enough to go to the police now, +there's nothing serious to complain about. It would only mean +deportation for you. They would put you on board the first west- +bound steamer to Singapore." He had become animated. "Out of this +to the devil," he added between his teeth for his own private +satisfaction. + +Ricardo made no comment, and gave no sign of having heard a single +word. This discouraged Schomberg, who had looked up hopefully. + +"Why do you want to stick here?" he cried. "It can't pay you people +to fool around like this. Didn't you worry just now about moving +your governor? Well, the police would move him for you; and from +Singapore you can go on to the east coast of Africa." + +"I'll be hanged if the fellow isn't up to that silly trick!" was +Ricardo's comment, spoken in an ominous tone which recalled +Schomberg to the realities of his position. + +"No! No!" he protested. "It's a manner of speaking. Of course I +wouldn't." + +"I think that trouble about the girl has really muddled your brains, +Mr. Schomberg. Believe me, you had better part friends with us; +for, deportation or no deportation, you'll be seeing one of us +turning up before long to pay you off for any nasty dodge you may be +hatching in that fat head of yours." + +"Gott im Himmel!" groaned Schomberg. "Will nothing move him out? +Will he stop here immer--I mean always? Suppose I were to make it +worth your while, couldn't you--" + +"No," Ricardo interrupted. "I couldn't, unless I had something to +lever him out with. I've told you that before." + +"An inducement?" muttered Schomberg. + +"Ay. The east coast of Africa isn't good enough. He told me the +other day that it will have to wait till he is ready for it; and he +may not be ready for a long time, because the east coast can't run +away, and no one is likely to run off with it." + +These remarks, whether considered as truisms or as depicting Mr. +Jones's mental state, were distinctly discouraging to the long- +suffering Schomberg; but there is truth in the well-known saying +that places the darkest hour before the dawn. The sound of words, +apart from the context, has its power; and these two words, 'run +off,' had a special affinity to the hotel-keeper's, haunting idea. +It was always present in his brain, and now it came forward evoked +by a purely fortuitous expression. No, nobody could run off with a +continent; but Heyst had run off with the girl! + +Ricardo could have had no conception of the cause of Schomberg's +changed expression. Yet it was noticeable enough to interest him so +much that he stopped the careless swinging of his leg and said, +looking at the hotel-keeper: + +"There's not much use arguing against that sort of talk--is there?" + +Schomberg was not listening. + +"I could put you on another track," he said slowly, and stopped, as +if suddenly choked by an unholy emotion of intense eagerness +combined with fear of failure. Ricardo waited, attentive, yet not +without a certain contempt. + +"On the track of a man!" Schomberg uttered convulsively, and paused +again, consulting his rage and his conscience. + +"The man in the moon, eh?" suggested Ricardo, in a jeering murmur. + +Schomberg shook his head. + +"It would be nearly as safe to rook him as if he were the Man in the +moon. You go and try. It isn't so very far." + +He reflected. These men were thieves and murderers as well as +gamblers. Their fitness for purposes of vengeance was appallingly +complete. But he preferred not to think of it in detail. He put it +to himself summarily that he would be paying Heyst out and would, at +the same time, relieve himself of these men's oppression. He had +only to let loose his natural gift for talking scandalously about +his fellow creatures. And in this case his great practice in it was +assisted by hate, which, like love, has an eloquence of its own. +With the utmost ease he portrayed for Ricardo, now seriously +attentive, a Heyst fattened by years of private and public rapines, +the murderer of Morrison, the swindler of many shareholders, a +wonderful mixture of craft and impudence, of deep purposes and +simple wiles, of mystery and futility. In this exercise of his +natural function Schomberg revived, the colour coming back to his +face, loquacious, florid, eager, his manliness set off by the +military bearing. + +"That's the exact story. He was seen hanging about this part of the +world for years, spying into everybody's business: but I am the +only one who has seen through him from the first--contemptible, +double-faced, stick-at-nothing, dangerous fellow." + +"Dangerous, is he?" + +Schomberg came to himself at the sound of Ricardo's voice. + +"Well, you know what I mean," he said uneasily. "A lying, +circumventing, soft-spoken, polite, stuck-up rascal. Nothing open +about him." + +Mr Ricardo had slipped off the table, and was prowling about the +room in an oblique, noiseless manner. He flashed a grin at +Schomberg in passing, and a snarling: + +"Ah! H'm!" + +"Well, what more dangerous do you want?" argued Schomberg. "He's in +no way a fighting man, I believe," he added negligently. + +"And you say he has been living alone there?" + +"Like the man in the moon," answered Schomberg readily. "There's no +one that cares a rap what becomes of him. He has been lying low, +you understand, after bagging all that plunder. + +"Plunder, eh? Why didn't he go home with it?" inquired Ricardo. + +The henchman of plain Mr. Jones was beginning to think that this was +something worth looking into. And he was pursuing truth in the +manner of men of sounder morality and purer intentions than his own; +that is he pursued it in the light of his own experience and +prejudices. For facts, whatever their origin (and God only knows +where they come from), can be only tested by our own particular +suspicions. Ricardo was suspicious all round. Schomberg, such is +the tonic of recovered self-esteem, Schomberg retorted fearlessly: + +"Go home? Why don't you go home? To hear your talk, you must have +made a pretty considerable pile going round winning people's money. +You ought to be ready by this time." + +Ricardo stopped to look at Schomberg with surprise. + +"You think yourself very clever, don't you?" he said. + +Schomberg just then was so conscious of being clever that the +snarling irony left him unmoved. There was positively a smile in +his noble Teutonic beard, the first smile for weeks. He was in a +felicitous vein. + +"How do you know that he wasn't thinking of going home? As a matter +of fact, he was on his way home." + +"And how do I know that you are not amusing yourself by spinning out +a blamed fairy tale?" interrupted Ricardo roughly. "I wonder at +myself listening to the silly rot!" + +Schomberg received this turn of temper unmoved. He did not require +to be very subtly observant to notice that he had managed to arouse +some sort of feeling, perhaps of greed, in Ricardo's breast. + +"You won't believe me? Well! You can ask anybody that comes here +if that--that Swede hadn't got as far as this house on his way home. +Why should he turn up here if not for that? You ask anybody." + +"Ask, indeed!" returned the other. "Catch me asking at large about +a man I mean to drop on! Such jobs must be done on the quiet--or +not at all." + +The peculiar intonation of the last phrase touched the nape of +Schomberg's neck with a chill. He cleared his throat slightly and +looked away as though he had heard something indelicate. Then, with +a jump as it were: + +"Of course he didn't tell me. Is it likely? But haven't I got +eyes? Haven't I got my common sense to tell me? I can see through +people. By the same token, he called on the Tesmans. Why did he +call on the Tesmans two days running, eh? You don't know? You +can't tell?" + +He waited complacently till Ricardo had finished swearing quite +openly at him for a confounded chatterer, and then went on: + +"A fellow doesn't go to a counting-house in business hours for a +chat about the weather, two days running. Then why? To close his +account with them one day, and to get his money out the next! +Clear, what?" + +Ricardo, with his trick of looking one way and moving another +approached Schomberg slowly. + +"To get his money?" he purred. + +"Gewiss," snapped Schomberg with impatient superiority. "What else? +That is, only the money he had with the Tesmans. What he has buried +or put away on the island, devil only knows. When you think of the +lot of hard cash that passed through that man's hands, for wages and +stores and all that--and he's just a cunning thief, I tell you." +Ricardo's hard stare discomposed the hotel-keeper, and he added in +an embarrassed tone: "I mean a common, sneaking thief--no account +at all. And he calls himself a Swedish baron, too! Tfui!" + +"He's a baron, is he? That foreign nobility ain't much," commented +Mr. Ricardo seriously. "And then what? He hung about here!" + +"Yes, he hung about," said Schomberg, making a wry mouth. "He--hung +about. That's it. Hung--" + +His voice died out. Curiosity was depicted in Ricardo's +countenance. + +"Just like that; for nothing? And then turned about and went back +to that island again?" + +"And went back to that island again," Schomberg echoed lifelessly, +fixing his gaze on the floor. + +"What's the matter with you?" asked Ricardo with genuine surprise. +"What is it?" + +Schomberg, without looking up, made an impatient gesture. His face +was crimson, and he kept it lowered. Ricardo went back to the +point. + +"Well, but how do you account for it? What was his reason? What +did he go back to the island for?" + +"Honeymoon!" spat out Schomberg viciously. + +Perfectly still, his eyes downcast, he suddenly, with no preliminary +stir, hit the table with his fist a blow which caused the utterly +unprepared Ricardo to leap aside. And only then did Schomberg look +up with a dull, resentful expression. + +Ricardo stared hard for a moment, spun on his heel, walked to the +end of the room, came back smartly, and muttered a profound "Ay! +Ay!" above Schomberg's rigid head. That the hotel-keeper was +capable of a great moral effort was proved by a gradual return of +his severe, Lieutenant-of-the-Reserve manner. + +"Ay, ay!" repeated Ricardo more deliberately than before, and as if +after a further survey of the circumstances, "I wish I hadn't asked +you, or that you had told me a lie. It don't suit me to know that +there's a woman mixed up in this affair. What's she like? It's the +girl you--" + +"Leave off!" muttered Schomberg, utterly pitiful behind his stiff +military front. + +"Ay, ay!" Ricardo ejaculated for the third time, more and more +enlightened and perplexed. "Can't bear to talk about it--so bad as +that? And yet I would bet she isn't a miracle to look at." + +Schomberg made a gesture as if he didn't know, as if he didn't care. +Then he squared his shoulders and frowned at vacancy. + +"Swedish baron--h'm!" Ricardo continued meditatively. "I believe +the governor would think that business worth looking up, quite, if I +put it to him properly. The governor likes a duel, if you will call +it so; but I don't know a man that can stand up to him on the +square. Have you ever seen a cat play with a mouse? It's a pretty +sight!" + +Ricardo, with his voluptuously gleaming eyes and the coy expression, +looked so much like a cat that Schomberg would have felt all the +alarm of a mouse if other feelings had not had complete possession +of his breast. + +"There are no lies between you and me," he said, more steadily than +he thought he could speak. + +"What's the good now? He funks women. In that Mexican pueblo where +we lay grounded on our beef-bones, so to speak, I used to go to +dances of an evening. The girls there would ask me if the English +caballero in the posada was a monk in disguise, or if he had taken a +vow to the sancissima madre not to speak to a woman, or whether--You +can imagine what fairly free-spoken girls will ask when they come to +the point of not caring what they say; and it used to vex me. Yes, +the governor funks facing women." + +"One woman?" interjected Schomberg in guttural tones. + +"One may be more awkward to deal with than two, or two hundred, for +that matter. In a place that's full of women you needn't look at +them unless you like; but if you go into a room where there is only +one woman, young or old, pretty or ugly, you have got to face her. +And, unless you are after her, then--the governor is right enough-- +she's in the way." + +"Why notice them?" muttered Schomberg. "What can they do?" + +"Make a noise, if nothing else," opined Mr. Ricardo curtly, with the +distaste of a man whose path is a path of silence; for indeed, +nothing is more odious than a noise when one is engaged in a weighty +and absorbing card game. "Noise, noise, my friend," he went on +forcibly; "confounded screeching about something or other, and I +like it no more than the governor does. But with the governor +there's something else besides. He can't stand them at all." + +He paused to reflect on this psychological phenomenon, and as no +philosopher was at hand to tell him that there is no strong +sentiment without some terror, as there is no real religion without +a little fetishism, he emitted his own conclusion, which surely +could not go to the root of the matter. + +"I'm hanged if I don't think they are to him what liquor is to me. +Brandy--pah!" + +He made a disgusted face, and produced a genuine shudder. Schomberg +listened to him in wonder. It looked as if the very scoundrelism, +of that--that Swede would protect him; the spoil of his iniquity +standing between the thief and the retribution. + +"That's so, old buck." Ricardo broke the silence after +contemplating Schomberg's mute dejection with a sort of sympathy. +"I don't think this trick will work." + +"But that's silly," whispered the man deprived of the vengeance +which he had seemed already to hold in his hand, by a mysterious and +exasperating idiosyncrasy. + +"Don't you set yourself to judge a gentleman." Ricardo without +anger administered a moody rebuke. "Even I can't understand the +governor thoroughly. And I am an Englishman and his follower. No, +I don't think I care to put it before him, sick as I am of staying +here." + +Ricardo could not be more sick of staying than Schomberg was of +seeing him stay. Schomberg believed so firmly in the reality of +Heyst as created by his own power of false inferences, of his hate, +of his love of scandal, that he could not contain a stifled cry of +conviction as sincere as most of our convictions, the disguised +servants of our passions, can appear at a supreme moment. + +"It would have been like going to pick up a nugget of a thousand +pounds, or two or three times as much, for all I know. No trouble, +no--" + +"The petticoat's the trouble," Ricardo struck in. + +He had resumed his noiseless, feline, oblique prowling, in which an +observer would have detected a new character of excitement, such as +a wild animal of the cat species, anxious to make a spring, might +betray. Schomberg saw nothing. It would probably have cheered his +drooping spirits; but in a general way he preferred not to look at +Ricardo. Ricardo, however, with one of his slanting, gliding, +restless glances, observed the bitter smile on Schomberg's bearded +lips--the unmistakable smile of ruined hopes. + +"You are a pretty unforgiving sort of chap," he said, stopping for a +moment with an air of interest. "Hang me if I ever saw anybody look +so disappointed! I bet you would send black plague to that island +if you only knew how--eh, what? Plague too good for them? Ha, ha, +ha!" + +He bent down to stare at Schomberg who sat unstirring with stony +eyes and set features, and apparently deaf to the rasping derision +of that laughter so close to his red fleshy ear. + +"Black plague too good for them, ha, ha!" Ricardo pressed the point +on the tormented hotel-keeper. Schomberg kept his eyes down +obstinately. + +"I don't wish any harm to the girl--" he muttered. + +"But did she bolt from you? A fair bilk? Come!" + +"Devil only knows what that villainous Swede had done to her--what +he promised her, how he frightened her. She couldn't have cared for +him, I know." Schomberg's vanity clung to the belief in some +atrocious, extraordinary means of seduction employed by Heyst. +"Look how he bewitched that poor Morrison," he murmured. + +"Ah, Morrison--got all his money, what?" + +"Yes--and his life." + +"Terrible fellow, that Swedish baron! How is one to get at him?" + +Schomberg exploded. + +"Three against one! Are you shy? Do you want me to give you a +letter of introduction?" + +"You ought to look at yourself in a glass," Ricardo said quietly. +"Dash me if you don't get a stroke of some kind presently. And this +is the fellow who says women can do nothing! That one will do for +you, unless you manage to forget her." + +"I wish I could," Schomberg admitted earnestly. "And it's all the +doing of that Swede. I don't get enough sleep, Mr. Ricardo. And +then, to finish me off, you gentlemen turn up . . . as if I hadn't +enough worry." + +"That's done you good," suggested the secretary with ironic +seriousness. "Takes your mind off that silly trouble. At your age +too." + +He checked himself, as if in pity, and changing his tone: + +"I would really like to oblige you while doing a stroke of business +at the same time." + +"A good stroke," insisted Schomberg, as if it were mechanically. In +his simplicity he was not able to give up the idea which had entered +his head. An idea must be driven out by another idea, and with +Schomberg ideas were rare and therefore tenacious. "Minted gold," +he murmured with a sort of anguish. + +Such an expressive combination of words was not without effect upon +Ricardo. Both these men were amenable to the influence of verbal +suggestions. The secretary of "plain Mr. Jones" sighed and +murmured. + +"Yes. But how is one to get at it?" + +"Being three to one," said Schomberg, "I suppose you could get it +for the asking." + +"One would think the fellow lived next door," Ricardo growled +impatiently. "Hang it all, can't you understand a plain question? +I have asked you the way." + +Schomberg seemed to revive. + +"The way?" + +The torpor of deceived hopes underlying his superficial changes of +mood had been pricked by these words which seemed pointed with +purpose. + +"The way is over the water, of course," said the hotel-keeper. "For +people like you, three days in a good, big boat is nothing. It's no +more than a little outing, a bit of a change. At this season the +Java Sea is a pond. I have an excellent, safe boat--a ship's life- +boat--carry thirty, let alone three, and a child could handle her. +You wouldn't get a wet face at this time of the year. You might +call it a pleasure-trip." + +"And yet, having this boat, you didn't go after her yourself--or +after him? Well, you are a fine fellow for a disappointed lover." + +Schomberg gave a start at the suggestion. + +"I am not three men," he said sulkily, as the shortest answer of the +several he could have given. + +"Oh, I know your sort," Ricardo let fall negligently. "You are like +most people--or perhaps just a little more peaceable than the rest +of the buying and selling gang that bosses this rotten show. Well, +well, you respectable citizen," he went on, "let us go thoroughly +into the matter." + +When Schomberg had been made to understand that Mr. Jones's henchman +was ready to discuss, in his own words, "this boat of yours, with +courses and distances," and such concrete matters of no good augury +to that villainous Swede, he recovered his soldierly bearing, +squared his shoulders, and asked in his military manner: + +"You wish, then, to proceed with the business?" + +Ricardo nodded. He had a great mind to, he said. A gentleman had +to be humoured as much as possible; but he must be managed, too, on +occasions, for his own good. And it was the business of the right +sort of "follower" to know the proper time and the proper methods of +that delicate part of his duty. Having exposed this theory Ricardo +proceeded to the application. + +"I've never actually lied to him," he said, "and I ain't going to +now. I shall just say nothing about the girl. He will have to get +over the shock the best he can. Hang it all! Too much humouring +won't do here." + +"Funny thing," Schomberg observed crisply. + +"Is it? Ay, you wouldn't mind taking a woman by the throat in some +dark corner and nobody by, I bet!" + +Ricardo's dreadful, vicious, cat-like readiness to get his claws out +at any moment startled Schomberg as usual. But it was provoking +too. + +"And you?" he defended himself. "Don't you want me to believe you +are up to anything?" + +"I, my boy? Oh, yes. I am not that gentleman; neither are you. +Take 'em by the throat or chuck 'em under the chin is all one to me- +-almost," affirmed Ricardo, with something obscurely ironical in his +complacency. "Now, as to this business. A three days' jaunt in a +good boat isn't a thing to frighten people like us. You are right, +so far; but there are other details." + +Schomberg was ready enough to enter into details. He explained that +he had a small plantation, with a fairly habitable hut on it, on +Madura. He proposed that his guest should start from town in his +boat, as if going for an excursion to that rural spot. The custom- +house people on the quay were used to see his boat go off on such +trips. + +From Madura, after some repose and on a convenient day, Mr. Jones +and party would make the real start. It would all be plain sailing. +Schomberg undertook to provision the boat. The greatest hardship +the voyagers need apprehend would be a mild shower of rain. At that +season of the year there were no serious thunderstorms. + +Schomberg's heart began to thump as he saw himself nearing his +vengeance. His speech was thick but persuasive. + +"No risk at all--none whatever." + +Ricardo dismissed these assurances of safety with an impatient +gesture. He was thinking of other risks. + +"The getting away from here is all right; but we may be sighted at +sea, and that may bring awkwardness later on. A ship's boat with +three white men in her, knocking about out of sight of land, is +bound to make talk. Are we likely to be seen on our way?" + +"No, unless by native craft," said Schomberg. + +Ricardo nodded, satisfied. Both these white men looked on native +life as a mere play of shadows. A play of shadows the dominant race +could walk through unaffected and disregarded in the pursuit of its +incomprehensible aims and needs. No. Native craft did not count, +of course. It was an empty, solitary part of the sea, Schomberg +expounded further. Only the Ternate mail-boat crossed that region +about the eighth of every month, regularly--nowhere near the island +though. Rigid, his voice hoarse, his heart thumping, his mind +concentrated on the success of his plan, the hotel-keeper multiplied +words, as if to keep as many of them as possible between himself and +the murderous aspect of his purpose. + +"So, if you gentlemen depart from my plantation quietly at sunset on +the eighth--always best to make a start at night, with a land +breeze--it's a hundred to one--What am I saying?--it's a thousand to +one that no human eye will see you on the passage. All you've got +to do is keep her heading north-east for, say, fifty hours; perhaps +not quite so long. There will always be draft enough to keep a boat +moving; you may reckon on that; and then--" + +The muscles about his waist quivered under his clothes with +eagerness, with impatience, and with something like apprehension, +the true nature of which was not clear to him. And he did not want +to investigate it. Ricardo regarded him steadily, with those dry +eyes of his shining more like polished stones than living tissue. + +"And then what?" he asked. + +"And then--why, you will astonish der herr baron--ha, ha!" + +Schomberg seemed to force the words and the laugh out of himself in +a hoarse bass. + +"And you believe he has all that plunder by him?" asked Ricardo, +rather perfunctorily, because the fact seemed to him extremely +probable when looked at all round by his acute mind. + +Schomberg raised his hands and lowered them slowly. + +"How can it be otherwise? He was going home, he was on his way, in +this hotel. Ask people. Was it likely he would leave it behind +him?" + +Ricardo was thoughtful. Then, suddenly raising his head, he +remarked: + +"Steer north-east for fifty hours, eh? That's not much of a sailing +direction. I've heard of a port being missed before on better +information. Can't you say what sort of landfall a fellow may +expect? But I suppose you have never seen that island yourself?" + +Schomberg admitted that he had not seen it, in a tone in which a man +congratulates himself on having escaped the contamination of an +unsavoury experience. No, certainly not. He had never had any +business to call there. But what of that? He could give Mr. +Ricardo as good a sea-mark as anybody need wish for. He laughed +nervously. Miss it! He defied anyone that came within forty miles +of it to miss the retreat of that villainous Swede. + +"What do you think of a pillar of smoke by day and a loom of fire at +night? There's a volcano in full blast near that island--enough to +guide almost a blind man. What more do you want? An active volcano +to steer by?" + +These last words he roared out exultingly, then jumped up and +glared. The door to the left of the bar had swung open, and Mrs. +Schomberg, dressed for duty, stood facing him down the whole length +of the room. She clung to the handle for a moment, then came in and +glided to her place, where she sat down to stare straight before +her, as usual. + + + + +PART THREE + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + + +Tropical nature had been kind to the failure of the commercial +enterprise. The desolation of the headquarters of the Tropical Belt +Coal Company had been screened from the side of the sea; from the +side where prying eyes--if any were sufficiently interested, either +in malice or in sorrow--could have noted the decaying bones of that +once sanguine enterprise. + +Heyst had been sitting among the bones buried so kindly in the grass +of two wet seasons' growth. The silence of his surroundings, broken +only by such sounds as a distant roll of thunder, the lash of rain +through the foliage of some big trees, the noise of the wind tossing +the leaves of the forest, and of the short seas breaking against the +shore, favoured rather than hindered his solitary meditation. + +A meditation is always--in a white man, at least--more or less an +interrogative exercise. Heyst meditated in simple terms on the +mystery of his actions; and he answered himself with the honest +reflection: + +"There must be a lot of the original Adam in me, after all." + +He reflected, too, with the sense of making a discovery, that his +primeval ancestor is not easily suppressed. The oldest voice in the +world is just the one that never ceases to speak. If anybody could +have silenced its imperative echoes, it should have been Heyst's +father, with his contemptuous, inflexible negation of all effort; +but apparently he could not. There was in the son a lot of that +first ancestor who, as soon as he could uplift his muddy frame from +the celestial mould, started inspecting and naming the animals of +that paradise which he was so soon to lose. + +Action--the first thought, or perhaps the first impulse, on earth! +The barbed hook, baited with the illusions of progress, to bring out +of the lightless void the shoals of unnumbered generations! + +"And I, the son of my father, have been caught too, like the +silliest fish of them all." Heyst said to himself. + +He suffered. He was hurt by the sight of his own life, which ought +to have been a masterpiece of aloofness. He remembered always his +last evening with his father. He remembered the thin features, the +great mass of white hair, and the ivory complexion. A five-branched +candlestick stood on a little table by the side of the easy chair. +They had been talking a long time. The noises of the street had +died out one by one, till at last, in the moonlight, the London +houses began to look like the tombs of an unvisited, unhonoured, +cemetery of hopes. + +He had listened. Then, after a silence, he had asked--for he was +really young then: + +"Is there no guidance?" + +His father was in an unexpectedly soft mood on that night, when the +moon swam in a cloudless sky over the begrimed shadows of the town. + +"You still believe in something, then?" he said in a clear voice, +which had been growing feeble of late. "You believe in flesh and +blood, perhaps? A full and equable contempt would soon do away with +that, too. But since you have not attained to it, I advise you to +cultivate that form of contempt which is called pity. It is perhaps +the least difficult--always remembering that you, too, if you are +anything, are as pitiful as the rest, yet never expecting any pity +for yourself." + +"What is one to do, then?" sighed the young man, regarding his +father, rigid in the high-backed chair. + +"Look on--make no sound," were the last words of the man who had +spent his life in blowing blasts upon a terrible trumpet which +filled heaven and earth with ruins, while mankind went on its way +unheeding. + +That very night he died in his bed, so quietly that they found him +in his usual attitude of sleep, lying on his side, one hand under +his cheek, and his knees slightly bent. He had not even +straightened his legs. + +His son buried the silenced destroyer of systems, of hopes, of +beliefs. He observed that the death of that bitter contemner of +life did not trouble the flow of life's stream, where men and women +go by thick as dust, revolving and jostling one another like figures +cut out of cork and weighted with lead just sufficiently to keep +them in their proudly upright posture. + +After the funeral, Heyst sat alone, in the dusk, and his meditation +took the form of a definite vision of the stream, of the fatuously +jostling, nodding, spinning figures hurried irresistibly along, and +giving no sign of being aware that the voice on the bank had been +suddenly silenced . . . Yes. A few obituary notices generally +insignificant and some grossly abusive. The son had read them all +with mournful detachment. + +"This is the hate and rage of their fear," he thought to himself, +"and also of wounded vanity. They shriek their little shriek as +they fly past. I suppose I ought to hate him too . . . " + +He became aware of his eyes being wet. It was not that the man was +his father. For him it was purely a matter of hearsay which could +not in itself cause this emotion. No! It was because he had looked +at him so long that he missed him so much. The dead man had kept +him on the bank by his side. And now Heyst felt acutely that he was +alone on the bank of the stream. In his pride he determined not to +enter it. + +A few slow tears rolled down his face. The rooms, filling with +shadows, seemed haunted by a melancholy, uneasy presence which could +not express itself. The young man got up with a strange sense of +making way for something impalpable that claimed possession, went +out of the house, and locked the door. A fortnight later he started +on his travels--to "look on and never make a sound." + +The elder Heyst had left behind him a little money and a certain +quantity of movable objects, such as books, tables, chairs, and +pictures, which might have complained of heartless desertion after +many years of faithful service; for there is a soul in things. +Heyst, our Heyst, had often thought of them, reproachful and mute, +shrouded and locked up in those rooms, far away in London with the +sounds of the street reaching them faintly, and sometimes a little +sunshine, when the blinds were pulled up and the windows opened from +time to time in pursuance of his original instructions and later +reminders. It seemed as if in his conception of a world not worth +touching, and perhaps not substantial enough to grasp, these objects +familiar to his childhood and his youth, and associated with the +memory of an old man, were the only realities, something having an +absolute existence. He would never have them sold, or even moved +from the places they occupied when he looked upon them last. When +he was advised from London that his lease had expired, and that the +house, with some others as like it as two peas, was to be +demolished, he was surprisingly distressed. + +He had entered by then the broad, human path of inconsistencies. +Already the Tropical Belt Coal Company was in existence. He sent +instructions to have some of the things sent out to him at Samburan, +just as any ordinary, credulous person would have done. They came, +torn out from their long repose--a lot of books, some chairs and +tables, his father's portrait in oils, which surprised Heyst by its +air of youth, because he remembered his father as a much older man; +a lot of small objects, such as candlesticks, inkstands, and +statuettes from his father's study, which surprised him because they +looked so old and so much worn. + +The manager of the Tropical Belt Coal Company, unpacking them on the +veranda in the shade besieged by a fierce sunshine, must have felt +like a remorseful apostate before these relics. He handled them +tenderly; and it was perhaps their presence there which attached him +to the island when he woke up to the failure of his apostasy. +Whatever the decisive reason, Heyst had remained where another would +have been glad to be off. The excellent Davidson had discovered the +fact without discovering the reason, and took a humane interest in +Heyst's strange existence, while at the same time his native +delicacy kept him from intruding on the other's whim of solitude. +He could not possibly guess that Heyst, alone on the island, felt +neither more nor less lonely than in any other place, desert or +populous. Davidson's concern was, if one may express it so, the +danger of spiritual starvation; but this was a spirit which had +renounced all outside nourishment, and was sustaining itself proudly +on its own contempt of the usual coarse ailments which life offers +to the common appetites of men. + +Neither was Heyst's body in danger of starvation, as Schomberg had +so confidently asserted. At the beginning of the company's +operations the island had been provisioned in a manner which had +outlasted the need. Heyst did not need to fear hunger; and his very +loneliness had not been without some alleviation. Of the crowd of +imported Chinese labourers, one at least had remained in Samburan, +solitary and strange, like a swallow left behind at the migrating +season of his tribe. + +Wang was not a common coolie. He had been a servant to white men +before. The agreement between him and Heyst consisted in the +exchange of a few words on the day when the last batch of the mine +coolies was leaving Samburan. Heyst, leaning over the balustrade of +the veranda, was looking on, as calm in appearance as though he had +never departed from the doctrine that this world, for the wise, is +nothing but an amusing spectacle. Wang came round the house, and +standing below, raised up his yellow, thin face. + +"All finished?" he asked. Heyst nodded slightly from above, +glancing towards the jetty. A crowd of blue-clad figures with +yellow faces and calves was being hustled down into the boats of the +chartered steamer lying well out, like a painted ship on a painted +sea; painted in crude colours, without shadows, without feeling, +with brutal precision. + +"You had better hurry up if you don't want to be left behind." + +But the Chinaman did not move. + +"We stop," he declared. Heyst looked down at him for the first +time. + +"You want to stop here?" + +"Yes." + +"What were you? What was your work here?" + +"Mess-loom boy." + +"Do you want to stay with me here as my boy?" inquired Heyst, +surprised. + +The Chinaman unexpectedly put on a deprecatory expression, and said, +after a marked pause: + +"Can do." + +"You needn't," said Heyst, "unless you like. I propose to stay on +here--it may be for a very long time. I have no power to make you +go if you wish to remain, but I don't see why you should." + +"Catchee one piecee wife," remarked Wang unemotionally, and marched +off, turning his back on the wharf and the great world beyond, +represented by the steamer waiting for her boats. + +Heyst learned presently that Wang had persuaded one of the women of +Alfuro village, on the west shore of the island, beyond the central +ridge, to come over to live with him in a remote part of the +company's clearing. It was a curious case, inasmuch as the Alfuros, +having been frightened by the sudden invasion of Chinamen, had +blocked the path over the ridge by felling a few trees, and had kept +strictly on their own side. The coolies, as a body, mistrusting the +manifest mildness of these harmless fisher-folk, had kept to their +lines, without attempting to cross the island. Wang was the +brilliant exception. He must have been uncommonly fascinating, in a +way that was not apparent to Heyst, or else uncommonly persuasive. +The woman's services to Heyst were limited to the fact that she had +anchored Wang to the spot by her charms, which remained unknown to +the white man, because she never came near the houses. The couple +lived at the edge of the forest, and she could sometimes be seen +gazing towards the bungalow shading her eyes with her hand. Even +from a distance she appeared to be a shy, wild creature, and Heyst, +anxious not to try her primitive nerves unduly, scrupulously avoided +that side of the clearing in his strolls. + +The day--or rather the first night--after his hermit life began, he +was aware of vague sounds of revelry in that direction. Emboldened +by the departure of the invading strangers, some Alfuros, the +woman's friends and relations, had ventured over the ridge to attend +something in the nature of a wedding feast. Wang had invited them. +But this was the only occasion when any sound louder than the +buzzing of insects had troubled the profound silence of the +clearing. The natives were never invited again. Wang not, only +knew how to live according to conventional proprieties, but had +strong personal views as to the manner of arranging his domestic +existence. After a time Heyst perceived that Wang had annexed all +the keys. Any keys left lying about vanished after Wang had passed +that way. Subsequently some of them--those that did not belong to +the store-rooms and the empty bungalows, and could not be regarded +as the common property of this community of two--were returned to +Heyst, tied in a bunch with a piece of string. He found them one +morning lying by the side of his plate. He had not been +inconvenienced by their absence, because he never locked up anything +in the way of drawers and boxes. Heyst said nothing. Wang also +said nothing. Perhaps he had always been a taciturn man; perhaps he +was influenced by the genius of the locality, which was certainly +that of silence. Till Heyst and Morrison had landed in Black +Diamond Bay, and named it, that side of Samburan had hardly ever +heard the sound of human speech. It was easy to be taciturn with +Heyst, who had plunged himself into an abyss of meditation over +books, and remained in it till the shadow of Wang falling across the +page, and the sound of a rough, low voice uttering the Malay word +"makan," would force him to climb out to a meal. + +Wang in his native province in China might have been an +aggressively, sensitively genial person; but in Samburan he had +clothed himself in a mysterious stolidity and did not seem to resent +not being spoken to except in single words, at a rate which did not +average half a dozen per day. And he gave no more than he got. It +is to be presumed that if he suffered he made up for it with the +Alfuro woman. He always went back to her at the first fall of dusk, +vanishing from the bungalow suddenly at this hour, like a sort of +topsy-turvy, day-hunting, Chinese ghost with a white jacket and a +pigtail. Presently, giving way to a Chinaman's ruling passion, he +could be observed breaking the ground near his hut, between the +mighty stumps of felled trees, with a miner's pickaxe. After a +time, he discovered a rusty but serviceable spade in one of the +empty store-rooms, and it is to be supposed that he got on famously; +but nothing of it could be seen, because he went to the trouble of +pulling to pieces one of the company's sheds in order to get +materials for making a high and very close fence round his patch, as +if the growing of vegetables were a patented process, or an awful +and holy mystery entrusted to the keeping of his race. + +Heyst, following from a distance the progress of Wang's gardening +and of these precautions--there was nothing else to look at--was +amused at the thought that he, in his own person, represented the +market for its produce. The Chinaman had found several packets of +seeds in the store-rooms, and had surrendered to an irresistible +impulse to put them into the ground. He would make his master pay +for the vegetables which he was raising to satisfy his instinct. +And, looking silently at the silent Wang going about his work in the +bungalow in his unhasty, steady way; Heyst envied the Chinaman's +obedience to his instincts, the powerful simplicity of purpose which +made his existence appear almost automatic in the mysterious +precision of its facts. + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + + +During his master's absence at Sourabaya, Wang had busied himself +with the ground immediately in front of the principal bungalow. +Emerging from the fringe of grass growing across the shore end of +the coal-jetty, Heyst beheld a broad, clear space, black and level, +with only one or two clumps of charred twigs, where the flame had +swept from the front of his house to the nearest trees of the +forest. + +"You took the risk of firing the grass?" Heyst asked. + +Wang nodded. Hanging on the arm of the white man before whom he +stood was the girl called Alma; but neither from the Chinaman's eyes +nor from his expression could anyone have guessed that he was in the +slightest degree aware of the fact. + +"He has been tidying the place in his labour-saving way," explained +Heyst, without looking at the girl, whose hand rested on his +forearm. "He's the whole establishment, you see. I told you I +hadn't even a dog to keep me company here." + +Wang had marched off towards the wharf. + +"He's like those waiters in that place," she said. That place was +Schomberg's hotel. + +"One Chinaman looks very much like another," Heyst remarked. "We +shall find it useful to have him here. This is the house." + +They faced, at some distance, the six shallow steps leading up to +the veranda. The girl had abandoned Heyst's arm. + +"This is the house," he repeated. + +She did not offer to budge away from his side, but stood staring +fixedly at the steps, as if they had been something unique and +impracticable. He waited a little, but she did not move. + +"Don't you want to go in?" he asked, without turning his head to +look at her. "The sun's too heavy to stand about here." He tried +to overcome a sort of fear, a sort of impatient faintness, and his +voice sounded rough. "You had better go in," he concluded. + +They both moved then, but at the foot of the stairs Heyst stopped, +while the girl went on rapidly, as if nothing could stop her now. +She crossed the veranda swiftly, and entered the twilight of the big +central room opening upon it, and then the deeper twilight of the +room beyond. She stood still in the dusk, in which her dazzled eyes +could scarcely make out the forms of objects, and sighed a sigh of +relief. The impression of the sunlight, of sea and sky, remained +with her like a memory of a painful trial gone through--done with at +last! + +Meanwhile Heyst had walked back slowly towards the jetty; but he did +not get so far as that. The practical and automatic Wang had got +hold of one of the little trucks that had been used for running +baskets of coal alongside ships. He appeared pushing it before him, +loaded lightly with Heyst's bag and the bundle of the girl's +belongings, wrapped in Mrs. Schomberg's shawl. Heyst turned about +and walked by the side of the rusty rails on which the truck ran. +Opposite the house Wang stopped, lifted the bag to his shoulder, +balanced it carefully, and then took the bundle in his hand. + +"Leave those things on the table in the big room--understand?" + +"Me savee," grunted Wang, moving off. + +Heyst watched the Chinaman disappear from the veranda. It was not +till he had seen Wang come out that he himself entered the twilight +of the big room. By that time Wang was out of sight at the back of +the house, but by no means out of hearing. The Chinaman could hear +the voice of him who, when there were many people there, was +generally referred to as "Number One." Wang was not able to +understand the words, but the tone interested him. + +"Where are you?" cried Number One. + +Then Wang heard, much more faint, a voice he had never heard before- +-a novel impression which he acknowledged by cocking his head +slightly to one side. + +"I am here--out of the sun." + +The new voice sounded remote and uncertain. Wang heard nothing +more, though he waited for some time, very still, the top of his +shaven poll exactly level with the floor of the back veranda. His +face meanwhile preserved an inscrutable immobility. Suddenly he +stooped to pick up the lid of a deal candle-box which was lying on +the ground by his foot. Breaking it up with his fingers, he +directed his steps towards the cook-shed, where, squatting on his +heels, he proceeded to kindle a small fire under a very sooty +kettle, possibly to make tea. Wang had some knowledge of the more +superficial rites and ceremonies of white men's existence, otherwise +so enigmatically remote to his mind, and containing unexpected +possibilities of good and evil, which had to be watched for with +prudence and care. + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + + +That morning, as on all the others of the full tale of mornings +since his return with the girl to Samburan, Heyst came out on the +veranda and spread his elbows on the railing, in an easy attitude of +proprietorship. The bulk of the central ridge of the island cut off +the bungalow from sunrises, whether glorious or cloudy, angry or +serene. The dwellers therein were debarred from reading early the +fortune of the new-born day. It sprang upon them in its fulness +with a swift retreat of the great shadow when the sun, clearing the +ridge, looked down, hot and dry, with a devouring glare like the eye +of an enemy. But Heyst, once the Number One of this locality, while +it was comparatively teeming with mankind, appreciated the +prolongation of early coolness, the subdued, lingering half-light, +the faint ghost of the departed night, the fragrance of its dewy, +dark soul captured for a moment longer between the great glow of the +sky and the intense blaze of the uncovered sea. + +It was naturally difficult for Heyst to keep his mind from dwelling +on the nature and consequences of this, his latest departure from +the part of an unconcerned spectator. Yet he had retained enough of +his wrecked philosophy to prevent him from asking himself +consciously how it would end. But at the same time he could not +help being temperamentally, from long habit and from set purpose, a +spectator still, perhaps a little less naive but (as he discovered +with some surprise) not much more far sighted than the common run of +men. Like the rest of us who act, all he could say to himself, with +a somewhat affected grimness, was: + +"We shall see!" + +This mood of grim doubt intruded on him only when he was alone. +There were not many such moments in his day now; and he did not like +them when they came. On this morning he had no time to grow uneasy. +Alma came out to join him long before the sun, rising above the +Samburan ridge, swept the cool shadow of the early morning and the +remnant of the night's coolness clear off the roof under which they +had dwelt for more than three months already. She came out as on +other mornings. He had heard her light footsteps in the big room-- +the room where he had unpacked the cases from London; the room now +lined with the backs of books halfway up on its three sides. Above +the cases the fine matting met the ceiling of tightly stretched +white calico. In the dusk and coolness nothing gleamed except the +gilt frame of the portrait of Heyst's father, signed by a famous +painter, lonely in the middle of a wall. + +Heyst did not turn round. + +"Do you know what I was thinking of?" he asked. + +"No," she said. Her tone betrayed always a shade of anxiety, as +though she were never certain how a conversation with him would end. +She leaned on the guard-rail by his side. + +"No," she repeated. "What was it?" She waited. Then, rather with +reluctance than shyness, she asked: + +"Were you thinking of me?" + +"I was wondering when you would come out," said Heyst, still without +looking at the girl--to whom, after several experimental essays in +combining detached letters and loose syllables, he had given the +name of Lena. + +She remarked after a pause: + +"I was not very far from you." + +"Apparently you were not near enough for me." + +"You could have called if you wanted me," she said. "And I wasn't +so long doing my hair." + +"Apparently it was too long for me." + +"Well, you were thinking of me, anyhow. I am glad of it. Do you +know, it seems to me, somehow, that if you were to stop thinking of +me I shouldn't be in the world at all!" + +He turned round and looked at her. She often said things which +surprised him. A vague smile faded away on her lips before his +scrutiny. + +"What is it?" he asked. "It is a reproach?" + +"A reproach! Why, how could it be?" she defended herself. + +"Well, what did it mean?" he insisted. + +"What I said--just what I said. Why aren't you fair?" + +"Ah, this is at least a reproach!" + +She coloured to the roots of her hair. + +"It looks as if you were trying to make out that I am disagreeable," +she murmured. "Am I? You will make me afraid to open my mouth +presently. I shall end by believing I am no good." + +Her head drooped a little. He looked at her smooth, low brow, the +faintly coloured checks, and the red lips parted slightly, with the +gleam of her teeth within. + +"And then I won't be any good," she added with conviction. "That I +won't! I can only be what you think I am." + +He made a slight movement. She put her hand on his arm, without +raising her head, and went on, her voice animated in the stillness +of her body: + +"It is so. It couldn't be any other way with a girl like me and a +man like you. Here we are, we two alone, and I can't even tell +where we are." + +"A very well-known spot of the globe," Heyst uttered gently. "There +must have been at least fifty thousand circulars issued at the time- +-a hundred and fifty thousand, more likely. My friend was looking +after that, and his ideas were large and his belief very strong. Of +us two it was he who had the faith. A hundred and fifty thousand, +certainly." + +"What is it you mean?" she asked in a low tone. + +"What should I find fault with you for?" Heyst went on. "For being +amiable, good, gracious--and pretty?" + +A silence fell. Then she said: + +"It's all right that you should think that of me. There's no one +here to think anything of us, good or bad." + +The rare timbre of her voice gave a special value to what she +uttered. The indefinable emotion which certain intonations gave +him, he was aware, was more physical than moral. Every time she +spoke to him she seemed to abandon to him something of herself-- +something excessively subtle and inexpressible, to which he was +infinitely sensible, which he would have missed horribly if she were +to go away. While he was looking into her eyes she raised her bare +forearm, out of the short sleeve, and held it in the air till he +noticed it and hastened to pose his great bronze moustaches on the +whiteness of the skin. Then they went in. + +Wang immediately appeared in front, and, squatting on his heels, +began to potter mysteriously about some plants at the foot of the +veranda. When Heyst and the girl came out again, the Chinaman had +gone in his peculiar manner, which suggested vanishing out of +existence rather than out of sight, a process of evaporation rather +than of movement. They descended the steps, looking at each other, +and started off smartly across the cleared ground; but they were not +ten yards away when, without perceptible stir or sound, Wang +materialized inside the empty room. The Chinaman stood still with +roaming eyes, examining the walls as if for signs, for inscriptions; +exploring the floor as if for pitfalls, for dropped coins. Then he +cocked his head slightly at the profile of Heyst's father, pen in +hand above a white sheet of paper on a crimson tablecloth; and, +moving forward noiselessly, began to clear away the breakfast +things. + +Though he proceeded without haste, the unerring precision of his +movements, the absolute soundlessness of the operation, gave it +something of the quality of a conjuring trick. And, the trick +having been performed, Wang vanished from the scene, to materialize +presently in front of the house. He materialized walking away from +it, with no visible or guessable intention; but at the end of some +ten paces he stopped, made a half turn, and put his hand up to shade +his eyes. The sun had topped the grey ridge of Samburan. The great +morning shadow was gone; and far away in the devouring sunshine Wang +was in time to see Number One and the woman, two remote white specks +against the sombre line of the forest. In a moment they vanished. +With the smallest display of action, Wang also vanished from the +sunlight of the clearing. + +Heyst and Lena entered the shade of the forest path which crossed +the island, and which, near its highest point had been blocked by +felled trees. But their intention was not to go so far. After +keeping to the path for some distance, they left it at a point where +the forest was bare of undergrowth, and the trees, festooned with +creepers, stood clear of one another in the gloom of their own +making. Here and there great splashes of light lay on the ground. +They moved, silent in the great stillness, breathing the calmness, +the infinite isolation, the repose of a slumber without dreams. +They emerged at the upper limit of vegetation, among some rocks; and +in a depression of the sharp slope, like a small platform, they +turned about and looked from on high over the sea, lonely, its +colour effaced by sunshine, its horizon a heat mist, a mere +unsubstantial shimmer in the pale and blinding infinity overhung by +the darker blaze of the sky. + +"It makes my head swim," the girl murmured, shutting her eyes and +putting her hand on his shoulder. + +Heyst, gazing fixedly to the southward, exclaimed: + +"Sail ho!" + +A moment of silence ensued. + +"It must be very far away," he went on. "I don't think you could +see it. Some native craft making for the Moluccas, probably. Come, +we mustn't stay here." + +With his arm round her waist, he led her down a little distance, and +they settled themselves in the shade; she, seated on the ground, he +a little lower, reclining at her feet. + +"You don't like to look at the sea from up there?" he said after a +time. + +She shook her head. That empty space was to her the abomination of +desolation. But she only said again: + +"It makes my head swim." + +"Too big?" he inquired. + +"Too lonely. It makes my heart sink, too," she added in a low +voice, as if confessing a secret. + +"I'm am afraid," said Heyst, "that you would be justified in +reproaching me for these sensations. But what would you have?" + +His tone was playful, but his eyes, directed at her face, were +serious. She protested. + +"I am not feeling lonely with you--not a bit. It is only when we +come up to that place, and I look at all that water and all that +light--" + +"We will never come here again, then," he interrupted her. + +She remained silent for a while, returning his gaze till he removed +it. + +"It seems as if everything that there is had gone under," she said. + +"Reminds you of the story of the deluge," muttered the man, +stretched at her feet and looking at them. "Are you frightened at +it?" + +"I should be rather frightened to be left behind alone. When I say, +I, of course I mean we." + +"Do you?" . . . Heyst remained silent for a while. "The vision of a +world destroyed," he mused aloud. "Would you be sorry for it?" + +"I should be sorry for the happy people in it," she said simply. + +His gaze travelled up her figure and reached her face, where he +seemed to detect the veiled glow of intelligence, as one gets a +glimpse of the sun through the clouds. + +"I should have thought it's they specially who ought to have been +congratulated. Don't you?" + +"Oh, yes--I understand what you mean; but there were forty days +before it was all over." + +"You seem to be in possession of all the details." + +Heyst spoke just to say something rather than to gaze at her in +silence. She was not looking at him. + +"Sunday school," she murmured. "I went regularly from the time I +was eight till I was thirteen. We lodged in the north of London, +off Kingsland Road. It wasn't a bad time. Father was earning good +money then. The woman of the house used to pack me off in the +afternoon with her own girls. She was a good woman. Her husband +was in the post office. Sorter or something. Such a quiet man. He +used to go off after supper for night-duty, sometimes. Then one day +they had a row, and broke up the home. I remember I cried when we +had to pack up all of a sudden and go into other lodgings. I never +knew what it was, though--" + +"The deluge," muttered Heyst absently. + +He felt intensely aware of her personality, as if this were the +first moment of leisure he had found to look at her since they had +come together. The peculiar timbre of her voice, with its +modulations of audacity and sadness, would have given interest to +the most inane chatter. But she was no chatterer. She was rather +silent, with a capacity for immobility, an upright stillness, as +when resting on the concert platform between the musical numbers, +her feet crossed, her hands reposing on her lap. But in the +intimacy of their life her grey, unabashed gaze forced upon him the +sensation of something inexplicable reposing within her; stupidity +or inspiration, weakness or force--or simply an abysmal emptiness, +reserving itself even in the moments of complete surrender. + +During a long pause she did not look at him. Then suddenly, as if +the word "deluge" had stuck in her mind, she asked, looking up at +the cloudless sky: + +"Does it ever rain here?" + +"There is a season when it rains almost every day," said Heyst, +surprised. "There are also thunderstorms. We once had a 'mud- +shower.'" + +"Mud-shower?" + +"Our neighbour there was shooting up ashes. He sometimes clears his +red-hot gullet like that; and a thunderstorm came along at the same +time. It was very messy; but our neighbour is generally well +behaved--just smokes quietly, as he did that day when I first showed +you the smudge in the sky from the schooner's deck. He's a good- +natured, lazy fellow of a volcano." + +"I saw a mountain smoking like that before," she said, staring at +the slender stem of a tree-fern some dozen feet in front of her. +"It wasn't very long after we left England--some few days, though. +I was so ill at first that I lost count of days. A smoking +mountain--I can't think how they called it." + +"Vesuvius, perhaps," suggested Heyst. + +"That's the name." + +"I saw it, too, years, ages ago," said Heyst. + +"On your way here?" + +"No, long before I ever thought of coming into this part of the +world. I was yet a boy." + +She turned and looked at him attentively, as if seeking to discover +some trace of that boyhood in the mature face of the man with the +hair thin at the top and the long, thick moustaches. Heyst stood +the frank examination with a playful smile, hiding the profound +effect these veiled grey eyes produced--whether on his heart or on +his nerves, whether sensuous or spiritual, tender or irritating, he +was unable to say. + +"Well, princess of Samburan," he said at last, "have I found favour +in your sight?" + +She seemed to wake up, and shook her head. + +"I was thinking," she murmured very low. + +"Thought, action--so many snares! If you begin to think you will be +unhappy." + +"I wasn't thinking of myself!" she declared with a simplicity which +took Heyst aback somewhat. + +"On the lips of a moralist this would sound like a rebuke," he said, +half seriously; "but I won't suspect you of being one. Moralists +and I haven't been friends for many years." + +She had listened with an air of attention. + +"I understood you had no friends," she said. "I am pleased that +there's nobody to find fault with you for what you have done. I +like to think that I am in no one's way." + +Heyst would have said something, but she did not give him time. +Unconscious of the movement he made she went on: + +"What I was thinking to myself was, why are you here?" + +Heyst let himself sink on his elbow again. + +"If by 'you' you mean 'we'--well, you know why we are here." + +She bent her gaze down at him. + +"No, it isn't that. I meant before--all that time before you came +across me and guessed at once that I was in trouble, with no one to +turn to. And you know it was desperate trouble too." + +Her voice fell on the last words, as if she would end there; but +there was something so expectant in Heyst's attitude as he sat at +her feet, looking up at her steadily, that she continued, after +drawing a short, quick breath: + +"It was, really. I told you I had been worried before by bad +fellows. It made me unhappy, disturbed--angry, too. But oh, how I +hated, hated, HATED that man!" + +"That man" was the florid Schomberg with the military bearing, +benefactor of white men ('decent food to eat in decent company')-- +mature victim of belated passion. The girl shuddered. The +characteristic harmoniousness of her face became, as it were, +decomposed for an instant. Heyst was startled. + +"Why think of it now?" he cried. + +"It's because I was cornered that time. It wasn't as before. It +was worse, ever so much. I wished I could die of my fright--and yet +it's only now that I begin to understand what a horror it might have +been. Yes, only now, since we--" + +Heyst stirred a little. + +"Came here," he finished. + +Her tenseness relaxed, her flushed face went gradually back to its +normal tint. + +"Yes," she said indifferently, but at the same time she gave him a +stealthy glance of passionate appreciation; and then her face took +on a melancholy cast, her whole figure drooped imperceptibly. + +"But you were coming back here anyhow?" she asked. + +"Yes. I was only waiting for Davidson. Yes, I was coming back +here, to these ruins--to Wang, who perhaps did not expect to see me +again. It's impossible to guess at the way that Chinaman draws his +conclusions, and how he looks upon one." + +"Don't talk about him. He makes me feel uncomfortable. Talk about +yourself!" + +"About myself? I see you are still busy with the mystery of my +existence here; but it isn't at all mysterious. Primarily the man +with the quill pen in his hand in that picture you so often look at +is responsible for my existence. He is also responsible for what my +existence is, or rather has been. He was a great man in his way. I +don't know much of his history. I suppose he began like other +people; took fine words for good, ringing coin and noble ideals for +valuable banknotes. He was a great master of both, himself, by the +way. Later he discovered--how am I to explain it to you? Suppose +the world were a factory and all mankind workmen in it. Well, he +discovered that the wages were not good enough. That they were paid +in counterfeit money." + +"I see!" the girl said slowly. + +"Do you?" + +Heyst, who had been speaking as if to himself, looked up curiously. + +"It wasn't a new discovery, but he brought his capacity for scorn to +bear on it. It was immense. It ought to have withered this globe. +I don't know how many minds he convinced. But my mind was very +young then, and youth I suppose can be easily seduced--even by a +negation. He was very ruthless, and yet he was not without pity. +He dominated me without difficulty. A heartless man could not have +done so. Even to fools he was not utterly merciless. He could be +indignant, but he was too great for flouts and jeers. What he said +was not meant for the crowd; it could not be; and I was flattered to +find myself among the elect. They read his books, but I have heard +his living word. It was irresistible. It was as if that mind were +taking me into its confidence, giving me a special insight into its +mastery of despair. Mistake, no doubt. There is something of my +father in every man who lives long enough. But they don't say +anything. They can't. They wouldn't know how, or perhaps, they +wouldn't speak if they could. Man on this earth is an unforeseen +accident which does not stand close investigation. However, that +particular man died as quietly as a child goes to sleep. But, after +listening to him, I could not take my soul down into the street to +fight there. I started off to wander about, an independent +spectator--if that is possible." + +For a long time the girl's grey eyes had been watching his face. +She discovered that, addressing her, he was really talking to +himself. Heyst looked up, caught sight of her as it were, and +caught himself up, with a low laugh and a change of tone. + +"All this does not tell you why I ever came here. Why, indeed? +It's like prying into inscrutable mysteries which are not worth +scrutinizing. A man drifts. The most successful men have drifted +into their successes. I don't want to tell you that this is a +success. You wouldn't believe me if I did. It isn't; neither is it +the ruinous failure it looks. It proves nothing, unless perhaps +some hidden weakness in my character--and even that is not certain." + +He looked fixedly at her, and with such grave eyes that she felt +obliged to smile faintly at him, since she did not understand what +he meant. Her smile was reflected, still fainter, on his lips. + +"This does not advance you much in your inquiry," he went on. "And +in truth your question is unanswerable; but facts have a certain +positive value, and I will tell you a fact. One day I met a +cornered man. I use the word because it expresses the man's +situation exactly, and because you just used it yourself. You know +what that means?" + +"What do you say?" she whispered, astounded. "A man!" + +Heyst laughed at her wondering eyes. + +"No! No! I mean in his own way." + +"I knew very well it couldn't be anything like that," she observed +under her breath. + +"I won't bother you with the story. It was a custom-house affair, +strange as it may sound to you. He would have preferred to be +killed outright--that is, to have his soul dispatched to another +world, rather than to be robbed of his substance, his very +insignificant substance, in this. I saw that he believed in another +world because, being cornered, as I have told you, he went down on +his knees and prayed. What do you think of that?" + +Heyst paused. She looked at him earnestly. + +"You didn't make fun of him for that?" she said. + +Heyst made a brusque movement of protest + +"My dear girl, I am not a ruffian," he cried. Then, returning to +his usual tone: "I didn't even have to conceal a smile. Somehow it +didn't look a smiling matter. No, it was not funny; it was rather +pathetic; he was so representative of an the past victims of the +Great Joke. But it is by folly alone that the world moves, and so +it is a respectable thing upon the whole. And besides, he was what +one would call a good man. I don't mean especially because he had +offered up a prayer. No! He was really a decent fellow, he was +quite unfitted for this world, he was a failure, a good man +cornered--a sight for the gods; for no decent mortal cares to look +at that sort." A thought seemed to occur to him. He turned his +face to the girl. "And you, who have been cornered too--did you +think of offering a prayer?" + +Neither her eyes nor a single one of her features moved the least +bit. She only let fall the words: + +"I am not what they call a good girl." + +"That sounds evasive," said Heyst after a short silence. "Well, the +good fellow did pray and after he had confessed to it I was struck +by the comicality of the situation. No, don't misunderstand me--I +am not alluding to his act, of course. And even the idea of +Eternity, Infinity, Omnipotence, being called upon to defeat the +conspiracy of two miserable Portuguese half-castes did not move my +mirth. From the point of view of the supplicant, the danger to be +conjured was something like the end of the world, or worse. No! +What captivated my fancy was that I, Axel Heyst, the most detached +of creatures in this earthly captivity, the veriest tramp on this +earth, an indifferent stroller going through the world's bustle-- +that I should have been there to step into the situation of an agent +of Providence. _I_, a man of universal scorn and unbelief . . . " + +"You are putting it on," she interrupted in her seductive voice, +with a coaxing intonation. + +"No. I am not like that, born or fashioned, or both. I am not for +nothing the son of my father, of that man in the painting. I am he, +all but the genius. And there is even less in me than I make out, +because the very scorn is falling away from me year after year. I +have never been so amused as by that episode in which I was suddenly +called to act such an incredible part. For a moment I enjoyed it +greatly. It got him out of his corner, you know." + +"You saved a man for fun--is that what you mean? Just for fun?" + +"Why this tone of suspicion?" remonstrated Heyst. "I suppose the +sight of this particular distress was disagreeable to me. What you +call fun came afterwards, when it dawned on me that I was for him a +walking, breathing, incarnate proof of the efficacy of prayer. I +was a little fascinated by it--and then, could I have argued with +him? You don't argue against such evidence, and besides it would +have looked as if I had wanted to claim all the merit. Already his +gratitude was simply frightful. Funny position, wasn't it? The +boredom came later, when we lived together on board his ship. I +had, in a moment of inadvertence, created for myself a tie. How to +define it precisely I don't know. One gets attached in a way to +people one has done something for. But is that friendship? I am +not sure what it was. I only know that he who forms a tie is lost. +The germ of corruption has entered into his soul." + +Heyst's tone was light, with the flavour of playfulness which +seasoned all his speeches and seemed to be of the very essence of +his thoughts. The girl he had come across, of whom he had possessed +himself, to whose presence he was not yet accustomed, with whom he +did not yet know how to live; that human being so near and still so +strange, gave him a greater sense of his own reality than he had +ever known in all his life. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + + +With her knees drawn up, Lena rested her elbows on them and held her +head in both her hands. + +"Are you tired of sitting here?" Heyst asked. + +An almost imperceptible negative movement of the head was all the +answer she made. + +"Why are you looking so serious?" he pursued, and immediately +thought that habitual seriousness, in the long run, was much more +bearable than constant gaiety. "However, this expression suits you +exceedingly," he added, not diplomatically, but because, by the +tendency of his taste, it was a true statement. "And as long as I +can be certain that it is not boredom which gives you this severe +air, I am willing to sit here and look at you till you are ready to +go." + +And this was true. He was still under the fresh sortilege of their +common life, the surprise of novelty, the flattered vanity of his +possession of this woman; for a man must feel that, unless he has +ceased to be masculine. Her eyes moved in his direction, rested on +him, then returned to their stare into the deeper gloom at the foot +of the straight tree-trunks, whose spreading crowns were slowly +withdrawing their shade. The warm air stirred slightly about her +motionless head. She would not look at him, from some obscure fear +of betraying herself. She felt in her innermost depths an +irresistible desire to give herself up to him more completely, by +some act of absolute sacrifice. This was something of which he did +not seem to have an idea. He was a strange being without needs. +She felt his eyes fixed upon her; and as he kept silent, she said +uneasily--for she didn't know what his silences might mean: + +"And so you lived with that friend--that good man?" + +"Excellent fellow," Heyst responded, with a readiness that she did +not expect. "But it was a weakness on my part. I really didn't +want to, only he wouldn't let me off, and I couldn't explain. He +was the sort of man to whom you can't explain anything. He was +extremely sensitive, and it would have been a tigerish thing to do +to mangle his delicate feelings by the sort of plain speaking that +would have been necessary. His mind was like a white-walled, pure +chamber, furnished with, say, six straw-bottomed chairs, and he was +always placing and displacing them in various combinations. But +they were always the same chairs. He was extremely easy to live +with; but then he got hold of this coal idea--or, rather, the idea +got hold of him, it entered into that scantily furnished chamber of +which I have just spoken, and sat on all the chairs. There was no +dislodging it, you know! It was going to make his fortune, my +fortune, everybody's fortune. In past years, in moments of doubt +that will come to a man determined to remain free from absurdities +of existence, I often asked myself, with a momentary dread, in what +way would life try to get hold of me? And this was the way. He got +it into his head that he could do nothing without me. And was I +now, he asked me, to spurn and ruin him? Well, one morning--I +wonder if he had gone down on his knees to pray that night!--one +morning I gave in." + +Heyst tugged violently at a tuft of dried grass, and cast it away +from him with a nervous gesture. + +"I gave in," he repeated. + +Looking towards him with a movement of her eyes only, the girl +noticed the strong feeling on his face with that intense interest +which his person awakened in her mind and in her heart. But it soon +passed away, leaving only a moody expression. + +"It's difficult to resist where nothing matters," he observed. "And +perhaps there is a grain of freakishness in my nature. It amused me +to go about uttering silly, commonplace phrases. I was never so +well thought of in the islands till I began to jabber commercial +gibberish like the veriest idiot. Upon my word, I believe that I +was actually respected for a time. I was as grave as an owl over +it; I had to be loyal to the man. I have been, from first to last, +completely, utterly loyal to the best of my ability. I thought he +understood something about coal. And if I had been aware that he +knew nothing of it, as in fact he didn't, well--I don't know what I +could have done to stop him. In one way or another I should have +had to be loyal. Truth, work, ambition, love itself, may be only +counters in the lamentable or despicable game of life, but when one +takes a hand one must play the game. No, the shade of Morrison +needn't haunt me. What's the matter? I say, Lena, why are you +staring like that? Do you feel ill?" + +Heyst made as if to get on his feet. The girl extended her arm to +arrest him, and he remained staring in a sitting posture, propped on +one arm, observing her indefinable expression of anxiety, as if she +were unable to draw breath. + +"What has come to you?" he insisted, feeling strangely unwilling to +move, to touch her. + +"Nothing!" She swallowed painfully. "Of course it can't be. What +name did you say? I didn't hear it properly." + +"Name?" repeated Heyst dazedly. "I only mentioned Morrison. It's +the name of that man of whom I've been speaking. What of it?" + +"And you mean to say that he was your friend?" + +"You have heard enough to judge for yourself. You know as much of +our connection as I know myself. The people in this part of the +world went by appearances, and called us friends, as far as I can +remember. Appearances--what more, what better can you ask for? In +fact you can't have better. You can't have anything else." + +"You are trying to confuse me with your talk," she cried. "You +can't make fun of this." + +"Can't? Well, no I can't. It's a pity. Perhaps it would have been +the best way," said Heyst, in a tone which for him could be called +gloomy. "Unless one could forget the silly business altogether." +His faint playfulness of manner and speech returned, like a habit +one has schooled oneself into, even before his forehead had cleared +completely. "But why are you looking so hard at me? Oh, I don't +object, and I shall try not to flinch. Your eyes--" + +He was looking straight into them, and as a matter of fact had +forgotten all about the late Morrison at that moment. + +"No," he exclaimed suddenly. "What an impenetrable girl you are +Lena, with those grey eyes of yours! Windows of the soul, as some +poet has said. The fellow must have been a glazier by vocation. +Well, nature has provided excellently for the shyness of your soul." + +When he ceased speaking, the girl came to herself with a catch of +her breath. He heard her voice, the varied charm of which he +thought he knew so well, saying with an unfamiliar intonation: + +"And that partner of yours is dead?" + +"Morrison? Oh, yes, as I've told you, he--" + +"You never told me." + +"Didn't I? I thought I did; or, rather, I thought you must know. +It seems impossible that anybody with whom I speak should not know +that Morrison is dead." + +She lowered her eyelids, and Heyst was startled by something like an +expression of horror on her face. + +"Morrison!" she whispered in an appalled tone. "Morrison!" Her +head drooped. Unable to see her features, Heyst could tell from her +voice that for some reason or other she was profoundly moved by the +syllables of that unromantic name. A thought flashed through his +head--could she have known Morrison? But the mere difference of +their origins made it wildly improbable. + +"This is very extraordinary!" he said. "Have you ever heard the +name before?" + +Her head moved quickly several times in tiny affirmative nods, as if +she could not trust herself to speak, or even to look at him. She +was biting her lower lip. + +"Did you ever know anybody of that name?" he asked. + +The girl answered by a negative sign; and then at last she spoke, +jerkily, as if forcing herself against some doubt or fear. She had +heard of that very man, she told Heyst. + +"Impossible!" he said positively. "You are mistaken. You couldn't +have heard of him, it's--" + +He stopped short, with the thought that to talk like this was +perfectly useless; that one doesn't argue against thin air. + +"But I did hear of him; only I didn't know then, I couldn't guess, +that it was your partner they were talking about." + +"Talking about my partner?" repeated Heyst slowly. + +"No." Her mind seemed almost as bewildered, as full of incredulity, +as his. "No. They were talking of you really; only I didn't know +it." + +"Who were they?" Heyst raised his voice. "Who was talking of me? +Talking where?" + +With the first question he had lifted himself from his reclining +position; at the last he was on his knees before her, their heads on +a level. + +"Why, in that town, in that hotel. Where else could it have been?" +she said. + +The idea of being talked about was always novel to Heyst's +simplified conception of himself. For a moment he was as much +surprised as if he had believed himself to be a mere gliding shadow +among men. Besides, he had in him a half-unconscious notion that he +was above the level of island gossip. + +"But you said first that it was of Morrison they talked," he +remarked to the girl, sinking on his heels, and no longer much +interested. "Strange that you should have the opportunity to hear +any talk at all! I was rather under the impression that you never +saw anybody belonging to the town except from the platform." + +"You forget that I was not living with the other girls," she said. +"After meals they used to go back to the Pavilion, but I had to stay +in the hotel and do my sewing, or what not, in the room where they +talked." + +"I didn't think of that. By the by, you never told me who they +were." + +"Why, that horrible red-faced beast," she said, with all the energy +of disgust which the mere thought of the hotel-keeper provoked in +her. + +"Oh, Schomberg!" Heyst murmured carelessly. + +"He talked to the boss--to Zangiacomo, I mean. I had to sit there. +That devil-woman sometimes wouldn't let me go away. I mean Mrs. +Zangiacomo." + +"I guessed," murmured Heyst. "She liked to torment you in a variety +of ways. But it is really strange that the hotel-keeper should talk +of Morrison to Zangiacomo. As far as I can remember he saw very +little of Morrison professionally. He knew many others much +better." + +The girl shuddered slightly. + +"That was the only name I ever overheard. I would get as far away +from them as I could, to the other end of the room, but when that +beast started shouting I could not help hearing. I wish I had never +heard anything. If I had got up and gone out of the room I don't +suppose the woman would have killed me for it; but she would have +rowed me in a nasty way. She would have threatened me and called me +names. That sort, when they know you are helpless, there's nothing +to stop them. I don't know how it is, but bad people, real bad +people that you can see are bad, they get over me somehow. It's the +way they set about downing one. I am afraid of wickedness." + +Heyst watched the changing expressions of her face. He encouraged +her, profoundly sympathetic, a little amused. + +"I quite understand. You needn't apologize for your great delicacy +in the perception of inhuman evil. I am a little like you." + +"I am not very plucky," she said. + +"Well! I don't know myself what I would do, what countenance I +would have before a creature which would strike me as being evil +incarnate. Don't you be ashamed!" + +She sighed, looked up with her pale, candid gaze and a timid +expression on her face, and murmured: + +"You don't seem to want to know what he was saying." + +"About poor Morrison? It couldn't have been anything bad, for the +poor fellow was innocence itself. And then, you know, he is dead, +and nothing can possibly matter to him now." + +"But I tell you that it was of you he was talking!" she cried. + +"He was saying that Morrison's partner first got all there was to +get out of him, and then, and then--well, as good as murdered him-- +sent him out to die somewhere!" + +"You believe that of me?" said Heyst, after a moment of perfect +silence. + +"I didn't know it had anything to do with you. Schomberg was +talking of some Swede. How was I to know? It was only when you +began telling me about how you came here--" + +"And now you have my version." Heyst forced himself to speak +quietly. "So that's how the business looked from outside!" he +muttered. + +"I remember him saying that everybody in these parts knew the +story," the girl added breathlessly. + +"Strange that it should hurt me!" mused Heyst to himself; "yet it +does. I seem to be as much of a fool as those everybodies who know +the story and no doubt believe it. Can you remember any more?" he +addressed the girl in a grimly polite tone. "I've often heard of +the moral advantages of seeing oneself as others see one. Let us +investigate further. Can't you recall something else that everybody +knows?" + +"Oh! Don't laugh!" she cried. + +"Did I laugh? I assure you I was not aware of it. I won't ask you +whether you believe the hotel-keeper's version. Surely you must +know the value of human judgement!" + +She unclasped her hands, moved them slightly, and twined her fingers +as before. Protest? Assent? Was there to be nothing more? He was +relieved when she spoke in that warm and wonderful voice which in +itself comforted and fascinated one's heart, which made her lovable. + +"I heard this before you and I ever spoke to each other. It went +out of my memory afterwards. Everything went out of my memory then; +and I was glad of it. It was a fresh start for me, with you--and +you know it. I wish I had forgotten who I was--that would have been +best; and I very nearly did forget." + +He was moved by the vibrating quality of the last words. She seemed +to be talking low of some wonderful enchantment, in mysterious terms +of special significance. He thought that if she only could talk to +him in some unknown tongue, she would enslave him altogether by the +sheer beauty of the sound, suggesting infinite depths of wisdom and +feeling. + +"But," she went on, "the name stuck in my head, it seems; and when +you mentioned it--" + +"It broke the spell," muttered Heyst in angry disappointment as if +he had been deceived in some hope. + +The girl, from her position a little above him, surveyed with still +eyes the abstracted silence of the man on whom she now depended with +a completeness of which she had not been vividly conscious before, +because, till then, she had never felt herself swinging between the +abysses of earth and heaven in the hollow of his arm. What if he +should grow weary of the burden? + +"And, moreover, nobody had ever believed that tale!" + +Heyst came out with an abrupt burst of sound which made her open her +steady eyes wider, with an effect of immense surprise. It was a +purely mechanical effect, because she was neither surprised nor +puzzled. In fact, she could understand him better then than at any +moment since she first set eyes on him. + +He laughed scornfully. + +"What am I thinking of?" he cried. "As if it could matter to me +what anybody had ever said or believed, from the beginning of the +world till the crack of doom!" + +"I never heard you laugh till today," she observed. "This is the +second time!" + +He scrambled to his feet and towered above her. + +"That's because, when one's heart has been broken into in the way +you have broken into mine, all sorts of weaknesses are free to +enter--shame, anger, stupid indignation, stupid fears--stupid +laughter, too. I wonder what interpretation you are putting on it?" + +"It wasn't gay, certainly," she said. "But why are you angry with +me? Are you sorry you took me away from those beasts? I told you +who I was. You could see it." + +"Heavens!" he muttered. He had regained his command of himself. "I +assure you I could see much more than you could tell me. I could +see quite a lot that you don't even suspect yet, but you can't be +seen quite through." + +He sank to the ground by her side and took her hand. She asked +gently: + +"What more do you want from me?" + +He made no sound for a time. + +"The impossible, I suppose," he said very low, as one makes a +confidence, and pressing the hand he grasped. + +It did not return the pressure. He shook his head as if to drive +away the thought of this, and added in a louder, light tone: + +"Nothing less. And it isn't because I think little of what I've got +already. Oh, no! It is because I think so much of this possession +of mine that I can't have it complete enough. I know it's +unreasonable. You can't hold back anything--now." + +"Indeed I couldn't," she whispered, letting her hand lie passive in +his tight grasp. "I only wish I could give you something more, or +better, or whatever it is you want." + +He was touched by the sincere accent of these simple words. + +"I tell you what you can do--you can tell me whether you would have +gone with me like this if you had known of whom that abominable +idiot of a hotel-keeper was speaking. A murderer--no less!" + +"But I didn't know you at all then," she cried. "And I had the +sense to understand what he was saying. It wasn't murder, really. +I never thought it was." + +"What made him invent such an atrocity?" Heyst exclaimed. "He seems +a stupid animal. He IS stupid. How did he manage to hatch that +pretty tale? Have I a particularly vile countenance? Is black +selfishness written all over my face? Or is that sort of thing so +universally human that it might be said of anybody?" + +"It wasn't murder," she insisted earnestly. + +"I know. I understand. It was worse. As to killing a man, which +would be a comparatively decent thing to do, well--I have never done +that." + +"Why should you do it?" she asked in a frightened voice. + +"My dear girl, you don't know the sort of life I have been leading +in unexplored countries, in the wilds; it's difficult to give you an +idea. There are men who haven't been in such tight places as I have +found myself in who have had to--to shed blood, as the saying is. +Even the wilds hold prizes which tempt some people; but I had no +schemes, no plans--and not even great firmness of mind to make me +unduly obstinate. I was simply moving on, while the others, +perhaps, were going somewhere. An indifference as to roads and +purposes makes one meeker, as it were. And I may say truly, too, +that I never did care, I won't say for life--I had scorned what +people call by that name from the first--but for being alive. I +don't know if that is what men call courage, but I doubt it very +much." + +"You! You have no courage?" she protested. + +"I really don't know. Not the sort that always itches for a weapon, +for I have never been anxious to use one in the quarrels that a man +gets into in the most innocent way sometimes. The differences for +which men murder each other are, like everything else they do, the +most contemptible, the most pitiful things to look back upon. No, +I've never killed a man or loved a woman--not even in my thoughts, +not even in my dreams." + +He raised her hand to his lips, and let them rest on it for a space, +during which she moved a little closer to him. After the lingering +kiss he did not relinquish his hold. + +"To slay, to love--the greatest enterprises of life upon a man! And +I have no experience of either. You must forgive me anything that +may have appeared to you awkward in my behaviour, inexpressive in my +speeches, untimely in my silences." + +He moved uneasily, a little disappointed by her attitude, but +indulgent to it, and feeling, in this moment of perfect quietness, +that in holding her surrendered hand he had found a closer communion +than they had ever achieved before. But even then there still +lingered in him a sense of incompleteness not altogether overcome-- +which, it seemed, nothing ever would overcome--the fatal +imperfection of all the gifts of life, which makes of them a +delusion and a snare. + +All of a sudden he squeezed her hand angrily. His delicately +playful equanimity, the product of kindness and scorn, had perished +with the loss of his bitter liberty. + +"Not murder, you say! I should think not. But when you led me to +talk just now, when the name turned up, when you understood that it +was of me that these things had been said, you showed a strange +emotion. I could see it." + +"I was a bit startled," she said. + +"At the baseness of my conduct?" he asked. + +"I wouldn't judge you, not for anything." + +"Really?" + +"It would be as if I dared to judge everything that there is." With +her other hand she made a gesture that seemed to embrace in one +movement the earth and the heaven. "I wouldn't do such a thing." + +Then came a silence, broken at last by Heyst: + +"I! I! do a deadly wrong to my poor Morrison!" he cried. "I, who +could not bear to hurt his feelings. I, who respected his very +madness! Yes, this madness, the wreck of which you can see lying +about the jetty of Diamond Bay. What else could I do? He insisted +on regarding me as his saviour; he was always restraining the +eternal obligation on the tip of his tongue, till I was burning with +shame at his gratitude. What could I do? He was going to repay me +with this infernal coal, and I had to join him as one joins a +child's game in a nursery. One would no more have thought of +humiliating him than one would think of humiliating a child. What's +the use of talking of all this! Of course, the people here could +not understand the truth of our relation to each other. But what +business of theirs was it? Kill old Morrison! Well, it is less +criminal, less base--I am not saying it is less difficult--to kill a +man than to cheat him in that way. You understand that?" + +She nodded slightly, but more than once and with evident conviction. +His eyes rested on her, inquisitive, ready for tenderness. + +"But it was neither one nor the other," he went on. "Then, why I +your emotion? All you confess is that you wouldn't judge me." + +She turned upon him her veiled, unseeing grey eyes in which nothing +of her wonder could be read. + +"I said I couldn't," she whispered. + +"But you thought that there was no smoke without fire!" the +playfulness of tone hardly concealed his irritation. "What power +there must be in words, only imperfectly heard--for you did not +listen with particular care, did you? What were they? What evil +effort of invention drove them into that idiot's mouth out of his +lying throat? If you were to try to remember, they would perhaps +convince me, too." + +"I didn't listen," she protested. "What was it to me what they said +of anybody? He was saying that there never were such loving friends +to look at as you two; then, when you got all you wanted out of him +and got thoroughly tired of him, too, you kicked him out to go home +and die." + +Indignation, with an undercurrent of some other feeling, rang in +these quoted words, uttered in her pure and enchanting voice. She +ceased abruptly and lowered her long, dark lashes, as if mortally +weary, sick at heart. + +"Of course, why shouldn't you get tired of that or any other-- +company? You aren't like anyone else, and--and the thought of it +made me unhappy suddenly; but indeed, I did not believe anything bad +of you. I--" + +A brusque movement of his arm, flinging her hand away, stopped her +short. Heyst had again lost control of himself. He would have +shouted, if shouting had been in his character. + +"No, this earth must be the appointed hatching planet of calumny +enough to furnish the whole universe. I feel a disgust at my own +person, as if I had tumbled into some filthy hole. Pah! And you-- +all you can say is that you won't judge me; that you--" + +She raised her head at this attack, though indeed he had not turned +to her. + +"I don't believe anything bad of you," she repeated. "I couldn't." + +He made a gesture as if to say: + +"That's sufficient." + +In his soul and in his body he experienced a nervous reaction from +tenderness. All at once, without transition, he detested her. But +only for a moment. He remembered that she was pretty, and, more, +that she had a special grace in the intimacy of life. She had the +secret of individuality which excites--and escapes. + +He jumped up and began to walk to and fro. Presently his hidden +fury fell into dust within him, like a crazy structure, leaving +behind emptiness, desolation, regret. His resentment was not +against the girl, but against life itself--that commonest of snares, +in which he felt himself caught, seeing clearly the plot of plots +and unconsoled by the lucidity of his mind. + +He swerved and, stepping up to her, sank to the ground by her side. +Before she could make a movement or even turn her head his way, he +took her in his arms and kissed her lips. He tasted on them the +bitterness of a tear fallen there. He had never seen her cry. It +was like another appeal to his tenderness--a new seduction. The +girl glanced round, moved suddenly away, and averted her face. With +her hand she signed imperiously to him to leave her alone--a command +which Heyst did not obey. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + + +When she opened her eyes at last and sat up, Heyst scrambled quickly +to his feet and went to pick up her cork helmet, which had rolled a +little way off. Meanwhile she busied herself in doing up her hair, +plaited on the top of her head in two heavy, dark tresses, which had +come loose. He tendered her the helmet in silence, and waited as if +unwilling to hear the sound of his own voice. + +"We had better go down now," he suggested in a low tone. + +He extended his hand to help her up. He had the intention to smile, +but abandoned it at the nearer sight of her still face, in which was +depicted the infinite lassitude of her soul. On their way to regain +the forest path they had to pass through the spot from which the +view of the sea could be obtained. The flaming abyss of emptiness, +the liquid, undulating glare, the tragic brutality of the light, +made her long for the friendly night, with its stars stilled by an +austere spell; for the velvety dark sky and the mysterious great +shadow of the sea, conveying peace to the day-weary heart. She put +her hand to her eyes. Behind her back Heyst spoke gently. + +"Let us get on, Lena." + +She walked ahead in silence. Heyst remarked that they had never +been out before during the hottest hours. It would do her no good, +he feared. This solicitude pleased and soothed her. She felt more +and more like herself--a poor London girl playing in an orchestra, +and snatched out from the humiliations, the squalid dangers of a +miserable existence, by a man like whom there was not, there could +not be, another in this world. She felt this with elation, with +uneasiness, with an intimate pride--and with a peculiar sinking of +the heart. + +"I am not easily knocked out by any such thing as heat," she said +decisively. + +"Yes, but I don't forget that you're not a tropical bird." + +"You weren't born in these parts, either," she returned. + +"No, and perhaps I haven't even your physique. I am a transplanted +being. Transplanted! I ought to call myself uprooted--an unnatural +state of existence; but a man is supposed to stand anything." + +She looked back at him and received a smile. He told her to keep in +the shelter of the forest path, which was very still and close, full +of heat if free from glare. Now and then they had glimpses of the +company's old clearing blazing with light, in which the black stumps +of trees stood charred, without shadows, miserable and sinister. +They crossed the open in a direct line for the bungalow. On the +veranda they fancied they had a glimpse of the vanishing Wang, +though the girl was not at all sure that she had seen anything move. +Heyst had no doubts. + +"Wang has been looking out for us. We are late." + +"Was he? I thought I saw something white for a moment, and then I +did not see it any more." + +"That's it--he vanishes. It's a very remarkable gift in that +Chinaman." + +"Are they all like that?" she asked with naive curiosity and +uneasiness. + +"Not in such perfection," said Heyst, amused. + +He noticed with approval that she was not heated by the walk. The +drops of perspiration on her forehead were like dew on the cool, +white petal of a flower. He looked at her figure of grace and +strength, solid and supple, with an ever-growing appreciation. + +"Go in and rest yourself for a quarter of an hour; and then Mr. Wang +will give us something to eat," he said. + +They had found the table laid. When they came together again and +sat down to it, Wang materialized without a sound, unheard, +uncalled, and did his office. Which being accomplished, at a given +moment he was not. + +A great silence brooded over Samburan--the silence of the great heat +that seems pregnant with fatal issues, like the silence of ardent +thought. Heyst remained alone in the big room. The girl seeing him +take up a book, had retreated to her chamber. Heyst sat down under +his father's portrait; and the abominable calumny crept back into +his recollection. The taste of it came on his lips, nauseating and +corrosive like some kinds of poison. He was tempted to spit on the +floor, naively, in sheer unsophisticated disgust of the physical +sensation. He shook his head, surprised at himself. He was not +used to receive his intellectual impressions in that way--reflected +in movements of carnal emotion. He stirred impatiently in his +chair, and raised the book to his eyes with both hands. It was one +of his father's. He opened it haphazard, and his eyes fell on the +middle of the page. The elder Heyst had written of everything in +many books--of space and of time, of animals and of stars; analysing +ideas and actions, the laughter and the frowns of men, and the +grimaces of their agony. The son read, shrinking into himself, +composing his face as if under the author's eye, with a vivid +consciousness of the portrait on his right hand, a little above his +head; a wonderful presence in its heavy frame on the flimsy wall of +mats, looking exiled and at home, out of place and masterful, in the +painted immobility of profile. + +And Heyst, the son, read: + + +Of the stratagems of life the most cruel is the consolation of love- +-the most subtle, too; for the desire is the bed of dreams. + + +He turned the pages of the little volume, "Storm and Dust," glancing +here and there at the broken text of reflections, maxims, short +phrases, enigmatical sometimes and sometimes eloquent. It seemed to +him that he was hearing his father's voice, speaking and ceasing to +speak again. Startled at first, he ended by finding a charm in the +illusion. He abandoned himself to the half-belief that something of +his father dwelt yet on earth--a ghostly voice, audible to the ear +of his own flesh and blood. With what strange serenity, mingled +with terrors, had that man considered the universal nothingness! He +had plunged into it headlong, perhaps to render death, the answer +that faced one at every inquiry, more supportable. + +Heyst stirred, and the ghostly voice ceased; but his eyes followed +the words on the last page of the book: + + +Men of tormented conscience, or of a criminal imagination, are aware +of much that minds of a peaceful, resigned cast do not even suspect. +It is not poets alone who dare descend into the abyss of infernal +regions, or even who dream of such a descent. The most inexpressive +of human beings must have said to himself, at one time or another: +"Anything but this!" . . . + +We all have our instants of clairvoyance. They are not very +helpful. The character of the scheme does not permit that or +anything else to be helpful. Properly speaking its character, +judged by the standards established by its victims, is infamous. It +excuses every violence of protest and at the same time never fails +to crush it, just as it crushes the blindest assent. The so-called +wickedness must be, like the so-called virtue, its own reward--to be +anything at all . . . + +Clairvoyance or no clairvoyance, men love their captivity. To the +unknown force of negation they prefer the miserably tumbled bed of +their servitude. Man alone can give one the disgust of pity; yet I +find it easier to believe in the misfortune of mankind than in its +wickedness. + + +These were the last words. Heyst lowered the book to his knees. +Lena's voice spoke above his drooping head: + +"You sit there as if you were unhappy." + +"I thought you were asleep," he said. + +"I was lying down right enough, but I never closed my eyes." + +"The rest would have done you good after our walk. Didn't you try?" + +"I was lying down, I tell you, but sleep I couldn't." + +"And you made no sound! What want of sincerity. Or did you want to +be alone for a time?" + +"I--alone?" she murmured. + +He noticed her eyeing the book, and got up to put it back in the +bookcase. When he turned round, he saw that she had dropped into +the chair--it was the one she always used--and looked as if her +strength had suddenly gone from her, leaving her only her youth, +which seemed very pathetic, very much at his mercy. He moved +quickly towards the chair. + +"Tired, are you? It's my fault, taking you up so high and keeping +you out so long. Such a windless day, too!" + +She watched his concern, her pose languid, her eyes raised to him, +but as unreadable as ever. He avoided looking into them for that +very reason. He forgot himself in the contemplation of those +passive arms, of these defenceless lips, and--yes, one had to go +back to them--of these wide-open eyes. Something wild in their grey +stare made him think of sea-birds in the cold murkiness of high +latitudes. He started when she spoke, all the charm of physical +intimacy revealed suddenly in that voice. + +"You should try to love me!" she said. + +He made a movement of astonishment. + +"Try," he muttered. "But it seems to me--" He broke off, saying to +himself that if he loved her, he had never told her so in so many +words. Simple words! They died on his lips. "What makes you say +that?" he asked. + +She lowered her eyelids and turned her head a little. + +"I have done nothing," she said in a low voice. "It's you who have +been good, helpful, and tender to me. Perhaps you love me for that- +-just for that; or perhaps you love me for company, and because-- +well! But sometimes it seems to me that you can never love me for +myself, only for myself, as people do love each other when it is to +be for ever." Her head drooped. "Forever," she breathed out again; +then, still more faintly, she added an entreating: "Do try!" + +These last words went straight to his heart--the sound of them more +than the sense. He did not know what to say, either from want of +practice in dealing with women or simply from his innate honesty of +thought. All his defences were broken now. Life had him fairly by +the throat. But he managed a smile, though she was not looking at +him; yes, he did manage it--the well-known Heyst smile of playful +courtesy, so familiar to all sorts and conditions of men in the +islands. + +"My dear Lena," he said, "it looks as if you were trying to pick a +very unnecessary quarrel with me--of all people!" + +She made no movement. With his elbows spread out he was twisting +the ends of his long moustaches, very masculine and perplexed, +enveloped in the atmosphere of femininity as in a cloud, suspecting +pitfalls, and as if afraid to move. + +"I must admit, though," he added, "that there is no one else; and I +suppose a certain amount of quarrelling is necessary for existence +in this world." + +That girl, seated in her chair in graceful quietude, was to him like +a script in an unknown language, or even more simply mysterious, +like any writing to the illiterate. As far as women went he was +altogether uninstructed and he had not the gift of intuition which +is fostered in the days of youth by dreams and visions, exercises of +the heart fitting it for the encounters of a world, in which love +itself rests as much on antagonism as on attraction. His mental +attitude was that of a man looking this way and that on a piece of +writing which he is unable to decipher, but which may be big with +some revelation. He didn't know what to say. All he found to add +was: + +"I don't even understand what I have done or left undone to distress +you like this." + +He stopped, struck afresh by the physical and moral sense of the +imperfections of their relations--a sense which made him desire her +constant nearness, before his eyes, under his hand, and which, when +she was out of his sight, made her so vague, so elusive and +illusory, a promise that could not be embraced and held. + +"No! I don't see clearly what you mean. Is your mind turned +towards the future?" he interpellated her with marked playfulness, +because he was ashamed to let such a word pass his lips. But all +his cherished negations were falling off him one by one. + +"Because if it is so there is nothing easier than to dismiss it. In +our future, as in what people call the other life, there is nothing +to be frightened of." + +She raised her eyes to him; and if nature had formed them to express +anything else but blank candour he would have learned how terrified +she was by his talk and the fact that her sinking heart loved him +more desperately than ever. He smiled at her. + +"Dismiss all thought of it," he insisted. "Surely you don't suspect +after what I have heard from you, that I am anxious to return to +mankind. I! I! murder my poor Morrison! It's possible that I may +be really capable of that which they say I have done. The point is +that I haven't done it. But it is an unpleasant subject to me. I +ought to be ashamed to confess it--but it is! Let us forget it. +There's that in you, Lena, which can console me for worse things, +for uglier passages. And if we forget, there are no voices here to +remind us." + +She had raised her head before he paused. + +"Nothing can break in on us here," he went on and, as if there had +been an appeal or a provocation in her upward glance, he bent down +and took her under the arms, raising her straight out of the chair +into a sudden and close embrace. Her alacrity to respond, which +made her seem as light as a feather, warmed his heart at that moment +more than closer caresses had done before. He had not expected that +ready impulse towards himself which had been dormant in her passive +attitude. He had just felt the clasp of her arms round his neck, +when, with a slight exclamation--"He's here!"--she disengaged +herself and bolted, away into her room. + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + + +Heyst was astounded. Looking all round, as if to take the whole +room to witness of this outrage, he became aware of Wang +materialized in the doorway. The intrusion was as surprising as +anything could be, in view of the strict regularity with which Wang +made himself visible. Heyst was tempted to laugh at first. This +practical comment on his affirmation that nothing could break in on +them relieved the strain of his feelings. He was a little vexed, +too. The Chinaman preserved a profound silence. + +"What do you want?" asked Heyst sternly. + +"Boat out there," said the Chinaman. + +"Where? What do you mean? Boat adrift in the straits?" + +Some subtle change in Wang's bearing suggested his being out of +breath; but he did not pant, and his voice was steady. + +"No--row." + +It was Heyst now who was startled and raised his voice. + +"Malay man, eh?" + +Wang made a slight negative movement with his head. + +"Do you hear, Lena?" Heyst called out. "Wang says there is a boat +in sight--somewhere near apparently. Where's that boat Wang?" + +"Round the point," said Wang, leaping into Malay unexpectedly, and +in a loud voice. "White men three." + +"So close as that?" exclaimed Heyst, moving out on the veranda +followed by Wang. "White men? Impossible!" + +Over the clearing the shadows were already lengthening. The sun +hung low; a ruddy glare lay on the burnt black patch in front of the +bungalow, and slanted on the ground between the straight, tall, +mast-like trees soaring a hundred feet or more without a branch. +The growth of bushes cut off all view of the jetty from the veranda. +Far away to the right Wang's hut, or rather its dark roof of mats, +could be seen above the bamboo fence which insured the privacy of +the Alfuro woman. The Chinaman looked that way swiftly. Heyst +paused, and then stepped back a pace into the room. + +"White men, Lena, apparently. What are you doing?" + +"I am just bathing my eyes a little," the girl's voice said from the +inner room. + +"Oh, yes; all right!" + +"Do you want me?" + +"No. You had better--I am going down to the jetty. Yes, you had +better stay in. What an extraordinary thing!" + +It was so extraordinary that nobody could possibly appreciate how +extraordinary it was but himself. His mind was full of mere +exclamations, while his feet were carrying him in the direction of +the jetty. He followed the line of the rails, escorted by Wang. + +"Where were you when you first saw the boat?" he asked over his +shoulder. + +Wang explained in Malay that he had gone to the shore end of the +wharf, to get a few lumps of coal from the big heap, when, happening +to raise his eyes from the ground, he saw the boat--a white man +boat, not a canoe. He had good eyes. He had seen the boat, with +the men at the oars; and here Wang made a particular gesture over +his eyes, as if his vision had received a blow. He had turned at +once and run to the house to report. + +"No mistake, eh?" said Heyst, moving on. At the very outer edge of +the belt he stopped short. Wang halted behind him on the path, till +the voice of Number One called him sharply forward into the open. +He obeyed. + +"Where's that boat?" asked Heyst forcibly. "I say--where is it?" + +Nothing whatever was to be seen between the point and the jetty. +The stretch of Diamond Bay was like a piece of purple shadow, +lustrous and empty, while beyond the land, the open sea lay blue and +opaque under the sun. Heyst's eyes swept all over the offing till +they met, far off, the dark cone of the volcano, with its faint +plume of smoke broadening and vanishing everlastingly at the top, +without altering its shape in the glowing transparency of the +evening. + +"The fellow has been dreaming," he muttered to himself. + +He looked hard at the Chinaman. Wang seemed turned into stone. +Suddenly, as if he had received a shock, he started, flung his arm +out with a pointing forefinger, and made guttural noises to the +effect that there, there, there, he had seen a boat. + +It was very uncanny. Heyst thought of some strange hallucination. +Unlikely enough; but that a boat with three men in it should have +sunk between the point and the jetty, suddenly, like a stone, +without leaving as much on the surface as a floating oar, was still +more unlikely. The theory of a phantom boat would have been more +credible than that. + +"Confound it!" he muttered to himself. + +He was unpleasantly affected by this mystery; but now a simple +explanation occurred to him. He stepped hastily out on the wharf. +The boat, if it had existed and had retreated, could perhaps be seen +from the far end of the long jetty. + +Nothing was to be seen. Heyst let his eyes roam idly over the sea. +He was so absorbed in his perplexity that a hollow sound, as of +somebody tumbling about in a boat, with a clatter of oars and spars, +failed to make him move for a moment. When his mind seized its +meaning, he had no difficulty in locating the sound. It had come +from below--under the jetty! + +He ran back for a dozen yards or so, and then looked over. His +sight plunged straight into the stern-sheets of a big boat, the +greater part of which was hidden from him by the planking of the +jetty. His eyes fell on the thin back of a man doubled up over the +tiller in a queer, uncomfortable attitude of drooping sorrow. +Another man, more directly below Heyst, sprawled on his back from +gunwale to gunwale, half off the after thwart, his head lower than +his feet. This second man glared wildly upward, and struggled to +raise himself, but to all appearance was much too drunk to succeed. +The visible part of the boat contained also a flat, leather trunk, +on which the first man's long legs were tucked up nervelessly. A +large earthenware jug, with its wide mouth uncorked, rolled out on +the bottom-boards from under the sprawling man. + +Heyst had never been so much astonished in his life. He stared +dumbly at the strange boat's crew. From the first he was positive +that these men were not sailors. They wore the white drill-suit of +tropical civilization; but their apparition in a boat Heyst could +not connect with anything plausible. The civilization of the +tropics could have had nothing to do with it. It was more like +those myths, current in Polynesia, of amazing strangers, who arrive +at an island, gods or demons, bringing good or evil to the innocence +of the inhabitants--gifts of unknown things, words never heard +before. + +Heyst noticed a cork helmet floating alongside the boat, evidently +fallen from the head of the man doubled over the tiller, who +displayed a dark, bony poll. An oar, too, had been knocked +overboard, probably by the sprawling man, who was still struggling, +between the thwarts. By this time Heyst regarded the visitation no +longer with surprise, but with the sustained attention demanded by a +difficult problem. With one foot poised on the string-piece, and +leaning on his raised knee, he was taking in everything. The +sprawling man rolled off the thwart, collapsed, and, most +unexpectedly, got on his feet. He swayed dizzily, spreading his +arms out and uttered faintly a hoarse, dreamy "Hallo!" His upturned +face was swollen, red, peeling all over the nose and cheeks. His +stare was irrational. Heyst perceived stains of dried blood all +over the front of his dirty white coat, and also on one sleeve. + +"What's the matter? Are you wounded?" + +The other glanced down, reeled--one of his feet was inside a large +pith hat--and, recovering himself, let out a dismal, grating sound +in the manner of a grim laugh. + +"Blood--not mine. Thirst's the matter. Exhausted's the matter. +Done up. Drink, man! Give us water!" + +Thirst was in the very tone of his words, alternating a broken croak +and a faint, throaty rustle which just reached Heyst's ears. The +man in the boat raised his hands to be helped up on the jetty, +whispering: + +"I tried. I am too weak. I tumbled down." + +Wang was coming along the jetty slowly, with intent, straining eyes. + +"Run back and bring a crowbar here. There's one lying by the coal- +heap," Heyst shouted to him. + +The man standing in the boat sat down on the thwart behind him. A +horrible coughing laugh came through his swollen lips. + +"Crowbar? What's that for?" he mumbled, and his head dropped on his +chest mournfully. + +Meantime, Heyst, as if he had forgotten the boat, started kicking +hard at a large brass tap projecting above the planks. To +accommodate ships that came for coal and happened to need water as +well, a stream had been tapped in the interior and an iron pipe led +along the jetty. It terminated with a curved end almost exactly +where the strangers' boat had been driven between the piles; but the +tap was set fast. + +"Hurry up!" Heyst yelled to the Chinaman, who was running with the +crowbar in his hand. + +Heyst snatched it from him and, obtaining a leverage against the +string-piece, wrung the stiff tap round with a mighty jerk. "I hope +that pipe hasn't got choked!" he muttered to himself anxiously. + +It hadn't; but it did not yield a strong gush. The sound of a thin +stream, partly breaking on the gunwale of the boat and partly +splashing alongside, became at once audible. It was greeted by a +cry of inarticulate and savage joy. Heyst knelt on the string-piece +and peered down. The man who had spoken was already holding his +open mouth under the bright trickle. Water ran over his eyelids and +over his nose, gurgled down his throat, flowed over his chin. Then +some obstruction in the pipe gave way, and a sudden thick jet broke +on his face. In a moment his shoulders were soaked, the front of +his coat inundated; he streamed and dripped; water ran into his +pockets, down his legs, into his shoes; but he had clutched the end +of the pipe, and, hanging on with both hands, swallowed, spluttered, +choked, snorted with the noises of a swimmer. Suddenly a curious +dull roar reached Heyst's ears. Something hairy and black flew from +under the jetty. A dishevelled head, coming on like a cannonball, +took the man at the pipe in flank, with enough force to tear his +grip loose and fling him headlong into the stern-sheets. He fell +upon the folded legs of the man at the tiller, who, roused by the +commotion in the boat, was sitting up, silent, rigid, and very much +like a corpse. His eyes were but two black patches, and his teeth +glistened with a death's head grin between his retracted lips, no +thicker than blackish parchment glued over the gums. + +From him Heyst's eyes wandered to the creature who had replaced the +first man at the end of the water-pipe. Enormous brown paws +clutched it savagely; the wild, big head hung back, and in a face +covered with a wet mass of hair there gaped crookedly a wide mouth +full of fangs. The water filled it, welled up in hoarse coughs, ran +down on each side of the jaws and down the hairy throat, soaked the +black pelt of the enormous chest, naked under a torn check shirt, +heaving convulsively with a play of massive muscles carved in red +mahogany. + +As soon as the first man had recovered the breath knocked out of him +by the irresistible charge, a scream of mad cursing issued from the +stern-sheets. With a rigid, angular crooking of the elbow, the man +at the tiller put his hand back to his hip. + +"Don't shoot him, sir!" yelled the first man. "Wait! Let me have +that tiller. I will teach him to shove himself in front of a +caballero!" + +Martin Ricardo flourished the heavy piece of wood, leaped forward +with astonishing vigour, and brought it down on Pedro's head with a +crash that resounded all over the quiet sweep of Black Diamond Bay. +A crimson patch appeared on the matted hair, red veins appeared in +the water flowing all over his face, and it dripped in rosy drops +off his head. But the man hung on. Not till a second furious blow +descended did the hairy paws let go their grip and the squirming +body sink limply. Before it could touch the bottom-boards, a +tremendous kick in the ribs from Ricardo's foot shifted it forward +out of sight, whence came the noise of a heavy thud, a clatter of +spars, and a pitiful grunt. Ricardo stooped to look under the +jetty. + +"Aha, dog! This will teach you to keep back where you belong, you +murdering brute, you slaughtering savage, you! You infidel, you +robber of churches! Next time I will rip you open from neck to +heel, you carrion-cater! Esclavo!" + +He backed a little and straightened himself up. + +"I don't mean it really," he remarked to Heyst, whose steady eyes +met his from above. He ran aft briskly. + +"Come along, sir. It's your turn. I oughtn't to have drunk first. +'S truth, I forgot myself! A gentleman like you will overlook that, +I know." As he made these apologies, Ricardo extended his hand. +"Let me steady you, sir." + +Slowly Mr. Jones unfolded himself in all his slenderness, rocked, +staggered, and caught Ricardo's shoulder. His henchman assisted him +to the pipe, which went on gushing a clear stream of water, +sparkling exceedingly against the black piles and the gloom under +the jetty. + +"Catch hold, sir," Ricardo advised solicitously. "All right?" + +He stepped back, and, while Mr. Jones revelled in the abundance of +water, he addressed himself to Heyst with a sort of justificatory +speech, the tone of which, reflecting his feelings, partook of +purring and spitting. They had been thirty hours tugging at the +oars, he explained, and they had been more than forty hours without +water, except that the night before they had licked the dew off the +gunwales. + +Ricardo did not explain to Heyst how it happened. At that precise +moment he had no explanation ready for the man on the wharf, who, he +guessed, must be wondering much more at the presence of his visitors +than at their plight. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + + +The explanation lay in the two simple facts that the light winds and +strong currents of the Java Sea had drifted the boat about until +they partly lost their bearings; and that by some extra-ordinary +mistake one of the two jars put into the boat by Schomberg's man +contained salt water. Ricardo tried to put some pathos into his +tones. Pulling for thirty hours with eighteen-foot oars! And the +sun! Ricardo relieved his feelings by cursing the sun. They had +felt their hearts and lungs shrivel within them. And then, as if +all that hadn't been trouble enough, he complained bitterly, he had +had to waste his fainting strength in beating their servant about +the head with a stretcher. The fool had wanted to drink sea water, +and wouldn't listen to reason. There was no stopping him otherwise. +It was better to beat him into insensibility than to have him go +crazy in the boat, and to be obliged to shoot him. The preventive, +administered with enough force to brain an elephant, boasted +Ricardo, had to be applied on two occasions--the second time all but +in sight of the jetty. + +"You have seen the beauty," Ricardo went on expansively, hiding his +lack of some sort of probable story under this loquacity. "I had to +hammer him away from the spout. Opened afresh all the old broken +spots on his head. You saw how hard I had to hit. He has no +restraint, no restraint at all. If it wasn't that he can be made +useful in one way or another, I would just as soon have let the +governor shoot him." + +He smiled up at Heyst in his peculiar lip-retracting manner, and +added by way of afterthought: + +"That's what will happen to him in the end, if he doesn't learn to +restrain himself. But I've taught him to mind his manners for a +while, anyhow!" + +And again he addressed his quick grin up to the man on the wharf. +His round eyes had never left Heyst's face ever since he began to +deliver his account of the voyage. + +"So that's how he looks!" Ricardo was saying to himself. + +He had not expected Heyst to be like this. He had formed for +himself a conception containing the helpful suggestion of a +vulnerable point. These solitary men were often tipplers. But no!- +-this was not a drinking man's face; nor could he detect the +weakness of alarm, or even the weakness of surprise, on these +features, in those steady eyes. + +"We were too far gone to climb out," Ricardo went on. "I heard you +walking along though. I thought I shouted; I tried to. You didn't +hear me shout?" + +Heyst made an almost imperceptible negative sign, which the greedy +eyes of Ricardo--greedy for all signs--did not miss. + +"Throat too parched. We didn't even care to whisper to each other +lately. Thirst chokes one. We might have died there under this +wharf before you found us." + +"I couldn't think where you had gone to." Heyst was heard at last, +addressing directly the newcomers from the sea. "You were seen as +soon as you cleared that point." + +"We were seen, eh?" grunted Mr. Ricardo. "We pulled like machines - +-daren't stop. The governor sat at the tiller, but he couldn't +speak to us. She drove in between the piles till she hit something, +and we all tumbled off the thwarts as if we had been drunk. Drunk-- +ha, ha! Too dry, by George! We fetched in here with the very last +of our strength, and no mistake. Another mile would have done for +us. When I heard your footsteps, above, I tried to get up, and I +fell down." + +"That was the first sound I heard," said Heyst. + +Mr Jones, the front of his soiled white tunic soaked and plastered +against his breast-bone, staggered away from the water-pipe. +Steadying himself on Ricardo's shoulder, he drew a long breath, +raised his dripping head, and produced a smile of ghastly +amiability, which was lost upon the thoughtful Heyst. Behind his +back the sun, touching the water, was like a disc of iron cooled to +a dull red glow, ready to start rolling round the circular steel +plate of the sea, which, under the darkening sky, looked more solid +than the high ridge of Samburan; more solid than the point, whose +long outlined slope melted into its own unfathomable shadow blurring +the dim sheen on the bay. The forceful stream from the pipe broke +like shattered glass on the boat's gunwale. Its loud, fitful, and +persistent splashing revealed the depths of the world's silence. + +"Great notion, to lead the water out here," pronounced Ricardo +appreciatively. + +Water was life. He felt now as if he could run a mile, scale a ten- +foot wall, sing a song. Only a few minutes ago he was next door to +a corpse, done up, unable to stand, to lift a hand; unable to groan. +A drop of water had done that miracle. + +"Didn't you feel life itself running and soaking into you, sir?" he +asked his principal, with deferential but forced vivacity. + +Without a word, Mr. Jones stepped off the thwart and sat down in the +stern-sheets. + +"Isn't that man of yours bleeding to death in the bows under there?" +inquired Heyst. + +Ricardo ceased his ecstasies over the life-giving water and answered +in a tone of innocence: + +"He? You may call him a man, but his hide is a jolly sight tougher +than the toughest alligator he ever skinned in the good old days. +You don't know how much he can stand: I do. We have tried him a +long time ago. Ola, there! Pedro! Pedro!" he yelled, with a force +of lung testifying to the regenerative virtues of water. + +A weak "Senor?" came from under the wharf. + +"What did I tell you?" said Ricardo triumphantly. "Nothing can hurt +him. He's all right. But, I say, the boat's getting swamped. +Can't you turn this water off before you sink her under us? She's +half full already." + +At a sign from Heyst, Wang hammered at the brass tap on the wharf, +then stood behind Number One, crowbar in hand, motionless as before. +Ricardo was perhaps not so certain of Pedro's toughness as he +affirmed; for he stooped, peering under the wharf, then moved +forward out of sight. The gush of water ceasing suddenly, made a +silence which became complete when the after-trickle stopped. Afar, +the sun was reduced to a red spark, glowing very low in the +breathless immensity of twilight. Purple gleams lingered on the +water all round the boat. The spectral figure in the stern-sheets +spoke in a languid tone: + +"That--er--companion--er--secretary of mine is a queer chap. I am +afraid we aren't presenting ourselves in a very favourable light." + +Heyst listened. It was the conventional voice of an educated man, +only strangely lifeless. But more strange yet was this concern for +appearances, expressed, he did not know, whether in jest or in +earnest. Earnestness was hardly to be supposed under the +circumstances, and no one had ever jested in such dead tones. It +was something which could not be answered, and Heyst said nothing. +The other went on: + +"Travelling as I do, I find a man of his sort extremely useful. He +has his little weaknesses, no doubt." + +"Indeed!" Heyst was provoked into speaking. "Weakness of the arm is +not one of them; neither is an exaggerated humanity, as far as I can +judge." + +"Defects of temper," explained Mr. Jones from the stern-sheets. + +The subject of this dialogue, coming out just then from under the +wharf into the visible part of the boat, made himself heard in his +own defence, in a voice full of life, and with nothing languid in +his manner on the contrary, it was brisk, almost jocose. He begged +pardon for contradicting. He was never out of temper with "our +Pedro." The fellow was a Dago of immense strength and of no sense +whatever. This combination made him dangerous, and he had to be +treated accordingly, in a manner which he could understand. +Reasoning was beyond him. + +"And so"--Ricardo addressed Heyst with animation--"you mustn't be +surprised if--" + +"I assure you," Heyst interrupted, "that my wonder at your arrival +in your boat here is so great that it leaves no room for minor +astonishments. But hadn't you better land?" + +"That's the talk, sir!" Ricardo began to bustle about the boat, +talking all the time. Finding himself unable to "size up" this man, +he was inclined to credit him with extraordinary powers of +penetration, which, it seemed to him, would be favoured by silence. +Also, he feared some pointblank question. He had no ready-made +story to tell. He and his patron had put off considering that +rather important detail too long. For the last two days, the +horrors of thirst, coming on them unexpectedly, had prevented +consultation. They had had to pull for dear life. But the man on +the wharf, were he in league with the devil himself, would pay for +all their sufferings, thought Ricardo with an unholy joy. + +Meantime, splashing in the water which covered the bottom-boards, +Ricardo congratulated himself aloud on the luggage being out of the +way of the wet. He had piled it up forward. He had roughly tied up +Pedro's head. Pedro had nothing to grumble about. On the contrary, +he ought to be mighty thankful to him, Ricardo, for being alive at +all. + +"Well, now, let me give you a leg up, sir," he said cheerily to his +motionless principal in the stern-sheets. "All our troubles are +over--for a time, anyhow. Ain't it luck to find a white man on this +island? I would have just as soon expected to meet an angel from +heaven--eh, Mr. Jones? Now then--ready, sir? one, two, three, up +you go!" + +Helped from below by Ricardo, and from above by the man more +unexpected than an angel, Mr. Jones scrambled up and stood on the +wharf by the side of Heyst. He swayed like a reed. The night +descending on Samburan turned into dense shadow the point of land +and the wharf itself, and gave a dark solidity to the unshimmering +water extending to the last faint trace of light away to the west. +Heyst stared at the guests whom the renounced world had sent him +thus at the end of the day. The only other vestige of light left on +earth lurked in the hollows of the thin man's eyes. They gleamed, +mobile and languidly evasive. The eyelids fluttered. + +"You are feeling weak," said Heyst. + +"For the moment, a little," confessed the other. + +With loud panting, Ricardo scrambled on his hands and knees upon the +wharf, energetic and unaided. He rose up at Heyst's elbow and +stamped his foot on the planks, with a sharp, provocative, double +beat, such as is heard sometimes in fencing-schools before the +adversaries engage their foils. Not that the renegade seaman +Ricardo knew anything of fencing. What he called "shooting-irons," +were his weapons, or the still less aristocratic knife, such as was +even then ingeniously strapped to his leg. He thought of it, at +that moment. A swift stooping motion, then, on the recovery, a +ripping blow, a shove off the wharf, and no noise except a splash in +the water that would scarcely disturb the silence. Heyst would have +no time for a cry. It would be quick and neat, and immensely in +accord with Ricardo's humour. But he repressed this gust of +savagery. The job was not such a simple one. This piece had to be +played to another tune, and in much slower time. He returned to his +note of talkative simplicity. + +"Ay; and I too don't feel as strong as I thought I was when the +first drink set me up. Great wonder-worker water is! And to get it +right here on the spot! It was heaven--hey, sir?" + +Mr Jones, being directly addressed, took up his part in the +concerted piece: + +"Really, when I saw a wharf on what might have been an uninhabited +island, I couldn't believe my eyes. I doubted its existence. I +thought it was a delusion till the boat actually drove between the +piles, as you see her lying now." + +While he was speaking faintly, in a voice which did not seem to +belong to the earth, his henchman, in extremely loud and terrestrial +accents, was fussing about their belongings in the boat, addressing +himself to Pedro: + +"Come, now--pass up the dunnage there! Move, yourself, hombre, or +I'll have to get down again and give you a tap on those bandages of +yours, you growling bear, you!" + +"Ah! You didn't believe in the reality of the wharf?" Heyst was +saying to Mr. Jones. + +"You ought to kiss my hands!" + +Ricardo caught hold of an ancient Gladstone bag and swung it on the +wharf with a thump. + +"Yes! You ought to burn a candle before me as they do before the +saints in your country. No saint has ever done so much for you as I +have, you ungrateful vagabond. Now then! Up you get!" + +Helped by the talkative Ricardo, Pedro scrambled up on the wharf, +where he remained for some time on all fours, swinging to and fro +his shaggy head tied up in white rags. Then he got up clumsily, +like a bulky animal in the dusk, balancing itself on its hind legs. + +Mr Jones began to explain languidly to Heyst that they were in a +pretty bad state that morning, when they caught sight of the smoke +of the volcano. It nerved them to make an effort for their lives. +Soon afterwards they made out the island. + +"I had just wits enough left in my baked brain to alter the +direction of the boat," the ghostly voice went on. "As to finding +assistance, a wharf, a white man--nobody would have dreamed of it. +Simply preposterous!" + +"That's what I thought when my Chinaman came and told me he had seen +a boat with white men pulling up," said Heyst. + +"Most extraordinary luck," interjected Ricardo, standing by +anxiously attentive to every word. "Seems a dream," he added. "A +lovely dream!" + +A silence fell on that group of three, as if everyone had become +afraid to speak, in an obscure sense of an impending crisis. Pedro +on one side of them and Wang on the other had the air of watchful +spectators. A few stars had come out pursuing the ebbing twilight. +A light draught of air tepid enough in the thickening twilight after +the scorching day, struck a chill into Mr. Jones in his soaked +clothes. + +"I may infer, then, that there is a settlement of white people +here?" he murmured, shivering visibly. + +Heyst roused himself. + +"Oh, abandoned, abandoned. I am alone here--practically alone; but +several empty houses are still standing. No lack of accommodation. +We may just as well--here, Wang, go back to the shore and run the +trolley out here." + +The last words having been spoken in Malay, he explained courteously +that he had given directions for the transport of the luggage. Wang +had melted into the night--in his soundless manner. + +"My word! Rails laid down and all," exclaimed Ricardo softly, in a +tone of admiration. "Well, I never!" + +"We were working a coal-mine here," said the late manager of the +Tropical Belt Coal Company. "These are only the ghosts of things +that have been." + +Mr Jones's teeth were suddenly started chattering by another faint +puff of wind, a mere sigh from the west, where Venus cast her rays +on the dark edge of the horizon, like a bright lamp hung above the +grave of the sun. + +"We might be moving on," proposed Heyst. "My Chinaman and that--ah- +-ungrateful servant of yours, with the broken head, can load the +things and come along after us." + +The suggestion was accepted without words. Moving towards the +shore, the three men met the trolley, a mere metallic rustle which +whisked past them, the shadowy Wang running noiselessly behind. +Only the sound of their footsteps accompanied them. It was a long +time since so many footsteps had rung together on that jetty. +Before they stepped on to the path trodden through the grass, Heyst +said: + +"I am prevented from offering you a share of my own quarters." The +distant courtliness of this beginning arrested the other two +suddenly, as if amazed by some manifest incongruity. "I should +regret it more," he went on, "if I were not in a position to give +you the choice of those empty bungalows for a temporary home." + +He turned round and plunged into the narrow track, the two others +following in single file. + +"Queer start!" Ricardo took the opportunity for whispering, as he +fell behind Mr. Jones, who swayed in the gloom, enclosed by the +stalks of tropical grass, almost as slender as a stalk of grass +himself. + +In this order they emerged into the open space kept clear of +vegetation by Wang's judicious system of periodic firing. The +shapes of buildings, unlighted, high-roofed, looked mysteriously +extensive and featureless against the increasing glitter of the +stars. Heyst was pleased at the absence of light in his bungalow. +It looked as uninhabited as the others. He continued to lead the +way, inclining to the right. His equable voice was heard: + +"This one would be the best. It was our counting-house. There is +some furniture in it yet. I am pretty certain that you'll find a +couple of camp bedsteads in one of the rooms." + +The high-pitched roof of the bungalow towered up very close, +eclipsing the sky. + +"Here we are. Three steps. As you see, there's a wide veranda. +Sorry to keep you waiting for a moment; the door is locked, I +think." + +He was heard trying it. Then he leaned against the rail, saying: + +"Wang will get the keys." + +The others waited, two vague shapes nearly mingled together in the +darkness of the veranda, from which issued a sudden chattering of +Mr. Jones's teeth, directly suppressed, and a slight shuffle of +Ricardo's feet. Their guide and host, his back against the rail, +seemed to have forgotten their existence. Suddenly he moved, and +murmured: + +"Ah, here's the trolley." + +Then he raised his voice in Malay, and was answered, "Ya tuan," from +an indistinct group that could be made out in the direction of the +track. + +"I have sent Wang for the key and a light," he said, in a voice that +came out without any particular direction--a peculiarity which +disconcerted Ricardo. + +Wang did not tarry long on his mission. Very soon from the distant +recesses of obscurity appeared the swinging lantern he carried. It +cast a fugitive ray on the arrested trolley with the uncouth figure +of the wild Pedro drooping over the load; then it moved towards the +bungalow and ascended the stairs. After working at the stiff lock, +Wang applied his shoulder to the door. It came open with explosive +suddenness, as if in a passion at being thus disturbed after two +years' repose. From the dark slope of a tall stand-up writing-desk +a forgotten, solitary sheet of paper flew up and settled gracefully +on the floor. + +Wang and Pedro came and went through the offended door, bringing the +things off the trolley, one flitting swiftly in and out, the other +staggering heavily. Later, directed by a few quiet words from +Number One, Wang made several journeys with the lantern to the +store-rooms, bringing in blankets, provisions in tins, coffee, +sugar, and a packet of candles. He lighted one, and stuck it on the +ledge of the stand-up desk. Meantime Pedro, being introduced to +some kindling-wood and a bundle of dry sticks, had busied himself +outside in lighting a fire, on which he placed a ready-filled kettle +handed to him by Wang impassively, at arm's length, as if across a +chasm. Having received the thanks of his guests, Heyst wished them +goodnight and withdrew, leaving them to their repose. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + + +Heyst walked away slowly. There was still no light in his bungalow, +and he thought that perhaps it was just as well. By this time he +was much less perturbed. Wang had preceded him with the lantern, as +if in a hurry to get away from the two white men and their hairy +attendant. The light was not dancing along any more; it was +standing perfectly still by the steps of the veranda. + +Heyst, glancing back casually, saw behind him still another light-- +the light of the strangers' open fire. A black, uncouth form, +stooping over it monstrously, staggered away into the outlying +shadows. The kettle had boiled, probably. + +With that weird vision of something questionably human impressed +upon his senses, Heyst moved on a pace or two. What could the +people be who had such a creature for their familiar attendant? He +stopped. The vague apprehension, of a distant future, in which he +saw Lena unavoidably separated from him by profound and subtle +differences; the sceptical carelessness which had accompanied every +one of his attempts at action, like a secret reserve of his soul, +fell away from him. He no longer belonged to himself. There was a +call far more imperious and august. He came up to the bungalow, and +at the very limit of the lantern's light, on the top step, he saw +her feet and the bottom part of her dress. The rest of her person +was suggested dimly as high as her waist. She sat on a chair, and +the gloom of the low eaves descended upon her head and shoulders. +She didn't stir. + +"You haven't gone to sleep here?" he asked. + +"Oh, no! I was waiting for you--in the dark." + +Heyst, on the top step, leaned against a wooden pillar, after moving +the lantern to one side. + +"I have been thinking that it is just as well you had no light. But +wasn't it dull for you to sit in the dark?" + +"I don't need a light to think of you." Her charming voice gave a +value to this banal answer, which had also the merit of truth. +Heyst laughed a little, and said that he had had a curios +experience. She made no remark. He tried to figure to himself the +outlines of her easy pose. A spot of dim light here and there +hinted at the unfailing grace of attitude which was one of her +natural possessions. + +She had thought of him, but not in connection with the strangers. +She had admired him from the first; she had been attracted by his +warm voice, his gentle eye, but she had felt him too wonderfully +difficult to know. He had given to life a savour, a movement, a +promise mingled with menaces, which she had not suspected were to be +found in it--or, at any rate, not by a girl wedded to misery as she +was. She said to herself that she must not be irritated because he +seemed too self-contained, and as if shut up in a world of his own. +When he took her in his arms, she felt that his embrace had a great +and compelling force, that he was moved deeply, and that perhaps he +would not get tired of her so very soon. She thought that he had +opened to her the feelings of delicate joy, that the very uneasiness +he caused her was delicious in its sadness, and that she would try +to hold him as long as she could--till her fainting arms, her +sinking soul, could cling to him no more. + +"Wang's not here, of course?" Heyst said suddenly. She answered as +if in her sleep. + +"He put this light down here without stopping, and ran." + +"Ran, did he? H'm! Well, it's considerably later than his usual +time to go home to his Alfuro wife; but to be seen running is a sort +of degradation for Wang, who has mastered the art of vanishing. Do +you think he was startled out of his perfection by something?" + +"Why should he be startled?" + +Her voice remained dreamy, a little uncertain. + +"I have been startled," Heyst said. + +She was not listening to him. The lantern at their feet threw the +shadows of her face upward. Her eyes glistened, as if frightened +and attentive, above a lighted chin and a very white throat. + +"Upon my word," mused Heyst, "now that I don't see them, I can +hardly believe that those fellows exist!" + +"And what about me?" she asked, so swiftly that he made a movement +like somebody pounced upon from an ambush. "When you don't see me, +do you believe that I exist?" + +"Exist? Most charmingly! My dear Lena, you don't know your own +advantages. Why, your voice alone would be enough to make you +unforgettable!" + +"Oh, I didn't mean forgetting in that way. I dare say if I were to +die you would remember me right enough. And what good would that be +to anybody? It's while I am alive that I want--" + +Heyst stood by her chair, a stalwart figure imperfectly lighted. +The broad shoulders, the martial face that was like a disguise of +his disarmed soul, were lost in the gloom above the plane of light +in which his feet were planted. He suffered from a trouble with +which she had nothing to do. She had no general conception of the +conditions of the existence he had offered to her. Drawn into its +peculiar stagnation she remained unrelated to it because of her +ignorance. + +For instance, she could never perceive the prodigious improbability +of the arrival of that boat. She did not seem to be thinking of it. +Perhaps she had already forgotten the fact herself. And Heyst +resolved suddenly to say nothing more of it. It was not that he +shrank from alarming her. Not feeling anything definite himself he +could not imagine a precise effect being produced on her by any +amount of explanation. There is a quality in events which is +apprehended differently by different minds or even by the same mind +at different times. Any man living at all consciously knows that +embarrassing truth. Heyst was aware that this visit could bode +nothing pleasant. In his present soured temper towards all mankind +he looked upon it as a visitation of a particularly offensive kind. + +He glanced along the veranda in the direction of the other bungalow. +The fire of sticks in front of it had gone out. No faint glow of +embers, not the slightest thread of light in that direction, hinted +at the presence of strangers. The darker shapes in the obscurity, +the dead silence, betrayed nothing of that strange intrusion. The +peace of Samburan asserted itself as on any other night. Everything +was as before, except--Heyst became aware of it suddenly--that for a +whole minute, perhaps, with his hand on the back of the girl's chair +and within a foot of her person, he had lost the sense of her +existence, for the first time since he had brought her over to share +this invincible, this undefiled peace. He picked up the lantern, +and the act made a silent stir all along the veranda. A spoke of +shadow swung swiftly across her face, and the strong light rested on +the immobility of her features, as of a woman looking at a vision. +Her eyes were still, her lips serious. Her dress, open at the neck, +stirred slightly to her even breathing. + +"We had better go in, Lena," suggested Heyst, very low, as if +breaking a spell cautiously. + +She rose without a word. Heyst followed her indoors. As they +passed through the living-room, he left the lantern burning on the +centre table. + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + + +That night the girl woke up, for the first time in her new +experience, with the sensation of having been abandoned to her own +devices. She woke up from a painful dream of separation brought +about in a way which she could not understand, and missed the relief +of the waking instant. The desolate feeling of being alone +persisted. She was really alone. A night-light made it plain +enough, in the dim, mysterious manner of a dream; but this was +reality. It startled her exceedingly. + +In a moment she was at the curtain that hung in the doorway, and +raised it with a steady hand. The conditions of their life in +Samburan would have made peeping absurd; nor was such a thing in her +character. This was not a movement of curiosity, but of downright +alarm--the continued distress and fear of the dream. The night +could not have been very far advanced. The light of the lantern was +burning strongly, striping the floor and walls of the room with +thick black bands. She hardly knew whether she expected to see +Heyst or not; but she saw him at once, standing by the table in his +sleeping-suit, his back to the doorway. She stepped in noiselessly +with her bare feet, and let the curtain fall behind her. Something +characteristic in Heyst's attitude made her say, almost in a +whisper: + +"You are looking for something." + +He could not have heard her before; but he didn't start at the +unexpected whisper. He only pushed the drawer of the table in and, +without even looking over his shoulder, asked quietly, accepting her +presence as if he had been aware of all her movements: + +"I say, are you certain that Wang didn't go through this room this +evening?" + +"Wang? When?" + +"After leaving the lantern, I mean." + +"Oh, no. He ran on. I watched him." + +"Or before, perhaps--while I was with these boat people? Do you +know? Can you tell?" + +"I hardly think so. I came out as the sun went down, and sat +outside till you came back to me." + +"He could have popped in for an instant through the back veranda." + +"I heard nothing in here," she said. "What is the matter?" + +"Naturally you wouldn't hear. He can be as quiet as a shadow, when +he likes. I believe he could steal the pillows from under our +heads. He might have been here ten minutes ago." + +"What woke you up? Was it a noise?" + +"Can't say that. Generally one can't tell, but is it likely, Lena? +You are, I believe, the lighter sleeper of us two. A noise loud +enough to wake me up would have awakened you, too. I tried to be as +quiet as I could. What roused you?" + +"I don't know--a dream, perhaps. I woke up crying." + +"What was the dream?" + +Heyst, with one hand resting on the table, had turned in her +direction, his round, uncovered head set on a fighter's muscular +neck. She left his question unanswered, as if she had not heard it. + +"What is it you have missed?" she asked in her turn, very grave. + +Her dark hair, drawn smoothly back, was done in two thick tresses +for the night. Heyst noticed the good form of her brow, the dignity +of its width, its unshining whiteness. It was a sculptural +forehead. He had a moment of acute appreciation intruding upon +another order of thoughts. It was as if there could be no end of +his discoveries about that girl, at the most incongruous moments. + +She had on nothing but a hand-woven cotton sarong--one of Heyst's +few purchases, years ago, in Celebes, where they are made. He had +forgotten all about it till she came, and then had found it at the +bottom of an old sandalwood trunk dating back to pre-Morrison days. +She had quickly learned to wind it up under her armpits with a safe +twist, as Malay village girls do when going down to bathe in a +river. Her shoulders and arms were bare; one of her tresses, +hanging forward, looked almost black against the white skin. As she +was taller than the average Malay woman, the sarong ended a good way +above her ankles. She stood poised firmly, half-way between the +table and the curtained doorway, the insteps of her bare feet +gleaming like marble on the overshadowed matting of the floor. The +fall of her lighted shoulders, the strong and fine modelling of her +arms hanging down her sides, her immobility, too, had something +statuesque, the charm of art tense with life. She was not very big- +-Heyst used to think of her, at first, as "that poor little girl,"-- +but revealed free from the shabby banality of a white platform +dress, in the simple drapery of the sarong, there was that in her +form and in the proportions of her body which suggested a reduction +from a heroic size. + +She moved forward a step. + +"What is it you have missed?" she asked again. + +Heyst turned his back altogether on the table. The black spokes of +darkness over the floor and the walls, joining up on the ceiling in +a path of shadow, were like the bars of a cage about them. It was +his turn to ignore a question. + +"You woke up in a fright, you say?" he said. + +She walked up to him, exotic yet familiar, with her white woman's +face and shoulders above the Malay sarong, as if it were an airy +disguise, but her expression was serious. + +"No," she replied. "It was distress, rather. You see, you weren't +there, and I couldn't tell why you had gone away from me. A nasty +dream--the first I've had, too, since--" + +"You don't believe in dreams, do you?" asked Heyst. + +"I once knew a woman who did. Leastwise, she used to tell people +what dreams mean, for a shilling." + +"Would you go now and ask her what this dream means?" inquired Heyst +jocularly. + +"She lived in Camberwell. She was a nasty old thing!" + +Heyst laughed a little uneasily. + +"Dreams are madness, my dear. It's things that happen in the waking +world, while one is asleep, that one would be glad to know the +meaning of." + +"You have missed something out of this drawer," she said positively. + +"This or some other. I have looked into every single one of them +and come back to this again, as people do. It's difficult to +believe the evidence of my own senses; but it isn't there. Now, +Lena, are you sure that you didn't--" + +"I have touched nothing in the house but what you have given me." + +"Lena!" he cried. + +He was painfully affected by this disclaimer of a charge which he +had not made. It was what a servant might have said--an inferior +open to suspicion--or, at any rate, a stranger. He was angry at +being so wretchedly misunderstood; disenchanted at her not being +instinctively aware of the place he had secretly given her in his +thoughts. + +"After all," he said to himself, "we are strangers to each other." + +And then he felt sorry for her. He spoke calmly: + +"I was about to say, are you sure you have no reason to think that +the Chinaman has been in this room tonight?" + +"You suspect him?" she asked, knitting her eyebrows. + +"There is no one else to suspect. You may call it a certitude." + +"You don't want to tell me what it is?" she inquired, in the equable +tone in which one takes a fact into account. + +Heyst only smiled faintly. + +"Nothing very precious, as far as value goes," he replied. + +"I thought it might have been money," she said. + +"Money!" exclaimed Heyst, as if the suggestion had been altogether +preposterous. She was so visibly surprised that he hastened to add: +"Of course, there is some money in the house--there, in that +writing-desk, the drawer on the left. It's not locked. You can +pull it right out. There is a recess, and the board at the back +pivots: a very simple hiding-place, when you know the way to it. I +discovered it by accident, and I keep our store of sovereigns in +there. The treasure, my dear, is not big enough to require a +cavern." + +He paused, laughed very low, and returned her steady stare. + +"The loose silver, some guilders and dollars, I have always kept in +that unlocked left drawer. I have no doubt Wang knows what there is +in it, but he isn't a thief, and that's why I--no, Lena, what I've +missed is not gold or jewels; and that's what makes the fact +interesting--which the theft of money cannot be." + +She took a long breath, relieved to hear that it was not money. A +great curiosity was depicted on her face, but she refrained from +pressing him with questions. She only gave him one of her deep- +gleaming smiles. + +"It isn't me so it must be Wang. You ought to make him give it back +to you." + +Heyst said nothing to that naive and practical suggestion, for the +object that he missed from the drawer was his revolver. + +It was a heavy weapon which he had owned for many years and had +never used in his life. Ever since the London furniture had arrived +in Samburan, it had been reposing in the drawer of the table. The +real dangers of life, for him, were not those which could be +repelled by swords or bullets. On the other hand neither his manner +nor his appearance looked sufficiently inoffensive to expose him to +light-minded aggression. + +He could not have explained what had induced him to go to the drawer +in the middle of the night. He had started up suddenly--which was +very unusual with him. He had found himself sitting up and +extremely wide awake all at once, with the girl reposing by his +side, lying with her face away from him, a vague, characteristically +feminine form in the dim light. She was perfectly still. + +At that season of the year there were no mosquitoes in Samburan, and +the sides of the mosquito net were looped up. Heyst swung his feet +to the floor, and found himself standing there, almost before he had +become aware of his intention to get up. + +Why he did this he did not know. He didn't wish to wake her up, and +the slight creak of the broad bedstead had sounded very loud to him. +He turned round apprehensively and waited for her to move, but she +did not stir. While he looked at her, he had a vision of himself +lying there too, also fast asleep, and--it occurred to him for the +first time in his life--very defenceless. This quite novel +impression of the dangers of slumber made him think suddenly of his +revolver. He left the bedroom with noiseless footsteps. The +lightness of the curtain he had to lift as he passed out, and the +outer door, wide open on the blackness of the veranda--for the roof +eaves came down low, shutting out the starlight--gave him a sense of +having been dangerously exposed, he could not have said to what. He +pulled the drawer open. Its emptiness cut his train of self- +communion short. He murmured to the assertive fact: + +"Impossible! Somewhere else!" + +He tried to remember where he had put the thing; but those provoked +whispers of memory were not encouraging. Foraging in every +receptacle and nook big enough to contain a revolver, he came slowly +to the conclusion that it was not in that room. Neither was it in +the other. The whole bungalow consisted of the two rooms and a +profuse allowance of veranda all round. Heyst stepped out on the +veranda. + +"It's Wang, beyond a doubt," he thought, staring into the night. +"He has got hold of it for some reason." + +There was nothing to prevent that ghostly Chinaman from +materializing suddenly at the foot of the stairs, or anywhere, at +any moment, and toppling him over with a dead sure shot. The danger +was so irremediable that it was not worth worrying about, any more +than the general precariousness of human life. Heyst speculated on +this added risk. How long had he been at the mercy of a slender +yellow finger on the trigger? That is, if that was the fellow's +reason for purloining the revolver. + +"Shoot and inherit," thought Heyst. "Very simple." Yet there was +in his mind a marked reluctance to regard the domesticated grower of +vegetables in the light of a murderer. + +"No, it wasn't that. For Wang could have done it any time this last +twelve months or more--" + +Heyst's mind had worked on the assumption that Wang had possessed +himself of the revolver during his own absence from Samburan; but at +that period of his speculation his point of view changed. It struck +him with the force of manifest certitude that the revolver had been +taken only late in the day, or on that very night. Wang, of course. +But why? So there had been no danger in the past. It was all +ahead. + +"He has me at his mercy now," thought Heyst, without particular +excitement. + +The sentiment he experienced was curiosity. He forgot himself in +it: it was as if he were considering somebody else's strange +predicament. But even that sort of interest was dying out when, +looking to his left, he saw the accustomed shapes of the other +bungalows looming in the night, and remembered the arrival of the +thirsty company in the boat. Wang would hardly risk such a crime in +the presence of other white men. It was a peculiar instance of the +"safety in numbers," principle, which somehow was not much to +Heyst's taste. + +He went in gloomily, and stood over the empty drawer in deep and +unsatisfactory thought. He had just made up his mind that he must +breathe nothing of this to the girl, when he heard her voice behind +him. She had taken him by surprise, but he resisted the impulse to +turn round at once under the impression that she might read his +trouble in his face. Yes, she had taken him by surprise, and for +that reason the conversation which began was not exactly as he would +have conducted it if he had been prepared for her pointblank +question. He ought to have said at once: "I've missed nothing." +It was a deplorable thing that he should have let it come so far as +to have her ask what it was he missed. He closed the conversation +by saying lightly: + +"It's an object of very small value. Don't worry about it--it isn't +worth while. The best you can do is to go and lie down again, +Lena." + +Reluctant she turned away, and only in the doorway asked: "And +you?" + +"I think I shall smoke a cheroot on the veranda. I don't feel +sleepy for the moment." + +"Well, don't be long." + +He made no answer. She saw him standing there, very still, with a +frown on his brow, and slowly dropped the curtain. + +Heyst did really light a cheroot before going out again on the +veranda. He glanced up from under the low eaves, to see by the +stars how the night went on. It was going very slowly. Why it +should have irked him he did not know, for he had nothing to expect +from the dawn; but everything round him had become unreasonable, +unsettled, and vaguely urgent, laying him under an obligation, but +giving him no line of action. He felt contemptuously irritated with +the situation. The outer world had broken upon him; and he did not +know what wrong he had done to bring this on himself, any more than +he knew what he had done to provoke the horrible calumny about his +treatment of poor Morrison. For he could not forget this. It had +reached the ears of one who needed to have the most perfect +confidence in the rectitude of his conduct. + +"And she only half disbelieves it," he thought, with hopeless +humiliation. + +This moral stab in the back seemed to have taken some of his +strength from him, as a physical wound would have done. He had no +desire to do anything--neither to bring Wang to terms in the matter +of the revolver nor to find out from the strangers who they were, +and how their predicament had come about. He flung his glowing +cigar away into the night. But Samburan was no longer a solitude +wherein he could indulge in all his moods. The fiery parabolic path +the cast-out stump traced in the air was seen from another veranda +at a distant of some twenty yards. It was noted as a symptom of +importance by an observer with his faculties greedy for signs, and +in a state of alertness tense enough almost to hear the grass grow. + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + + +The observer was Martin Ricardo. To him life was not a matter of +passive renunciation, but of a particularly active warfare. He was +not mistrustful of it, he was not disgusted with it, still less was +he inclined to be suspicious of its disenchantments; but he was +vividly aware that it held many possibilities of failure. Though +very far from being a pessimist, he was not a man of foolish +illusions. He did not like failure, not only because of its +unpleasant and dangerous consequences, but also because of its +damaging effect upon his own appreciation of Martin Ricardo. And +this was a special job, of his own contriving, and of considerable +novelty. It was not, so to speak, in his usual line of business-- +except, perhaps, from a moral standpoint, about which he was not +likely to trouble his head. For these reasons Martin Ricardo was +unable to sleep. + +Mr Jones, after repeated shivering fits, and after drinking much hot +tea, had apparently fallen into deep slumber. He had very +peremptorily discouraged attempts at conversation on the part of his +faithful follower. Ricardo listened to his regular breathing. It +was all very well for the governor. He looked upon it as a sort of +sport. A gentleman naturally would. But this ticklish and +important job had to be pulled off at all costs, both for honour and +for safety. Ricardo rose quietly, and made his way on the veranda. +He could not lie still. He wanted to go out for air, and he had a +feeling that by the force of his eagerness even the darkness and the +silence could be made to yield something to his eyes and ears. + +He noted the stars, and stepped back again into the dense darkness. +He resisted the growing impulse to go out and steal towards the +other bungalow. It would have been madness to start prowling in the +dark on unknown ground. And for what end? Unless to relieve the +oppression. Immobility lay on his limbs like a leaden garment. And +yet he was unwilling to give up. He persisted in his objectless +vigil. The man of the island was keeping quiet. + +It was at that moment that Ricardo's eyes caught the vanishing red +trail of light made by the cigar--a startling revelation of the +man's wakefulness. He could not suppress a low "Hallo!" and began +to sidle along towards the door, with his shoulders rubbing the +wall. For all he knew, the man might have been out in front by this +time, observing the veranda. As a matter of fact, after flinging +away the cheroot, Heyst had gone indoors with the feeling of a man +who gives up an unprofitable occupation. But Ricardo fancied he +could hear faint footfalls on the open ground, and dodged quickly +into the room. There he drew breath, and meditated for a while. +His next step was to feel for the matches on the tall desk, and to +light the candle. He had to communicate to his governor views and +reflections of such importance that it was absolutely necessary for +him to watch their effect on the very countenance of the hearer. At +first he had thought that these matters could have waited till +daylight; but Heyst's wakefulness, disclosed in that startling way, +made him feel suddenly certain that there could be no sleep for him +that night. + +He said as much to his governor. When the little dagger-like flame +had done its best to dispel the darkness, Mr. Jones was to be seen +reposing on a camp bedstead, in a distant part of the room. A +railway rug concealed his spare form up to his very head, which +rested on the other railway rug rolled up for a pillow. Ricardo +plumped himself down cross-legged on the floor, very close to the +low bedstead; so that Mr. Jones--who perhaps had not been so very +profoundly asleep--on opening his eyes found them conveniently +levelled at the face of his secretary. + +"Eh? What is it you say? No sleep for you tonight? But why can't +you let ME sleep? Confound your fussiness!" + +"Because that there fellow can't sleep--that's why. Dash me if he +hasn't been doing a think just now! What business has he to think +in the middle of the night?" + +"How do you know?" + +"He was out, sir--up in the middle of the night. My own eyes saw +it." + +"But how do you know that he was up to think?" inquired Mr. Jones. +"It might have been anything--toothache, for instance. And you may +have dreamed it for all I know. Didn't you try to sleep?" + +"No, sir. I didn't even try to go to sleep." + +Ricardo informed his patron of his vigil on the veranda, and of the +revelation which put an end to it. He concluded that a man up with +a cigar in the middle of the night must be doing a think. + +Mr Jones raised himself on his elbow. This sign of interest +comforted his faithful henchman. + +"Seems to me it's time we did a little think ourselves," added +Ricardo, with more assurance. Long as they had been together the +moods of his governor were still a source of anxiety to his simple +soul. + +"You are always making a fuss," remarked Mr. Jones, in a tolerant +tone. + +"Ay, but not for nothing, am I? You can't say that, sir. Mine may +not be a gentleman's way of looking round a thing, but it isn't a +fool's way, either. You've admitted that much yourself at odd +times." + +Ricardo was growing warmly argumentative. Mr. Jones interrupted him +without heat. + +"You haven't roused me to talk about yourself, I presume?" + +"No, sir." Ricardo remained silent for a minute, with the tip of +his tongue caught between his teeth. "I don't think I could tell +you anything about myself that you don't know," he continued. There +was a sort of amused satisfaction in his tone which changed +completely as he went on. "It's that man, over there, that's got to +be talked over. I don't like him." + +He, failed to observe the flicker of a ghastly smile on his +governor's lips. + +"Don't you?" murmured Mr. Jones, whose face, as he reclined on his +elbow, was on a level with the top of his follower's head. + +"No, sir," said Ricardo emphatically. The candle from the other +side of the room threw his monstrous black shadow on the wall. "He- +-I don't know how to say it--he isn't hearty-like." + +Mr Jones agreed languidly in his own manner: + +"He seems to be a very self-possessed man." + +"Ay, that's it. Self--" Ricardo choked with indignation. "I would +soon let out some of his self-possession through a hole between his +ribs, if this weren't a special job!" + +Mr Jones had been making his own reflections, for he asked: + +"Do you think he is suspicious?" + +"I don't see very well what he can be suspicious of," pondered +Ricardo. "Yet there he was doing a think. And what could be the +object of it? What made him get out of his bed in the middle of the +night. 'Tain't fleas, surely." + +"Bad conscience, perhaps," suggested Mr. Jones jocularly. + +His faithful secretary suffered from irritation, and did not see the +joke. In a fretful tone he declared that there was no such thing as +conscience. There was such a thing as funk; but there was nothing +to make that fellow funky in any special way. He admitted, however, +that the man might have been uneasy at the arrival of strangers, +because of all that plunder of his put away somewhere. + +Ricardo glanced here and there, as if he were afraid of being +overheard by the heavy shadows cast by the dim light all over the +room. His patron, very quiet, spoke in a calm whisper: + +"And perhaps that hotel-keeper has been lying to you about him. He +may be a very poor devil indeed." + +Ricardo shook his head slightly. The Schombergian theory of Heyst +had become in him a profound conviction, which he had absorbed as +naturally as a sponge takes up water. His patron's doubts were a +wanton denying of what was self-evident; but Ricardo's voice +remained as before, a soft purring with a snarling undertone. + +"I am sup-prised at you, sir! It's the very way them tame ones--the +common 'yporcrits of the world--get on. When it comes to plunder +drifting under one's very nose, there's not one of them that would +keep his hands off. And I don't blame them. It's the way they do +it that sets my back up. Just look at the story of how he got rid +of that pal of his! Send a man home to croak of a cold on the +chest--that's one of your tame tricks. And d'you mean to say, sir, +that a man that's up to it wouldn't bag whatever he could lay his +hands in his 'yporcritical way? What was all that coal business? +Tame citizen dodge; 'yporcrisy--nothing else. No, no, sir! The +thing is to extract it from him as neatly as possible. That's the +job; and it isn't so simple as it looks. I reckon you have looked +at it all round, sir, before you took up the notion of this trip." + +"No." Mr. Jones was hardly audible, staring far away from his +couch. "I didn't think about it much. I was bored." + +"Ay, that you were--bad. I was feeling pretty desperate that +afternoon, when that bearded softy of a landlord got talking to me +about this fellow here. Quite accidentally, it was. Well, sir, +here we are after a mighty narrow squeak. I feel all limp yet; but +never mind--his swag will pay for the lot!" + +"He's all alone here," remarked Mr. Jones in a hollow murmur. + +"Ye-es, in a way. Yes, alone enough. Yes, you may say he is." + +"There's that Chinaman, though." + +"Ay, there's the Chink," assented Ricardo rather absentmindedly. + +He was debating in his mind the advisability of making a clean +breast of his knowledge of the girl's existence. Finally he +concluded he wouldn't. The enterprise was difficult enough without +complicating it with an upset to the sensibilities of the gentleman +with whom he had the honour of being associated. Let the discovery +come of itself, he thought, and then he could swear that he had +known nothing of that offensive presence. + +He did not need to lie. He had only to hold his tongue. + +"Yes," he muttered reflectively, "there's that Chink, certainly." + +At bottom, he felt a certain ambiguous respect for his governor's +exaggerated dislike of women, as if that horror of feminine presence +were a sort of depraved morality; but still morality, since he +counted it as an advantage. It prevented many undesirable +complications. He did not pretend to understand it. He did not +even try to investigate this idiosyncrasy of his chief. All he knew +was that he himself was differently inclined, and that it did not +make him any happier or safer. He did not know how he would have +acted if he had been knocking about the world on his own. Luckily +he was a subordinate, not a wage-slave but a follower--which was a +restraint. Yes! The other sort of disposition simplified matters +in general; it wasn't to be gainsaid. But it was clear that it +could also complicate them--as in this most important and, in +Ricardo's view, already sufficiently delicate case. And the worst +of it was that one could not tell exactly in what precise manner it +would act. + +It was unnatural, he thought somewhat peevishly. How was one to +reckon up the unnatural? There were no rules for that. The +faithful henchman of plain Mr. Jones, foreseeing many difficulties +of a material order, decided to keep the girl out of the governor's +knowledge, out of his sight, too, for as long a time as it could be +managed. That, alas, seemed to be at most a matter of a few hours; +whereas Ricardo feared that to get the affair properly going would +take some days. Once well started, he was not afraid of his +gentleman failing him. As is often the case with lawless natures, +Ricardo's faith in any given individual was of a simple, +unquestioning character. For man must have some support in life. + +Cross-legged, his head drooping a little and perfectly still, he +might have been meditating in a bonze-like attitude upon the sacred +syllable "Om." It was a striking illustration of the untruth of +appearances, for his contempt for the world was of a severely +practical kind. There was nothing oriental about Ricardo but the +amazing quietness of his pose. Mr. Jones was also very quiet. He +had let his head sink on the rolled-up rug, and lay stretched out on +his side with his back to the light. In that position the shadows +gathered in the cavities of his eyes made them look perfectly empty. +When he spoke, his ghostly voice had only to travel a few inches +straight into Ricardo's left ear. + +"Why don't you say something, now that you've got me awake?" + +"I wonder if you were sleeping as sound as you are trying to make +out, sir," said the unmoved Ricardo. + +"I wonder," repeated Mr. Jones. "At any rate, I was resting +quietly!" + +"Come, sir!" Ricardo's whisper was alarmed. "You don't mean to say +you're going to be bored?" + +"No." + +"Quite right!" The secretary was very much relieved. "There's no +occasion to be, I can tell you, sir," he whispered earnestly. +"Anything but that! If I didn't say anything for a bit, it ain't +because there isn't plenty to talk about. Ay, more than enough." + +"What's the matter with you?" breathed out his patron. "Are you +going to turn pessimist?" + +"Me turn? No, sir! I ain't of those that turn. You may call me +hard names, if you like, but you know very well that I ain't a +croaker." Ricardo changed his tone. "If I said nothing for a +while, it was because I was meditating over the Chink, sir." + +"You were? Waste of time, my Martin. A Chinaman is unfathomable." + +Ricardo admitted that this might be so. Anyhow, a Chink was neither +here nor there, as a general thing, unfathomable as he might be; but +a Swedish baron wasn't--couldn't be! The woods were full of such +barons. + +"I don't know that he is so tame," was Mr. Jones's remark, in a +sepulchral undertone. + +"How do you mean, sir? He ain't a rabbit, of course. You couldn't +hypnotize him, as I saw you do to more than one Dago, and other +kinds of tame citizens, when it came to the point of holding them +down to a game." + +"Don't you reckon on that," murmured plain Mr. Jones seriously. + +"No, sir, I don't, though you have a wonderful power of the eye. +It's a fact." + +"I have a wonderful patience," remarked Mr. Jones dryly. + +A dim smile flitted over the lips of the faithful Ricardo who never +raised his head. + +"I don't want to try you too much, sir, but this is like no other +job we ever turned our minds to." + +"Perhaps not. At any rate let us think so." + +A weariness with the monotony of life was reflected in the tone of +this qualified assent. It jarred on the nerves of the sanguine +Ricardo. + +"Let us think of the way to go to work," he retorted a little +impatiently. "He's a deep one. Just look at the way he treated +that chum of his. Did you ever hear of anything so low? And the +artfulness of the beast--the dirty, tame artfulness!" + +"Don't you start moralizing, Martin," said Mr. Jones warningly. "As +far as I can make out the story that German hotel-keeper told you, +it seems to show a certain amount of character;--and independence +from common feelings which is not usual. It's very remarkable, if +true." + +"Ay, ay! Very remarkable. It's mighty low down, all the same," +muttered, Ricardo obstinately. "I must say I am glad to think he +will be paid off for it in a way that'll surprise him!" + +The tip of his tongue appeared lively for an instant, as if trying +for the taste of that ferocious retribution on his compressed lips. +For Ricardo was sincere in his indignation before the elementary +principle of loyalty to a chum violated in cold blood, slowly, in a +patient duplicity of years. There are standards in villainy as in +virtue, and the act as he pictured it to himself acquired an +additional horror from the slow pace of that treachery so atrocious +and so tame. But he understood too the educated judgement of his +governor, a gentleman looking on all this with the privileged +detachment of a cultivated mind, of an elevated personality. + +"Ay, he's deep--he's artful," he mumbled between his sharp teeth. + +"Confound you!" Mr. Jones's calm whisper crept into his ear. "Come +to the point." + +Obedient, the secretary shook off his thoughtfulness. There was a +similarity of mind between these two--one the outcast of his vices, +the other inspired by a spirit of scornful defiance, the +aggressiveness of a beast of prey looking upon all the tame +creatures of the earth as its natural victim. Both were astute +enough, however, and both were aware that they had plunged into this +adventure without a sufficient scrutiny of detail. The figure of a +lonely man far from all assistance had loomed up largely, +fascinating and defenceless in the middle of the sea, filling the +whole field of their vision. There had not seemed to be any need +for thinking. As Schomberg had been saying: "Three to one." + +But it did not look so simple now in the face of that solitude which +was like an armour for this man. The feeling voiced by the henchman +in his own way--"We don't seem much forwarder now we are here" was +acknowledged by the silence of the patron. It was easy enough to +rip a fellow up or drill a hole in him, whether he was alone or not, +Ricardo reflected in low, confidential tones, but - + +"He isn't alone," Mr. Jones said faintly, in his attitude of a man +composed for sleep. "Don't forget that Chinaman." Ricardo started +slightly. + +"Oh, ay--the Chink!" + +Ricardo had been on the point of confessing about the girl; but no! +He wanted his governor to be unperturbed and steady. Vague +thoughts, which he hardly dared to look in the face, were stirring +his brain in connection with that girl. She couldn't be much +account, he thought. She could be frightened. And there were also +other possibilities. The Chink, however, could be considered +openly. + +"What I was thinking about it, sir," he went on earnestly, "is this- +-here we've got a man. He's nothing. If he won't be good, he can +be made quiet. That's easy. But then there's his plunder. He +doesn't carry it in his pocket." + +"I hope not," breathed Mr. Jones. + +"Same here. It's too big, we know, but if he were alone, he would +not feel worried about it overmuch--I mean the safety of the pieces. +He would just put the lot into any box or drawer that was handy." + +"Would he?" + +"Yes, sir. He would keep it under his eye, as it were. Why not? +It is natural. A fellow doesn't put his swag underground, unless +there's a very good reason for it." + +"A very good reason, eh?" + +"Yes, sir. What do you think a fellow is--a mole?" + +From his experience, Ricardo declared that man was not a burrowing +beast. Even the misers very seldom buried their hoard, unless for +exceptional reasons. In the given situation of a man alone on an +island, the company of a Chink was a very good reason. Drawers +would not be safe, nor boxes, either, from a prying, slant-eyed +Chink. No, sir, unless a safe--a proper office safe. But the safe +was there in the room. + +"Is there a safe in this room? I didn't notice it," whispered Mr. +Jones. + +That was because the thing was painted white, like the walls of the +room; and besides, it was tucked away in the shadows of a corner. +Mr. Jones had been too tired to observe anything on his first coming +ashore; but Ricardo had very soon spotted the characteristic form. +He only wished he could believe that the plunder of treachery, +duplicity, and all the moral abominations of Heyst had been there. +But no; the blamed thing was open. + +"It might have been there at one time or another," he commented +gloomily, "but it isn't there now." + +"The man did not elect to live in this house," remarked Mr. Jones. +"And by the by, what could he have meant by speaking of +circumstances which prevented him lodging us in the other bungalow? +You remember what he said, Martin? Sounded cryptic." + +Martin, who remembered and understood the phrase as directly motived +by the existence of the girl, waited a little before saying: + +"Some of his artfulness, sir; and not the worst of it either. That +manner of his to us, this asking no questions, is some more of his +artfulness. A man's bound to be curious, and he is; yet he goes on +as if he didn't care. He does care--or else what was he doing up +with a cigar in the middle of the night, doing a think? I don't +like it." + +"He may be outside, observing the light here, and saying the very +same thing to himself of our own wakefulness," gravely suggested +Ricardo's governor. + +"He may be, sir; but this is too important to be talked over in the +dark. And the light is all right, it can be accounted for. There's +a light in this bungalow in the middle of the night because--why, +because you are not well. Not well, sir--that's what's the matter, +and you will have to act up to it." + +The consideration had suddenly occurred to the faithful henchman, in +the light of a felicitous expedient to keep his governor and the +girl apart as long as possible. Mr. Jones received the suggestion +without the slightest stir, even in the deep sockets of his eyes, +where a steady, faint gleam was the only thing telling of life and +attention in his attenuated body. But Ricardo, as soon as he had +enunciated his happy thought, perceived in it other possibilities +more to the point and of greater practical advantage. + +"With your looks, sir, it will be easy enough," he went on evenly, +as if no silence had intervened, always respectful, but frank, with +perfect simplicity of purpose. "All you've got to do is just to lie +down quietly. I noticed him looking sort of surprised at you on the +wharf, sir." + +At these words, a naive tribute to the aspect of his physique, even +more suggestive of the grave than of the sick-bed, a fold appeared +on that side of the governor's face which was exposed to the dim +light--a deep, shadowy, semicircular fold from the side of the nose +to bottom of the chin--a silent smile. By a side-glance Ricardo had +noted this play of features. He smiled, too, appreciative, +encouraged. + +"And you as hard as nails all the time," he went on. "Hang me if +anybody would believe you aren't sick, if I were to swear myself +black in the face! Give us a day or two to look into matters and +size up that 'yporcrit." + +Ricardo's eyes remained fixed on his crossed shins. The chief, in +his lifeless accents, approved. + +"Perhaps it would be a good idea." + +"The Chink, he's nothing. He can be made quiet any time." + +One of Ricardo's hands, reposing palm upwards on his folded legs, +made a swift thrusting gesture, repeated by the enormous darting +shadow of an arm very low on the wall. It broke the spell of +perfect stillness in the room. The secretary eyed moodily the wall +from which the shadow had gone. Anybody could be made quiet, he +pointed out. It was not anything that the Chink could do; no, it +was the effect that his company must have produced on the conduct of +the doomed man. A man! What was a man? A Swedish baron could be +ripped up, or else holed by a shot, as easily as any other creature; +but that was exactly what was to be avoided, till one knew where he +had hidden his plunder. + +"I shouldn't think it would be some sort of hole in his bungalow," +argued Ricardo with real anxiety. + +No. A house can be burnt--set on fire accidentally, or on purpose, +while a man's asleep. Under the house--or in some crack, cranny, or +crevice? Something told him it wasn't that. The anguish of mental +effort contracted Ricardo's brow. The skin of his head seemed to +move in this travail of vain and tormenting suppositions. + +"What did you think a fellow is, sir--a baby?" he said, in answer to +Mr. Jones's objections. "I am trying to find out what I would do +myself. He wouldn't be likely to be cleverer than I am." + +"And what do you know about yourself?" + +Mr Jones seemed to watch his follower's perplexities with amusement +concealed in a death-like composure. + +Ricardo disregarded the question. The material vision of the spoil +absorbed all his faculties. A great vision! He seemed to see it. +A few small canvas bags tied up with thin cord, their distended +rotundity showing the inside pressure of the disk-like forms of +coins--gold, solid, heavy, eminently portable. Perhaps steel cash- +boxes with a chased design, on the covers; or perhaps a black and +brass box with a handle on the top, and full of goodness knows what. +Bank notes? Why not? The fellow had been going home; so it was +surely something worth going home with. + +"And he may have put it anywhere outside--anywhere!" cried Ricardo +in a deadened voice, "in the forest--" + +That was it! A temporary darkness replaced the dim light of the +room. The darkness of the forest at night and in it the gleam of a +lantern, by which a figure is digging at the foot of a tree-trunk. +As likely as not, another figure holding that lantern--ha, feminine! +The girl! + +The prudent Ricardo stifled a picturesque and profane exclamation, +partly joy, partly dismay. Had the girl been trusted or mistrusted +by that man? Whatever it was, it was bound to be wholly! With +women there could be no half-measures. He could not imagine a +fellow half-trusting a woman in that intimate relation to himself, +and in those particular circumstances of conquest and loneliness +where no confidences could appear dangerous since, apparently, there +could be no one she could give him away to. Moreover, in nine cases +out of ten the woman would be trusted. But, trusted or mistrusted, +was her presence a favourable or unfavourable condition of the +problem? That was the question! + +The temptation to consult his chief, to talk over the weighty fact, +and get his opinion on it, was great indeed. Ricardo resisted it; +but the agony of his solitary mental conflict was extremely sharp. +A woman in a problem is an incalculable quantity, even if you have +something to go upon in forming your guess. How much more so when +you haven't even once caught sight of her. + +Swift as were his mental processes, he felt that a longer silence +was inadvisable. He hastened to speak: + +"And do you see us, sir, you and I, with a couple of spades having +to tackle this whole confounded island?" + +He allowed himself a slight movement of the arm. The shadow +enlarged it into a sweeping gesture. + +"This seems rather discouraging, Martin," murmured the unmoved +governor. + +"We mustn't be discouraged--that's all!" retorted his henchman. +"And after what we had to go through in that boat too! Why it would +be--" + +He couldn't find the qualifying words. Very calm, faithful, and yet +astute, he expressed his new-born hopes darkly. + +"Something's sure to turn up to give us a hint; only this job can't +be rushed. You may depend on me to pick up the least little bit of +a hint; but you, sir--you've got to play him very gently. For the +rest you can trust me." + +"Yes; but I ask myself what YOU are trusting to." + +"Our luck," said the faithful Ricardo. "Don't say a word against +that. It might spoil the run of it." + +"You are a superstitious beggar. No, I won't say anything against +it." + +"That's right, sir. Don't you even think lightly of it. Luck's not +to be played with." + +"Yes, luck's a delicate thing," assented Mr. Jones in a dreamy +whisper. + +A short silence ensued, which Ricardo ended in a discreet and +tentative voice. + +"Talking of luck, I suppose he could be made to take a hand with +you, sir--two-handed picket or ekkarty, you being seedy and keeping +indoors--just to pass the time. For all we know, he may be one of +them hot ones once they start--" + +"Is it likely?" came coldly from the principal. "Considering what +we know of his history--say with his partner." + +"True, sir. He's a cold-blooded beast; a cold-blooded, inhuman--" + +"And I'll tell you another thing that isn't likely. He would not be +likely to let himself be stripped bare. We haven't to do with a +young fool that can be led on by chaff or flattery, and in the end +simply overawed. This is a calculating man." + +Ricardo recognized that clearly. What he had in his mind was +something on a small scale, just to keep the enemy busy while he, +Ricardo, had time to nose around a bit. + +"You could even lose a little money to him, sir," he suggested. + +"I could." + +Ricardo was thoughtful for a moment. + +"He strikes me, too, as the sort of man to start prancing when one +didn't expect it. What do you think, sir? Is he a man that would +prance? That is, if something startled him. More likely to prance +than to run--what?" + +The answer came at once, because Mr. Jones understood the peculiar +idiom of his faithful follower. + +"Oh, without doubt! Without doubt!" + +"It does me good to hear that you think so. He's a prancing beast, +and so we mustn't startle him--not till I have located the stuff. +Afterwards--" + +Ricardo paused, sinister in the stillness of his pose. Suddenly he +got up with a swift movement and gazed down at his chief in moody +abstraction. Mr. Jones did not stir. + +"There's one thing that's worrying me," began Ricardo in a subdued +voice. + +"Only one?" was the faint comment from the motionless body on the +bedstead. + +"I mean more than all the others put together." + +"That's grave news." + +"Ay, grave enough. It's this--how do you feel in yourself, sir? +Are you likely to get bored? I know them fits come on you suddenly; +but surely you can tell--" + +"Martin, you are an ass." + +The moody face of the secretary brightened up. + +"Really, sir? Well, I am quite content to be on these terms--I mean +as long as you don't get bored. It wouldn't do, sir." + +For coolness, Ricardo had thrown open his shirt and rolled up his +sleeves. He moved stealthily across the room, bare-footed, towards +the candle, the shadow of his head and shoulders growing bigger +behind him on the opposite wall, to which the face of plain Mr. +Jones was turned. With a feline movement, Ricardo glanced over his +shoulder at the thin back of the spectre reposing on the bed, and +then blew out the candle. + +"In fact, I am rather amused, Martin," Mr. Jones said in the dark. + +He heard the sound of a slapped thigh and the jubilant exclamation +of his henchman: + +"Good! That's the way to talk, sir!" + + + + +PART FOUR + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + + +Ricardo advanced prudently by short darts from one tree-trunk to +another, more in the manner of a squirrel than a cat. The sun had +risen some time before. Already the sparkle of open sea was +encroaching rapidly on the dark, cool, early-morning blue of Diamond +Bay; but the deep dusk lingered yet under the mighty pillars of the +forest, between which the secretary dodged. + +He was watching Number One's bungalow with an animal-like patience, +if with a very human complexity of purpose. This was the second +morning of such watching. The first one had not been rewarded by +success. Well, strictly speaking, there was no hurry. + +The sun, swinging above the ridge all at once, inundated with light +the space of burnt grass in front of Ricardo and the face of the +bungalow, on which his eyes were fixed, leaving only the one dark +spot of the doorway. To his right, to his left, and behind him, +splashes of gold appeared in the deep shade of the forest, thinning +the gloom under the ragged roof of leaves. + +This was not a very favourable circumstance for Ricardo's purpose. +He did not wish to be detected in his patient occupation. For what +he was watching for was a sight of the girl--that girl! just a +glimpse across the burnt patch to see what she was like. He had +excellent eyes, and the distance was not so great. He would be able +to distinguish her face quite easily if she only came out on the +veranda; and she was bound to do that sooner or later. He was +confident that he could form some opinion about her--which, he felt, +was very necessary, before venturing on some steps to get in touch +with her behind that Swedish baron's back. His theoretical view of +the girl was such that he was quite prepared, on the strength of +that distant examination, to show himself discreetly--perhaps even +make a sign. It all depended on his reading of the face. She +couldn't be much. He knew that sort! + +By protruding his head a little he commanded, through the foliage of +a festooning creeper, a view of the three bungalows. Irregularly +disposed along a flat curve, over the veranda rail of the +farthermost one hung a dark rug of a tartan pattern, amazingly +conspicuous. Ricardo could see the very checks. A brisk fire of +sticks was burning on the ground in front of the steps, and in the +sunlight the thin, fluttering flame had paled almost to +invisibility--a mere rosy stir under a faint wreath of smoke. He +could see the white bandage on the head of Pedro bending over it, +and the wisps of black hair standing up weirdly. He had wound that +bandage himself, after breaking that shaggy and enormous head. The +creature balanced it like a load, staggering towards the steps. +Ricardo could see a small, long-handled saucepan at the end of a +great hairy paw. + +Yes, he could see all that there was to be seen, far and near. +Excellent eyes! The only thing they could not penetrate was the +dark oblong of the doorway on the veranda under the low eaves of the +bungalow's roof. And that was vexing. It was an outrage. Ricardo +was easily outraged. Surely she would come out presently! Why +didn't she? Surely the fellow did not tie her up to the bedpost +before leaving the house! + +Nothing appeared. Ricardo was as still as the leafy cables of +creepers depending in a convenient curtain from the mighty limb +sixty feet above his head. His very eyelids were still, and this +unblinking watchfulness gave him the dreamy air of a cat posed on a +hearth-rug contemplating the fire. Was he dreaming? There, in +plain sight, he had before him a white, blouse-like jacket, short +blue trousers, a pair of bare yellow calves, a pigtail, long and +slender - + +"The confounded Chink!" he muttered, astounded. + +He was not conscious of having looked away; and yet right there, in +the middle of the picture, without having come round the right-hand +corner or the left-hand corner of the house, without falling from +the sky or surging up from the ground, Wang had become visible, +large as life, and engaged in the young-ladyish occupation of +picking flowers. Step by step, stooping repeatedly over the flower- +beds at the foot of the veranda, the startlingly materialized +Chinaman passed off the scene in a very commonplace manner, by going +up the steps and disappearing in the darkness of the doorway. + +Only then the yellow eyes of Martin Ricardo lost their intent +fixity. He understood that it was time for him to be moving. That +bunch of flowers going into the house in the hand of a Chinaman was +for the breakfast-table. What else could it be for? + +"I'll give you flowers!" he muttered threateningly. "You wait!" + +Another moment, just for a glance towards the Jones bungalow, whence +he expected Heyst to issue on his way to that breakfast so +offensively decorated, and Ricardo began his retreat. His impulse, +his desire, was for a rush into the open, face to face with the +appointed victim, for what he called a "ripping up," visualized +greedily, and always with the swift preliminary stooping movement on +his part--the forerunner of certain death to his adversary. This +was his impulse; and as it was, so to speak, constitutional, it was +extremely difficult to resist when his blood was up. What could be +more trying than to have to skulk and dodge and restrain oneself, +mentally and physically, when one's blood was up? Mr. Secretary +Ricardo began his retreat from his post of observation behind a tree +opposite Heyst's bungalow, using great care to remain unseen. His +proceedings were made easier by the declivity of the ground, which +sloped sharply down to the water's edge. There, his feet feeling +the warmth of the island's rocky foundation already heated by the +sun, through the thin soles of his straw slippers he was, as it +were, sunk out of sight of the houses. A short scramble of some +twenty feet brought him up again to the upper level, at the place +where the jetty had its root in the shore. He leaned his back +against one of the lofty uprights which still held up the company's +signboard above the mound of derelict coal. Nobody could have +guessed how much his blood was up. To contain himself he folded his +arms tightly on his breast. + +Ricardo was not used to a prolonged effort of self-control. His +craft, his artfulness, felt themselves always at the mercy of his +nature, which was truly feral and only held in subjection by the +influence of the "governor," the prestige of a gentleman. It had +its cunning too, but it was being almost too severely tried since +the feral solution of a growl and a spring was forbidden by the +problem. Ricardo dared not venture out on the cleared ground. He +dared not. + +"If I meet the beggar," he thought, "I don't know what I mayn't do. +I daren't trust myself." + +What exasperated him just now was his inability to understand Heyst. +Ricardo was human enough to suffer from the discovery of his +limitations. No, he couldn't size Heyst up. He could kill him with +extreme ease--a growl and a spring--but that was forbidden! +However, he could not remain indefinitely under the funereal +blackboard. + +"I must make a move," he thought. + +He moved on, his head swimming a little with the repressed desire of +violence, and came out openly in front of the bungalows, as if he +had just been down to the jetty to look at the boat. The sunshine +enveloped him, very brilliant, very still, very hot. The three +buildings faced him. The one with the rug on the balustrade was the +most distant; next to it was the empty bungalow; the nearest, with +the flower-beds at the foot of its veranda, contained that +bothersome girl, who had managed so provokingly to keep herself +invisible. That was why Ricardo's eyes lingered on that building. +The girl would surely be easier to "size up" than Heyst. A sight of +her, a mere glimpse, would have been something to go by, a step +nearer to the goal--the first real move, in fact. Ricardo saw no +other move. And any time she might appear on that veranda! + +She did not appear; but, like a concealed magnet, she exercised her +attraction. As he went on, he deviated towards the bungalow. +Though his movements were deliberate, his feral instincts had such +sway that if he had met Heyst walking towards him, he would have had +to satisfy his need of violence. But he saw nobody. Wang was at +the back of the house, keeping the coffee hot against Number One's +return for breakfast. Even the simian Pedro was out of sight, no +doubt crouching on the door-step, his red little eyes fastened with +animal-like devotion on Mr. Jones, who was in discourse with Heyst +in the other bungalow--the conversation of an evil spectre with a +disarmed man, watched by an ape. + +His will having very little to do with it, Ricardo, darting swift +glances in all directions, found himself at the steps of the Heyst +bungalow. Once there, falling under an uncontrollable force of +attraction, he mounted them with a savage and stealthy action of his +limbs, and paused for a moment under the eaves to listen to the +silence. Presently he advanced over the threshold one leg--it +seemed to stretch itself, like a limb of india-rubber--planted his +foot within, brought up the other swiftly, and stood inside the +room, turning his head from side to side. To his eyes, brought in +there from the dazzling sunshine, all was gloom for a moment. His +pupils, like a cat's, dilating swiftly, he distinguished an enormous +quantity of books. He was amazed; and he was put off too. He was +vexed in his astonishment. He had meant to note the aspect and +nature of things, and hoped to draw some useful inference, some hint +as to the man. But what guess could one make out of a multitude of +books? He didn't know what to think; and he formulated his +bewilderment in the mental exclamation: + +"What the devil has this fellow been trying to set up here--a +school?" + +He gave a prolonged stare to the portrait of Heyst's father, that +severe profile ignoring the vanities of this earth. His eyes +gleamed sideways at the heavy silver candlesticks--signs of +opulence. He prowled as a stray cat entering a strange place might +have done, for if Ricardo had not Wang's miraculous gift of +materializing and vanishing, rather than coming and going, he could +be nearly as noiseless in his less elusive movements. He noted the +back door standing just ajar; and an the time his slightly pointed +ears, at the utmost stretch of watchfulness, kept in touch with the +profound silence outside enveloping the absolute stillness of the +house. + +He had not been in the room two minutes when it occurred to him that +he must be alone in the bungalow. The woman, most likely, had +sneaked out and was walking about somewhere in the grounds at the +back. She had been probably ordered to keep out of sight. Why? +Because the fellow mistrusted his guests; or was it because he +mistrusted HER? + +Ricardo reflected that from a certain point of view it amounted +nearly to the same thing. He remembered Schomberg's story. He felt +that running away with somebody only to get clear of that beastly, +tame, hotel-keeper's attention was no proof of hopeless infatuation. +She could be got in touch with. + +His moustaches stirred. For some time he had been looking at a +closed door. He would peep into that other room, and perhaps see +something more informing than a confounded lot of books. As he +crossed over, he thought recklessly: + +"If the beggar comes in suddenly, and starts to prance, I'll rip him +up and be done with it!" + +He laid his hand on the handle, and felt the door come unlatched. +Before he pulled it open, he listened again to the silence. He felt +it all about him, complete, without a flaw. + +The necessity of prudence had exasperated his self-restraint. A +mood of ferocity woke up in him, and, as always at such times, he +became physically aware of the sheeted knife strapped to his leg. +He pulled at the door with fierce curiosity. It came open without a +squeak of hinge, without a rustle, with no sound at all; and he +found himself glaring at the opaque surface of some rough blue +stuff, like serge. A curtain was fitted inside, heavy enough and +long enough not to stir. + +A curtain! This unforeseen veil, baffling his curiosity checked his +brusqueness. He did not fling it aside with an impatient movement; +he only looked at it closely, as if its texture had to be examined +before his hand could touch such stuff. In this interval of +hesitation, he seemed to detect a flaw in the perfection of the +silence, the faintest possible rustle, which his ears caught and +instantly, in the effort of conscious listening, lost again. No! +Everything was still inside and outside the house, only he had no +longer the sense of being alone there. + +When he put out his hand towards the motionless folds it was with +extreme caution, and merely to push the stuff aside a little, +advancing his head at the same time to peep within. A moment of +complete immobility ensued. Then, without anything else of him +stirring, Ricardo's head shrank back on his shoulders, his arm +descended slowly to his side. There was a woman in there. The very +woman! Lighted dimly by the reflection of the outer glare, she +loomed up strangely big and shadowy at the other end of the long, +narrow room. With her back to the door, she was doing her hair with +bare arms uplifted. One of them gleamed pearly white; the other +detached its perfect form in black against the unshuttered, +uncurtained square window-hole. She was there, her fingers busy +with her dark hair, utterly unconscious, exposed and defenceless-- +and tempting. + +Ricardo drew back one foot and pressed his elbows close to his +sides; his chest started heaving convulsively as if he were +wrestling or running a race; his body began to sway gently back and +forth. The self-restraint was at an end: his psychology must have +its way. The instinct for the feral spring could no longer be +denied. Ravish or kill--it was all one to him, as long as by the +act he liberated the suffering soul of savagery repressed for so +long. After a quick glance over his shoulder, which hunters of big +game tell us no lion or tiger omits to give before charging home, +Ricardo charged, head down, straight at the curtain. The stuff, +tossed up violently by his rush, settled itself with a slow, +floating descent Into vertical folds, motionless, without a shudder +even, in the still, warm air. + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + + +The clock--which once upon a time had measured the hours of +philosophic meditation--could not have ticked away more than five +seconds when Wang materialized within the living-room. His concern +primarily was with the delayed breakfast, but at once his slanting +eyes became immovably fixed upon the unstirring curtain. For it was +behind it that he had located the strange, deadened scuffling sounds +which filled the empty room. The slanting eyes of his race could +not achieve a round, amazed stare, but they remained still, dead +still, and his impassive yellow face grew all at once careworn and +lean with the sudden strain of intense, doubtful, frightened +watchfulness. Contrary impulses swayed his body, rooted to the +floor-mats. He even went so far as to extend his hand towards the +curtain. He could not reach it, and he didn't make the necessary +step forward. + +The mysterious struggle was going on with confused thuds of bare +feet, in a mute wrestling match, no human sound, hiss, groan, +murmur, or exclamation coming through the curtain. A chair fell +over, not with a crash but lightly, as if just grazed, and a faint +metallic ring of the tin bath succeeded. Finally the tense silence, +as of two adversaries locked in a deadly grip, was ended by the +heavy, dull thump of a soft body flung against the inner partition +of planks. It seemed to shake the whole bungalow. By that time, +walking backward, his eyes, his very throat, strained with fearful +excitement, his extended arm still pointing at the curtain, Wang had +disappeared through the back door. Once out in the compound, he +bolted round the end of the house. Emerging innocently between the +two bungalows he lingered and lounged in the open, where anybody +issuing from any of the dwellings was bound to see him--a self- +possessed Chinaman idling there, with nothing but perhaps an +unserved breakfast on his mind. + +It was at this time that Wang made up his mind to give up all +connection with Number One, a man not only disarmed but already half +vanquished. Till that morning he had had doubts as to his course of +action, but this overheard scuffle decided the question. Number One +was a doomed man--one of those beings whom it is unlucky to help. +Even as he walked in the open with a fine air of unconcern, Wang +wondered that no sound of any sort was to be heard inside the house. +For all he knew, the white woman might have been scuffling in there +with an evil spirit, which had of course killed her. For nothing +visible came out of the house he watched out of the slanting comer +of his eye. The sunshine and the silence outside the bungalow +reigned undisturbed. + +But in the house the silence of the big room would not have struck +an acute ear as perfect. It was troubled by a stir so faint that it +could hardly be called a ghost of whispering from behind the +curtain. + +Ricardo, feeling his throat with tender care, breathed out +admiringly: + +"You have fingers like steel. Jimminy! You have muscles like a +giant!" + +Luckily for Lena, Ricardo's onset had been so sudden--she was +winding her two heavy tresses round her head--that she had no time +to lower her arms. This, which saved them from being pinned to her +sides, gave her a better chance to resist. His spring had nearly +thrown her down. Luckily, again, she was standing so near the wall +that, though she was driven against it headlong, yet the shock was +not heavy enough to knock all the breath out of her body. On the +contrary, it helped her first instinctive attempt to drive her +assailant backward. + +After the first gasp of a surprise that was really too over-powering +for a cry, she was never in doubt of the nature of her danger. She +defended herself in the full, clear knowledge of it, from the force +of instinct which is the true source of every great display of +energy, and with a determination which could hardly have been +expected from a girl who, cornered in a dim corridor by the red- +faced, stammering Schomberg, had trembled with shame, disgust, and +fear; had drooped, terrified, before mere words spluttered out +odiously by a man who had never in his life laid his big paw on her. + +This new enemy's attack was simple, straightforward violence. It +was not the slimy, underhand plotting to deliver her up like a +slave, which had sickened her heart and had made her feel in her +loneliness that her oppressors were too many for her. She was no +longer alone in the world now. She resisted without a moment of +faltering, because she was no longer deprived of moral support; +because she was a human being who counted; because she was no longer +defending herself for herself alone; because of the faith that had +been born in her--the faith in the man of her destiny, and perhaps +in the Heaven which had sent him so wonderfully to cross her path. + +She had defended herself principally by maintaining a desperate, +murderous clutch on Ricardo's windpipe, till she felt a sudden +relaxation of the terrific hug in which he stupidly and +ineffectually persisted to hold her. Then with a supreme effort of +her arms and of her suddenly raised knee, she sent him flying +against the partition. The cedar-wood chest stood in the way, and +Ricardo, with a thump which boomed hollow through the whole +bungalow, fell on it in a sitting posture, half strangled, and +exhausted not so much by the efforts as by the emotions of the +struggle. + +With the recoil of her exerted strength, she too reeled, staggered +back, and sat on the edge of the bed. Out of breath, but calm and +unabashed, she busied herself in readjusting under her arms the +brown and yellow figured Celebes sarong, the tuck of which had come +undone during the fight. Then, folding her bare arms tightly on her +breast, she leaned forward on her crossed legs, determined and +without fear. + +Ricardo, leaning forward too, his nervous force gone, crestfallen +like a beast of prey that has missed its spring, met her big grey +eyes looking at him--wide open, observing, mysterious--from under +the dark arches of her courageous eyebrows. Their faces were not a +foot apart. He ceased feeling about his aching throat and dropped +the palms of his hands heavily on his knees. He was not looking at +her bare shoulders, at her strong arms; he was looking down at the +floor. He had lost one of his straw slippers. A chair with a white +dress on it had been overturned. These, with splashes of water on +the floor out of a brusquely misplaced sponge-bath, were the only +traces of the struggle. + +Ricardo swallowed twice consciously, as if to make sure of his +throat before he spoke again: + +"All right. I never meant to hurt you--though I am no joker when it +comes to it." + +He pulled up the leg of his pyjamas to exhibit the strapped knife. +She glanced at it without moving her head, and murmured with +scornful bitterness: + +"Ah, yes--with that thing stuck in my side. In no other way." + +He shook his head with a shamefaced smile. + +"Listen! I am quiet now. Straight--I am. I don't need to explain +why--you know how it is. And I can see, now, this wasn't the way +with you." + +She made no sound. Her still, upward gaze had a patient, +mournfulness which troubled him like a suggestion of an +inconceivable depth. He added thoughtfully: + +"You are not going to make a noise about this silly try of mine?" + +She moved her head the least bit. + +"Jee-miny! You are a wonder--" he murmured earnestly, relieved more +than she could have guessed. + +Of course, if she had attempted to run out, he would have stuck the +knife between her shoulders, to stop her screaming; but all the fat +would have been in the fire, the business utterly spoiled, and the +rage of the governor--especially when he learned the cause-- +boundless. A woman that does not make a noise after an attempt of +that kind has tacitly condoned the offence. Ricardo had no small +vanities. But clearly, if she would pass it over like this, then he +could not be so utterly repugnant to her. He felt flattered. And +she didn't seem afraid of him either. He already felt almost tender +towards the girl--that plucky, fine girl who had not tried to run +screaming from him. + +"We shall be friends yet. I don't give you up. Don't think it. +Friends as friends can be!" he whispered confidently. "Jee-miny! +You aren't a tame one. Neither am I. You will find that out before +long." + +He could not know that if she had not run out, it was because that +morning, under the sum of growing uneasiness at the presence of the +incomprehensible visitors, Heyst had confessed to her that it was +his revolver he had been looking for in the night; that it was gone, +that he was a disarmed, defenceless man. She had hardly +comprehended the meaning of his confession. Now she understood +better what it meant. The effort of her self-control, her +stillness, impressed Ricardo. Suddenly she spoke: + +"What are you after?" + +He did not raise his eyes. His hands reposing on his knees, his +drooping head, something reflective in his pose, suggested the +weariness of a simple soul, the fatigue of a mental rather than +physical contest. He answered the direct question by a direct +statement, as if he were too tired to dissemble: + +"After the swag." + +The word was strange to her. The veiled ardour of her grey gaze +from under the dark eyebrows never left Ricardo's. + +"A swag?" she murmured quietly. "What's that?" + +"Why, swag, plunder--what your gentleman has been pinching right and +left for years--the pieces. Don't you know? This!" + +Without looking up, he made the motion of counting money into the +palm of his hand. She lowered her eyes slightly to observe this bit +of pantomime, but returned them to his face at once. Then, in a +mere breath: + +"How do you know anything about him?" she asked, concealing her +puzzled alarm. "What has it got to do with you?" + +"Everything," was Ricardo's concise answer, in a low, emphatic +whisper. He reflected that this girl was really his best hope. Out +of the unfaded impression of past violence there was growing the +sort of sentiment which prevents a man from being indifferent to a +woman he has once held in his arms--if even against her will--and +still more so if she has pardoned the outrage. It becomes then a +sort of bond. He felt positively the need to confide in her--a +subtle trait of masculinity, this almost physical need of trust +which can exist side by side with the most brutal readiness of +suspicion. + +"It's a game of grab--see?" he went on, with a new inflection of +intimacy in his murmur. He was looking straight at her now. + +"That fat, tame slug of a gin-slinger, Schomberg, put us up to it." + +So strong is the impression of helpless and persecuted misery, that +the girl who had fought down a savage assault without faltering +could not completely repress a shudder at the mere sound of the +abhorred name. + +Ricardo became more rapid and confidential: + +"He wants to pay him off--pay both of you, at that; so he told me. +He was hot after you. He would have given all he had into those +hands of yours that have nearly strangled me. But you couldn't, eh? +Nohow--what?" He paused. "So, rather than--you followed a +gentleman?" + +He noticed a slight movement of her head and spoke quickly. + +"Same here--rather than be a wage-slave. Only these foreigners +aren't to be trusted. You're too good for him. A man that will rob +his best chum?" She raised her head. He went on, well pleased with +his progress, whispering hurriedly: "Yes. I know all about him. +So you may guess how he's likely to treat a woman after a bit!" + +He did not know that he was striking terror into her breast now. +Still the grey eyes remained fixed on him unmovably watchful, as if +sleepy under the white forehead. She was beginning to understand. +His words conveyed a definite, dreadful meaning to her mind, which +he proceeded to enlighten further in a convinced murmur. + +"You and I are made to understand each other. Born alike, bred +alike, I guess. You are not tame. Same here! You have been +chucked out into this rotten world of 'yporcrits. Same here!" + +Her stillness, her appalled stillness, wore to him an air of +fascinated attention. He asked abruptly: + +"Where is it?" + +She made an effort to breathe out: + +"Where's what?" + +His tone expressed excited secrecy. + +"The swag--plunder--pieces. It's a game of grab. We must have it; +but it isn't easy, and so you will have to lend a hand. Come! is it +kept in the house?" + +As often with women, her wits were sharpened by the very terror of +the glimpsed menace. She shook her head negatively. + +"No." + +"Sure?" + +"Sure," she said. + +"Ay! Thought so. Does your gentleman trust you?" + +Again she shook her head. + +"Blamed 'yporcrit," he said feelingly, and then reflected: "He's +one of the tame ones, ain't he?" + +"You had better find out for yourself," she said. + +"You trust me. I don't want to die before you and I have made +friends." This was said with a strange air of feline gallantry. +Then, tentatively: "But he could be brought to trust you, couldn't +he?" + +"Trust me?" she said, in a tone which bordered on despair, but which +he mistook for derision. + +"Stand in with us," he urged. "Give the chuck to all this blamed +'yporcrisy. Perhaps, without being trusted, you have managed to +find out something already, eh?" + +"Perhaps I have," she uttered with lips that seemed to her to be +freezing fast. + +Ricardo now looked at her calm face with something like respect. He +was even a little awed by her stillness, by her economy of words. +Womanlike, she felt the effect she had produced, the effect of +knowing much and of keeping all her knowledge in reserve. So far, +somehow, this had come, about of itself. Thus encouraged, directed +in the way of duplicity, the refuge of the weak, she made a +heroically conscious effort and forced her stiff, cold lips into a +smile. + +Duplicity--the refuge of the weak and the cowardly, but of the +disarmed, too! Nothing stood between the enchanted dream of her +existence and a cruel catastrophe but her duplicity. It seemed to +her that the man sitting there before her was an unavoidable +presence, which had attended all her life. He was the embodied evil +of the world. She was not ashamed of her duplicity. With a woman's +frank courage, as soon as she saw that opening she threw herself +into it without reserve, with only one doubt--that of her own +strength. She was appalled by the situation; but already all her +aroused femininity, understanding that whether Heyst loved her or +not she loved him, and feeling that she had brought this on his +head, faced the danger with a passionate desire to defend her own. + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + + +To Ricardo the girl had been so unforeseen that he was unable to +bring upon her the light of his critical faculties. Her smile +appeared to him full of promise. He had not expected her to be what +she was. Who, from the talk he had heard, could expect to meet a +girl like this? She was a blooming miracle, he said to himself, +familiarly, yet with a tinge of respect. She was no meat for the +likes of that tame, respectable gin-slinger. Ricardo grew hot with +indignation. Her courage, her physical strength, demonstrated at +the cost of his discomfiture, commanded his sympathy. He felt +himself drawn to her by the proofs of her amazing spirit. Such a +girl! She had a strong soul; and her reflective disposition to +throw over her connection proved that she was no hypocrite. + +"Is your gentleman a good shot?" he said, looking down on the floor +again, as if indifferent. + +She hardly understood the phrase; but in its form it suggested some +accomplishment. It was safe to whisper an affirmative. + +"Yes." + +"Mine, too--and better than good," Ricardo murmured, and then, in a +confidential burst: "I am not so good at it, but I carry a pretty +deadly thing about me, all the same!" + +He tapped his leg. She was past the stage of shudders now. Stiff +all over, unable even to move her eyes, she felt an awful mental +tension which was like blank forgetfulness. Ricardo tried to +influence her in his own way. + +"And my gentleman is not the sort that would drop me. He ain't no +foreigner; whereas you, with your baron, you don't know what's +before you--or, rather, being a woman, you know only too well. Much +better not to wait for the chuck. Pile in with us and get your +share--of the plunder, I mean. You have some notion about it +already." + +She felt that if she as much as hinted by word or sign that there +was no such thing on the island, Heyst's life wouldn't be worth half +an hour's purchase; but all power of combining words had vanished in +the tension of her mind. Words themselves were too difficult to +think of--all except the word "yes," the saving word! She whispered +it with not a feature of her face moving. To Ricardo the faint and +concise sound proved a cool, reserved assent, more worth having from +that amazing mistress of herself than a thousand words from any +other woman. He thought with exultation that he had come upon one +in a million--in ten millions! His whisper became frankly +entreating. + +"That's good! Now all you've got to do is to make sure where he +keeps his swag. Only do be quick about it! I can't stand much +longer this crawling-on-the-stomach business so as not to scare your +gentleman. What do you think a fellow is--a reptile?" + +She stared without seeing anyone, as a person in the night sits +staring and listening to deadly sounds, to evil incantations. And +always in her head there was that tension of the mind trying to get +hold of something, of a saving idea which seemed to be so near and +could not be captured. Suddenly she seized it. Yes--she had to get +that man out of the house. At that very moment, raised outside, not +very near, but heard distinctly, Heyst's voice uttered the words: + +"Have you been looking out for me, Wang?" + +It was for her like a flash of lightning framed in the darkness +which had beset her on all sides, showing a deadly precipice right +under her feet. With a convulsive movement she sat up straight, but +had no power to rise. Ricardo, on the contrary, was on his feet on +the instant, as noiseless as a cat. His yellow eyes gleamed, +gliding here and there; but he too seemed unable to make another +movement. Only his moustaches stirred visibly, like the feelers of +some animal. + +Wang's answer, "Ya tuan," was heard by the two in the room, but more +faintly. Then Heyst again: + +"All right! You may bring the coffee in. Mem Putih out in the room +yet?" + +To this question Wang made no answer. + +Ricardo's and the girl's eyes met, utterly without expression, all +their faculties being absorbed in listening for the first sound of +Heyst's footsteps, for any sound outside which would mean that +Ricardo's retreat was cut off. Both understood perfectly well that +Wang must have gone round the house, and that he was now at the +back, making it impossible for Ricardo to slip out unseen that way +before Heyst came in at the front. + +A darkling shade settled on the face of the devoted secretary. Here +was the business utterly spoiled! It was the gloom of anger, and +even of apprehension. He would perhaps have made a dash for it +through the back door, if Heyst had not been heard ascending the +front steps. He climbed them slowly, very slowly, like a man who is +discouraged or weary--or simply thoughtful; and Ricardo had a mental +vision of his face, with its martial moustache, the lofty forehead, +the impassive features, and the quiet, meditative eyes. Trapped! +Confound it! After all, perhaps the governor was right. Women had +to be shunned. Fooling with this one had apparently ruined the +whole business. For, trapped as he was he might just as well kill, +since, anyhow, to be seen was to be unmasked. But he was too fair- +minded to be angry with the girl. + +Heyst had paused on the veranda, or in the very doorway. + +"I shall be shot down like a dog if I ain't quick," Ricardo +muttered excitedly to the girl. + +He stooped to get hold of his knife; and the next moment would have +hurled himself out through the curtain, nearly, as prompt and fully +as deadly to Heyst as an unexpected thunderbolt. The feel more than +the strength of the girl's hand, clutching at his shoulder, checked +him. He swung round, crouching with a yellow upward glare. Ah! +Was she turning against him? + +He would have stuck his knife into the hollow of her bare throat if +he had not seen her other hand pointing to the window. It was a +long opening, high up, close under the ceiling almost, with a single +pivoting shutter. + +While he was still looking at it she moved noiselessly away, picking +up the overturned chair, and placed it under the wall. Then she +looked round; but he didn't need to be beckoned to. In two long, +tiptoeing strides he was at her side. + +"Be quick!" she gasped. + +He seized her hand and wrung it with all the force of his dumb +gratitude, as a man does to a chum when there is no time for words. +Then he mounted the chair. Ricardo was short--too short to get over +without a noisy scramble. He hesitated an instant; she, watchful, +bore rigidly on the seat with her beautiful bare arms, while, light +and sure, he used the back of the chair as a ladder. The masses of +her brown hair fell all about her face. + +Footsteps resounded in the next room, and Heyst's voice, not very +loud, called her by name. + +"Lena!" + +"Yes! In a minute," she answered with a particular intonation which +she knew would prevent Heyst from coming in at once. + +When she looked up, Ricardo had vanished, letting himself down +outside so lightly that she had not heard the slightest noise. She +stood up then, bewildered, frightened, as if awakened from a drugged +sleep, with heavy, downcast, unseeing eyes, her fortitude tired out, +her imagination as if dead within her and unable to keep her fear +alive. + +Heyst moved about aimlessly in the other room. This sound roused +her exhausted wits. At once she began to think, hear, see; and what +she saw--or rather recognized, for her eyes had been resting on it +all the time--was Ricardo's straw slipper, lost in the scuffle, +lying near the bath. She had just time to step forward and plant +her foot on it when the curtains shook, and, pushed aside, disclosed +Heyst in the doorway. + +Out of the appeased enchantment of the senses she had found with +him, like a sort of bewitched state, his danger brought a sensation +of warmth to her breast. She felt something stir in there, +something profound, like a new sort of life. + +The room was in partial darkness, Ricardo having accidentally swung +the pivoted shutter as he went out of the window. Heyst peered from +the doorway. + +"Why, you haven't done your hair yet," he said. + +"I won't stop to do it now. I shan't be long," she replied +steadily, and remained still, feeling Ricardo's slipper under the +sole of her foot. + +Heyst, with a movement of retreat, let the curtain drop slowly. On +the instant she stooped for the slipper, and, with it in her hand, +spun round wildly, looking for some hiding-place; but there was no +such spot in the bare room. The chest, the leather bunk, a dress or +two of hers hanging on pegs--there was no place where the merest +hazard might not guide Heyst's hand at any moment. Her wildly +roaming eyes were caught by the half-closed window. She ran to it, +and by raising herself on her toes was able to reach the shutter +with her fingertips. She pushed it square, stole back to the middle +of the room, and, turning about, swung her arm, regulating the force +of the throw so as not to let the slipper fly too far out and hit +the edge of the overhanging eaves. It was a task of the nicest +judgement for the muscles of those round arms, still quivering from +the deadly wrestle with a man, for that brain, tense with the +excitement of the situation and for the unstrung nerves flickering +darkness before her eyes. At last the slipper left her hand. As +soon as it passed the opening, it was out of her sight. She +listened. She did not hear it strike anything; it just vanished, as +if it had wings to fly on through the air. Not a sound! It had +gone clear. + +Her valiant arms hanging close against her side, she stood as if +turned into stone. A faint whistle reached her ears. The forgetful +Ricardo, becoming very much aware of his loss, had been hanging +about in great anxiety, which was relieved by the appearance of the +slipper flying from under the eaves; and now, thoughtfully, he had +ventured a whistle to put her mind at ease. + +Suddenly the girl reeled forward. She saved herself from a fall +only by embracing with both arms one of the tall, roughly carved +posts holding the mosquito net above the bed. For a long time she +dung to it, with her forehead leaning against the wood. One side of +her loosened sarong had slipped down as low as her hip. The long +brown tresses of her hair fell in lank wisps, as if wet, almost +black against her white body. Her uncovered flank, damp with the +sweat of anguish and fatigue, gleamed coldly with the immobility of +polished marble in the hot, diffused light falling through the +window above her head--a dim reflection of the consuming, passionate +blaze of sunshine outside, all aquiver with the effort to set the +earth on fire, to burn it to ashes. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + + +Heyst, seated at the table with his chin on his breast, raised his +head at the faint rustle of Lena's dress. He was startled by the +dead pallor of her cheeks, by something lifeless in her eyes, which +looked at him strangely, without recognition. But to his anxious +inquiries she answered reassuringly that there was nothing the +matter with her, really. She had felt giddy on rising. She had +even had a moment of faintness, after her bath. She had to sit down +to wait for it to pass. This had made her late dressing. + +"I didn't try to do my hair. I didn't want to keep you waiting any +longer," she said. + +He was unwilling to press her with questions about her health, since +she seemed to make light of this indisposition. She had not done +her hair, but she had brushed it, and had tied it with a ribbon +behind. With her forehead uncovered, she looked very young, almost +a child, a careworn child; a child with something on its mind. + +What surprised Heyst was the non-appearance of Wang. The Chinaman +had always materialized at the precise moment of his service, +neither too soon nor too late. This time the usual miracle failed. +What was the meaning of this? + +Heyst raised his voice--a thing he disliked doing. It was promptly +answered from the compound: + +"Ada tuan!" + +Lena, leaning on her elbow, with her eyes on her plate, did not seem +to hear anything. When Wang entered with a tray, his narrow eyes, +tilted inward by the prominence of salient cheek-bones, kept her +under stealthy observation all the time. Neither the one nor the +other of that white couple paid the slightest attention to him and +he withdrew without having heard them exchange a single word. He +squatted on his heels on the back veranda. His Chinaman's mind, +very clear but not far-reaching, was made up according to the plain +reason of things, such as it appeared to him in the light of his +simple feeling for self-preservation, untrammelled by any notions of +romantic honour or tender conscience. His yellow hands, lightly +clasped, hung idly between his knees. The graves of Wang's +ancestors were far away, his parents were dead, his elder brother +was a soldier in the yamen of some Mandarin away in Formosa. No one +near by had a claim on his veneration or his obedience. He had been +for years a labouring restless vagabond. His only tie in the world +was the Alfuro woman, in exchange for whom he had given away some +considerable part of his hard-earned substance; and his duty, in +reason, could be to no one but himself. + +The scuffle behind the curtain was a thing of bad augury for that +Number One for whom the Chinaman had neither love nor dislike. He +had been awed enough by that development to hang back with the +coffee-pot till at last the white man was induced to call him in. +Wang went in with curiosity. Certainly, the white woman looked as +if she had been wrestling with a spirit which had managed to tear +half her blood out of her before letting her go. As to the man, +Wang had long looked upon him as being in some sort bewitched; and +now he was doomed. He heard their voices in the room. Heyst was +urging the girl to go and lie down again. He was extremely +concerned. She had eaten nothing. + +"The best thing for you. You really must!" + +She sat listless, shaking her head from time to time negatively, as +if nothing could be any good. But he insisted; she saw the +beginning of wonder in his eyes, and suddenly gave way. + +"Perhaps I had better." + +She did not want to arouse his wonder, which would lead him straight +to suspicion. He must not suspect! + +Already, with the consciousness of her love for this man, of that +something rapturous and profound going beyond the mere embrace, +there was born in her a woman's innate mistrust of masculinity, of +that seductive strength allied to an absurd, delicate shrinking from +the recognition of the naked necessity of facts, which never yet +frightened a woman worthy of the name. She had no plan; but her +mind, quieted down somewhat by the very effort to preserve outward +composure for his sake, perceived that her behaviour had secured, at +any rate, a short period of safety. Perhaps because of the +similarity of their miserable origin in the dregs of mankind, she +had understood Ricardo perfectly. He would keep quiet for a time +now. In this momentarily soothing certitude her bodily fatigue +asserted itself, the more overpoweringly since its cause was not so +much the demand on her strength as the awful suddenness of the +stress she had had to meet. She would have tried to overcome it +from the mere instinct of resistance, if it had not been for Heyst's +alternate pleadings and commands. Before this eminently masculine +fussing she felt the woman's need to give way, the sweetness of +surrender. + +"I will do anything you like," she said. + +Getting up, she was surprised by a wave of languid weakness that +came over her, embracing and enveloping her like warm water, with a +noise in her ears as of a breaking sea. + +"You must help me along," she added quickly. + +While he put his arm round her waist--not by any means an uncommon +thing for him to do--she found a special satisfaction in the feeling +of being thus sustained. She abandoned all her weight to that +encircling and protecting pressure, while a thrill went through her +at the sudden thought that it was she who would have to protect him, +to be the defender of a man who was strong enough to lift her +bodily, as he was doing even then in his two arms. For Heyst had +done this as soon as they had crept through the doorway of the room. +He thought it was quicker and simpler to carry her the last step or +two. He had grown really too anxious to be aware of the effort. He +lifted her high and deposited her on the bed, as one lays a child on +its side in a cot. Then he sat down on the edge, masking his +concern with a smile which obtained no response from the dreamy +immobility of her eyes. But she sought his hand, seized it eagerly; +and while she was pressing it with all the force of which she was +capable, the sleep she needed overtook her suddenly, overwhelmingly, +as it overtakes a child in a cot, with her lips parted for a safe, +endearing word which she had thought of but had no time to utter. + +The usual flaming silence brooded over Samburan. + +"What in the world is this new mystery?" murmured Heyst to himself, +contemplating her deep slumber. + +It was so deep, this enchanted sleep, that when some time afterwards +he gently tried to open her fingers and free his hand, he succeeded +without provoking the slightest stir. + +"There is some very simple explanation, no doubt," he thought, as he +stole out into the living-room. + +Absent-mindedly he pulled a book out of the top shelf, and sat down +with it; but even after he had opened it on his knee, and had been +staring at the pages for a time, he had not the slightest idea of +what it was about. He stared and stared at the crowded, parallel +lines. It was only when, raising his eyes for no particular reason, +he saw Wang standing motionless on the other side of the table, that +he regained complete control of his faculties. + +"Oh, yes," he said, as if suddenly reminded of a forgotten +appointment of a not particularly welcome sort. + +He waited a little, and then, with reluctant curiosity, forced +himself to ask the silent Wang what he had to say. He had some idea +that the matter of the vanished revolver would come up at last; but +the guttural sounds which proceeded from the Chinaman did not refer +to that delicate subject. His speech was concerned with cups, +saucers, plates, forks, and knives. All these things had been put +away in the cupboards on the back veranda, where they belonged, +perfectly clean, "all plopel." Heyst wondered at the scrupulosity +of a man who was about to abandon him; for he was not surprised to +hear Wang conclude the account of his stewardship with the words: + +"I go now." + +"Oh! You go now?" said Heyst, leaning back, his book on his knees. + +"Yes. Me no likee. One man, two man, three man--no can do! Me go +now." + +"What's frightening you away like this?" asked Heyst, while through +his mind flashed the hope that something enlightening might come +from that being so unlike himself, taking contact with the world +with a simplicity and directness of which his own mind was not +capable. "Why?" he went on. "You are used to white men. You know +them well." + +"Yes. Me savee them," assented Wang inscrutably. "Me savee +plenty." + +All that he really knew was his own mind. He had made it up to +withdraw himself and the Alfuro woman from the uncertainties of the +relations which were going to establish themselves between those +white men. It was Pedro who had been the first cause of Wang's +suspicion and fear. The Chinaman had seen wild men. He had +penetrated, in the train of a Chinese pedlar, up one or two of the +Bornean rivers into the country of the Dyaks. He had also been in +the interior of Mindanao, where there are people who live in trees-- +savages, no better than animals; but a hairy brute like Pedro, with +his great fangs and ferocious growls, was altogether beyond his +conception of anything that could be looked upon as human. The +strong impression made on him by Pedro was the prime inducement +which had led Wang to purloin the revolver. Reflection on the +general situation, and on the insecurity of Number One, came later, +after he had obtained possession of the revolver and of the box of +cartridges out of the table drawer in the living-room. + +"Oh, you savee plenty about white men," Heyst went on in a slightly +bantering tone, after a moment of silent reflection in which he had +confessed to himself that the recovery of the revolver was not to be +thought of, either by persuasion or by some more forcible means. +"You speak in that fashion, but you are frightened of those white +men over there." + +"Me no flightened," protested Wang raucously, throwing up his head-- +which gave to his throat a more strained, anxious appearance than +ever. "Me no likee," he added in a quieter tone. "Me velly sick." + +He put his hand over the region under the breast-bone. + +"That," said Heyst, serenely positive, "belong one piecee lie. That +isn't proper man-talk at all. And after stealing my revolver, too!" + +He had suddenly decided to speak about it, because this frankness +could not make the situation much worse than it was. He did not +suppose for a moment that Wang had the revolver anywhere about his +person; and after having thought the matter over, he had arrived at +the conclusion that the Chinaman never meant to use the weapon +against him. After a slight start, because the direct charge had +taken him unawares, Wang tore open the front of his jacket with a +convulsive show of indignation. + +"No hab got. Look see!" he mouthed in pretended anger. + +He slapped his bare chest violently; he uncovered his very ribs, all +astir with the panting of outraged virtue; his smooth stomach heaved +with indignation. He started his wide blue breeches flapping about +his yellow calves. Heyst watched him quietly. + +"I never said you had it on you," he observed, without raising his +voice; "but the revolver is gone from where I kept it." + +"Me no savee levolvel," Wang said obstinately. + +The book lying open on Heyst's knee slipped suddenly and he made a +sharp movement to catch it up. Wang was unable to see the reason of +this because of the table, and leaped away from what seemed to him a +threatening symptom. When Heyst looked up, the Chinaman was already +at the door facing the room, not frightened, but alert. + +"What's the matter?" asked Heyst. + +Wang nodded his shaven head significantly at the curtain closing the +doorway of the bedroom. + +"Me no likee," he repeated. + +"What the devil do you mean?" Heyst was genuinely amazed. "Don't +like what?" + +Wang pointed a long lemon-coloured finger at the motionless folds. + +"Two," he said. + +"Two what? I don't understand." + +"Suppose you savee, you no like that fashion. Me savee plenty. Me +go now." + +Heyst had risen from his chair, but Wang kept his ground in the +doorway for a little longer. His almond-shaped eyes imparted to his +face an expression of soft and sentimental melancholy. The muscles +of his throat moved visibly while he uttered a distinct and guttural +"Goodbye" and vanished from Number One's sight. + +The Chinaman's departure altered the situation. Heyst reflected on +what would be best to do in view of that fact. For a long time he +hesitated; then, shrugging his shoulders wearily, he walked out on +the veranda, down the steps, and continued at a steady gait, with a +thoughtful mien, in the direction of his guests' bungalow. He +wanted to make an important communication to them, and he had no +other object--least of all to give them the shock of a surprise +call. Nevertheless, their brutish henchman not being on watch, it +was Heyst's fate to startle Mr. Jones and his secretary by his +sudden appearance in the doorway. Their conversation must have been +very interesting to prevent them from hearing the visitor's +approach. In the dim room--the shutters were kept constantly closed +against the heat--Heyst saw them start apart. It was Mr. Jones who +spoke: + +"Ah, here you are again! Come in, come in!" + +Heyst, taking his hat off in the doorway, entered the room. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + + +Waking up suddenly, Lena looked, without raising her head from the +pillow, at the room in which she was alone. She got up quickly, as +if to counteract the awful sinking of her heart by the vigorous use +of her limbs. But this sinking was only momentary. Mistress of +herself from pride, from love, from necessity, and also because of a +woman's vanity in self-sacrifice, she met Heyst, returning from the +strangers' bungalow, with a dear glance and a smile. + +The smile he managed to answer, but, noticing that he avoided her +eyes, she composed her lips and lowered her gaze. For the same +reason she hastened to speak to him in a tone of indifference, which +she put on without effort, as if she had grown adept in duplicity +since sunrise. + +"You have been over there again?" + +"I have. I thought--but you had better know first that we have lost +Wang for good." + +She repeated "For good?" as if she had not understood. + +"For good or evil--I shouldn't know which if you were to ask me. He +has dismissed himself. He's gone." + +"You expected him to go, though, didn't you?" + +Heyst sat down on the other side of the table. + +"Yes. I expected it as soon as I discovered that he had annexed my +revolver. He says he hasn't taken it. That's untrue of course. A +Chinaman would not see the sense of confessing under any +circumstances. To deny any charge is a principle of right conduct; +but he hardly expected to be believed. He was a little enigmatic at +the last, Lena. He startled me." + +Heyst paused. The girl seemed absorbed in her own thoughts. + +"He startled me," I repeated Heyst. She noted the anxiety in his +tone, and turned her head slightly to look at him across the table. + +"It must have been something--to startle you," she said. In the +depth of her parted lips, like a ripe pomegranate, there was a gleam +of white teeth. + +"It was only a single word--and some of his gestures. He had been +making a good deal of noise. I wonder we didn't wake you up. How +soundly you can sleep! I say, do you feel all right now?" + +"As fresh as can be," she said, treating him to another deep gleam +of a smile. "I heard no noise, and I'm glad of it. The way he +talks in his harsh voice frightens me. I don't like all these +foreign people." + +"It was just before he went away--bolted out, I should say. He +nodded and pointed at the curtain to our room. He knew you were +there, of course. He seemed to think--he seemed to try to give me +to understand that you were in special--well, danger. You know how +he talks." + +She said nothing; she made no sound, only the faint tinge of colour +ebbed out of her cheek. + +"Yes," Heyst went on. "He seemed to try to warn me. That must have +been it Did he imagine I had forgotten your existence? The only +word he said was 'two'. It sounded so, at least. Yes, 'two'--and +that he didn't like it." + +"What does that mean?" she whispered. + +"We know what the word two means, don't we, Lena? We are two. +Never were such a lonely two out of the world, my dear! He might +have tried to remind me that he himself has a woman to look after. +Why are you so pale, Lena?" + +"Am I pale?" she asked negligently. + +"You are." Heyst was really anxious. + +"Well, it isn't from fright," she protested truthfully. + +Indeed, what she felt was a sort of horror which left her absolutely +in the full possession of all her faculties; more difficult to bear, +perhaps, for that reason, but not paralysing to her fortitude. + +Heyst in his turn smiled at her. + +"I really don't know that there is any reason to be frightened." + +"I mean I am not frightened for myself." + +"I believe you are very plucky," he said. The colour had returned +to her face. "I" continued Heyst, "am so rebellious to outward +impressions that I can't say that much about myself. I don't react +with sufficient distinctness." He changed his tone. "You know I +went to see those men first thing this morning." + +"I know. Be careful!" she murmured. + +"I wonder how one can be careful! I had a long talk with--but I +don't believe you have seen them. One of them is a fantastically +thin, long person, apparently ailing; I shouldn't wonder if he were +really so. He makes rather a point of it in a mysterious manner. I +imagine he must have suffered from tropical fevers, but not so much +as he tries to make out. He's what people would call a gentleman. +He seemed on the point of volunteering a tale of his adventures--for +which I didn't ask him--but remarked that it was a long story; some +other time, perhaps. + +"'I suppose you would like to know who I am?' he asked me. + +"I told him I would leave it to him, in a tone which, between +gentlemen, could have left no doubt in his mind. He raised himself +on his elbow--he was lying down on the camp-bed--and said: + +"'I am he who is--'" + +Lena seemed not to be listening; but when Heyst paused, she turned +her head quickly to him. He took it for a movement of inquiry, but +in this he was wrong. A great vagueness enveloped her impressions, +but all her energy was concentrated on the struggle that she wanted +to take upon herself, in a great exaltation of love and self- +sacrifice, which is woman's sublime faculty; altogether on herself, +every bit of it, leaving him nothing, not even the knowledge of what +she did, if that were possible. She would have liked to lock him up +by some stratagem. Had she known of some means to put him to sleep +for days she would have used incantations or philtres without +misgivings. He seemed to her too good for such contacts, and not +sufficiently equipped. This last feeling had nothing to do with the +material fact of the revolver being stolen. She could hardly +appreciate that fact at its full value. + +Observing her eyes fixed and as if sightless--for the concentration +on her purpose took all expression out of them--Heyst imagined it to +be the effect of a great mental effort. + +"No use asking me what he meant, Lena; I don't know, and I did not +ask him. The gentleman, as I have told you before, seems devoted to +mystification. I said nothing, and he laid down his head again on +the bundle of rugs he uses for a pillow. He affects a state of +great weakness, but I suspect that he's perfectly capable of leaping +to his feet if he likes. Having been ejected, he said, from his +proper social sphere because he had refused to conform to certain +usual conventions, he was a rebel now, and was coming and going up +and down the earth. As I really did not want to listen to all this +nonsense, I told him that I had heard that sort of story about +somebody else before. His grin is really ghastly. He confessed +that I was very far from the sort of man he expected to meet. Then +he said: + +"'As to me, I am no blacker than the gentleman you are thinking of, +and I have neither more nor less determination.'" + +Heyst looked across the table at Lena. Propped on her elbows, and +holding her head in both hands, she moved it a little with an air of +understanding. + +"Nothing could be plainer, eh?" said Heyst grimly. "Unless, indeed, +this is his idea of a pleasant joke; for, when he finished speaking, +he burst into a loud long laugh. I didn't join him!" + +"I wish you had," she breathed out. + +"I didn't join him. It did not occur to me. I am not much of a +diplomatist. It would probably have been wise, for, indeed, I +believe he had said more than he meant to say, and was trying to +take it back by this affected jocularity. Yet when one thinks of +it, diplomacy without force in the background is but a rotten reed +to lean upon. And I don't know whether I could have done it if I +had thought of it. I don't know. It would have been against the +grain. Could I have done it? I have lived too long within myself, +watching the mere shadows and shades of life. To deceive a man on +some issue which could be decided quicker, by his destruction while +one is disarmed, helpless, without even the power to run away--no! +That seems to me too degrading. And yet I have you here. I have +your very existence in my keeping. What do you say, Lena? Would I +be capable of throwing you to the lions to save my dignity?" + +She got up, walked quickly round the table, posed herself on his +knees lightly, throwing one arm round his neck, and whispered in his +ear: + +"You may if you like. And may be that's the only way I would +consent to leave you. For something like that. If it were +something no bigger than your little finger." + +She gave him a light kiss on the lips and was gone before he could +detain her. She regained her seat and propped her elbows again on +the table. It was hard to believe that she had moved from the spot +at all. The fleeting weight of her body on his knees, the hug round +his neck, the whisper in his ear, the kiss on his lips, might have +been the unsubstantial sensations of a dream invading the reality of +waking life; a sort of charming mirage in the barren aridity of his +thoughts. He hesitated to speak till she said, businesslike: + +"Well. And what then?" + +Heyst gave a start. + +"Oh, yes. I didn't join him. I let him have his laugh out by +himself. He was shaking all over, like a merry skeleton, under a +cotton sheet he was covered with--I believe in order to conceal the +revolver that he had in his right hand. I didn't see it, but I have +a distinct impression it was there in his fist. As he had not been +looking at me for some time, but staring into a certain part of the +room, I turned my head and saw a hairy, wild sort of creature which +they take about with them, squatting on its heels in the angle of +the walls behind me. He wasn't there when I came in. I didn't like +the notion of that watchful monster behind my back. If I had been +less at their mercy, I should certainly have changed my position. +As things are now, to move would have been a mere weakness. So I +remained where I was. The gentleman on the bed said he could assure +me of one thing; and that was that his presence here was no more +morally reprehensible than mine. + +"'We pursue the same ends,' he said, 'only perhaps I pursue them +with more openness than you--with more simplicity.' + +"That's what he said," Heyst went on, after looking at Lena in a +sort of inquiring silence. "I asked him if he knew beforehand that +I was living here; but he only gave me a ghastly grin. I didn't +press him for an answer, Lena. I thought I had better not." + +On her smooth forehead a ray of light always seemed to rest. Her +loose hair, parted in the middle, covered the hands sustaining her +head. She seemed spellbound by the interest of the narrative. +Heyst did not pause long. He managed to continue his relation +smoothly enough, beginning afresh with a piece of comment. + +"He would have lied impudently--and I detest being told a lie. It +makes me uncomfortable. It's pretty clear that I am not fitted for +the affairs of the wide world. But I did not want him to think that +I accepted his presence too meekly, so I said that his comings or +goings on the earth were none of my business, of course, except that +I had a natural curiosity to know when he would find it convenient +to resume them. + +"He asked me to look at the state he was in. Had I been all alone +here, as they think I am, I should have laughed at him. But not +being alone--I say, Lena, you are sure you haven't shown yourself +where you could be seen?" + +"Certain," she said promptly. + +He looked relieved. + +"You understand, Lena, that when I ask you to keep so strictly out +of sight, it is because you are not for them to look at--to talk +about. My poor Lena! I can't help that feeling. Do you understand +it?" + +She moved her head slightly in a manner that was neither affirmative +nor negative. + +"People will have to see me some day," she said. + +"I wonder how long it will be possible for you to keep out of +sight?" murmured Heyst thoughtfully. He bent over the table. "Let +me finish telling you. I asked him point blank what it was he +wanted with me; he appeared extremely unwilling to come to the +point. It was not really so pressing as all that, he said. His +secretary, who was in fact his partner, was not present, having gone +down to the wharf to look at their boat. Finally the fellow +proposed that he should put off a certain communication he had to +make till the day after tomorrow. I agreed; but I also told him +that I was not at all anxious to hear it. I had no conception in +what way his affairs could concern me. + +"'Ah, Mr. Heyst,' he said, 'you and I have much more in common than +you think.'" + +Heyst struck the table with his fist unexpectedly. + +"It was a jeer; I am sure it was!" + +He seemed ashamed of this outburst and smiled faintly into the +motionless eyes of the girl. + +"What could I have done--even if I had had my pockets full of +revolvers?" + +She made an appreciative sign. + +"Killing's a sin, sure enough," she murmured. + +"I went away," Heyst continued. "I left him there, lying on his +side with his eyes shut. When I got back here, I found you looking +ill. What was it, Lena? You did give me a scare! Then I had the +interview with Wang while you rested. You were sleeping quietly. I +sat here to consider all these things calmly, to try to penetrate +their inner meaning and their outward bearing. It struck me that +the two days we have before us have the character of a sort of +truce. The more I thought of it, the more I felt that this was +tacitly understood between Jones and myself. It was to our +advantage, if anything can be of advantage to people caught so +completely unawares as we are. Wang was gone. He, at any rate, had +declared himself, but as I did not know what he might take it into +his head to do, I thought I had better warn these people that I was +no longer responsible for the Chinaman. I did not want Mr. Wang +making some move which would precipitate the action against us. Do +you see my point of view?" + +She made a sign that she did. All her soul was wrapped in her +passionate determination, in an exalted belief in herself--in the +contemplation of her amazing opportunity to win the certitude, the +eternity, of that man's love. + +"I never saw two men," Heyst was saying, "more affected by a piece +of information than Jones and his secretary, who was back in the +bungalow by then. They had not heard me come up. I told them I was +sorry to intrude. + +"'Not at all! Not at all,' said Jones. + +"The secretary backed away into a corner and watched me like a wary +cat. In fact, they both were visibly on their guard. + +"'I am come,' I told them, 'to let you know that my servant has +deserted--gone off.' + +"At first they looked at each other as if they had not understood +what I was saying; but very soon they seemed quite concerned. + +"'You mean to say your Chink's cleared out?' said Ricardo, coming +forward from his corner. 'Like this--all at once? What did he do +it for?' + +"I said that a Chinaman had always a simple and precise reason for +what he did, but that to get such a reason out of him was not so +easy. All he told me, I said, was that he "didn't like". + +"They were extremely disturbed at this. Didn't like what, they +wanted to know. + +"'The looks of you and your party,' I told Jones. + +"'Nonsense!' he cried out, and immediately Ricardo, the short man, +struck in. + +"'Told you that? What did he take you for, sir--an infant? Or do +you take us for kids?--meaning no offence. Come, I bet you will +tell us next that you've missed something.'" + +"'I didn't mean to tell you anything of the sort,' I said, 'but as a +matter of fact it is so.' + +"He slapped his thigh. + +"'Thought so. What do you think of this trick, governor?' + +"Jones made some sort of sign to him, and then that extraordinary +cat-faced associate proposed that he and their servant should come +out and help me catch or kill the Chink. + +"My object, I said, was not to get assistance. I did not intend to +chase the Chinaman. I had come only to warn them that he was armed, +and that he really objected to their presence on the island. I +wanted them to understand that I was not responsible for anything +that might happen. + +"'Do you mean to tell us,' asked Ricardo, 'that there is a crazy +Chink with a six-shooter broke loose on this island, and that you +don't care?' + +"Strangely enough they did not seem to believe my story. They were +exchanging significant looks all the time. Ricardo stole up close +to his principal; they had a confabulation together, and then +something happened which I did not expect. It's rather awkward, +too. + +"Since I would not have their assistance to get hold of the Chink +and recover my property, the least they could do was to send me +their servant. It was Jones who said that, and Ricardo backed up +the idea. + +"'Yes, yes--let our Pedro cook for all hands in your compound! He +isn't so bad as he looks. That's what we will do!' + +"He bustled out of the room to the veranda, and let out an ear- +splitting whistle for their Pedro. Having heard the brute's +answering howl, Ricardo ran back into the room. + +"'Yes, Mr. Heyst. This will do capitally, Mr. Heyst. You just +direct him to do whatever you are accustomed to have done for you in +the way of attendance. See?' + +"Lena, I confess to you that I was taken completely by surprise. I +had not expected anything of the sort. I don't know what I +expected. I am so anxious about you that I can't keep away from +these infernal scoundrels. And only two months ago I would not have +cared. I would have defied their scoundrelism as much as I have +scorned all the other intrusions of life. But now I have you! You +stole into my life, and--" + +Heyst drew a deep breath. The girl gave him a quick, wide-eyed +glance. + +"Ah! That's what you are thinking of--that you have me!" + +It was impossible to read the thoughts veiled by her steady grey +eyes, to penetrate the meaning of her silences, her words, and even +her embraces. He used to come out of her very arms with the feeling +of a baffled man. + +"If I haven't you, if you are not here, then where are you?" cried +Heyst. "You understand me very well." + +She shook her head a little. Her red lips, at which he looked now, +her lips as fascinating as the voice that came out of them, uttered +the words: + +"I hear what you say; but what does it mean?" + +"It means that I could lie and perhaps cringe for your sake." + +"No! No! Don't you ever do that," she said in haste, while her +eyes glistened suddenly. "You would hate me for it afterwards!" + +"Hate you?" repeated Heyst, who had recalled his polite manner. +"No! You needn't consider the extremity of the improbable--as yet. +But I will confess to you that I--how shall I call it?--that I +dissembled. First I dissembled my dismay at the unforeseen result +of my idiotic diplomacy. Do you understand, my dear girl?" + +It was evident that she did not understand the word. Heyst produced +his playful smile, which contrasted oddly with the worried character +of his whole expression. His temples seemed to have sunk in, his +face looked a little leaner. + +"A diplomatic statement, Lena, is a statement of which everything is +true, but the sentiment which seems to prompt it. I have never been +diplomatic in my relation with mankind--not from regard for its +feelings, but from a certain regard for my own. Diplomacy doesn't +go well with consistent contempt. I cared little for life and still +less for death." + +"Don't talk like that!" + +"I dissembled my extreme longing to take these wandering scoundrels +by their throats," he went on. "I have only two hands--I wish I had +a hundred to defend you--and there were three throats. By that time +their Pedro was in the room too. Had he seen me engaged with their +two throats, he would have been at mine like a fierce dog, or any +other savage and faithful brute. I had no difficulty in dissembling +my longing for the vulgar, stupid, and hopeless argument of fight. +I remarked that I really did not want a servant. I couldn't think +of depriving them of their man's services; but they would not hear +me. They had made up their minds. + +"'We shall send him over at once,' Ricardo said, 'to start cooking +dinner for everybody. I hope you won't mind me coming to eat it +with you in your bungalow; and we will send the governor's dinner +over to him here.' + +"I could do nothing but hold my tongue or bring on a quarrel--some +manifestation of their dark purpose, which we have no means to +resist. Of course, you may remain invisible this evening; but with +that atrocious-brute prowling all the time at the back of the house, +how long can your presence be concealed from these men?" + +Heyst's distress could be felt in his silence. The girl's head, +sustained by her hands buried in the thick masses of her hair, had a +perfect immobility. + +"You are certain you have not been seen so far?" he asked suddenly. + +The motionless head spoke. + +"How can I be certain? You told me you wanted me to keep out of the +way. I kept out of the way. I didn't ask your reason. I thought +you didn't want people to know that you had a girl like me about +you." + +"What? Ashamed?" cried Heyst. + +"It isn't what's right, perhaps--I mean for you--is it?" + +Heyst lifted his hands, reproachfully courteous. + +"I look upon it as so very much right that I couldn't bear the idea +of any other than sympathetic, respectful eyes resting on you. I +disliked and mistrusted these fellows from the first. Didn't you +understand?" + +"Yes; I did keep out of sight," she said. + +A silence fell. At last Heyst stirred slightly. + +"All this is of very little importance now," he said with a sigh. +"This is a question of something infinitely worse than mere looks +and thoughts, however base and contemptible. As I have told you, I +met Ricardo's suggestions by silence. As I was turning away he +said: + +"'If you happen to have the key of that store-room of yours on you, +Mr. Heyst, you may just as well let me have it; I will give it to +our Pedro.' + +"I had it on me, and I tendered it to him without speaking. The +hairy creature was at the door by then, and caught the key, which +Ricardo threw to him, better than any trained ape could have done. +I came away. All the time I had been thinking anxiously of you, +whom I had left asleep, alone here, and apparently ill." + +Heyst interrupted himself, with a listening turn of his head. He +had heard the faint sound of sticks being snapped in the compound. +He rose and crossed the room to look out of the back door. + +"And here the creature is," he said, returning to the table. "Here +he is, already attending to the fire. Oh, my dear Lena!" + +She had followed him with her eyes. She watched him go out on the +front veranda cautiously. He lowered stealthily a couple of screens +that hung between the column, and remained outside very still, as if +interested by something on the open ground. Meantime she had risen +in her turn, to take a peep into the compound. Heyst, glancing over +his shoulder, saw her returning to her seat. He beckoned to her, +and she continued to move, crossing the shady room, pure and bright +in her white dress, her hair loose, with something of a sleep-walker +in her unhurried motion, in her extended hand, in the sightless +effect of her grey eyes luminous in the half-light. He had never +seen such an expression in her face before. It had dreaminess in +it, intense attention, and something like sternness. Arrested in +the doorway by Heyst's extended arm, she seemed to wake up, flushed +faintly--and this flush, passing off, carried away with it the +strange transfiguring mood. With a courageous gesture she pushed +back the heavy masses of her hair. The light clung to her forehead. +Her delicate nostrils quivered. Heyst seized her arm and whispered +excitedly: + +"Slip out here, quickly! The screens will conceal you. Only you +must mind the stair-space. They are actually out--I mean the other +two. You had better see them before you--" + +She made a barely perceptible movement of recoil, checked at once, +and stood still. Heyst released her arm. + +"Yes, perhaps I had better," she said with unnatural deliberation, +and stepped out on the veranda to stand close by his side. + +Together, one on each side of the screen, they peeped between the +edge of the canvas and the veranda-post entwined with creepers. A +great heat ascended from the sun-smitten ground, in an ever-rising +wave, as if from some secret store of earth's fiery heart; for the +sky was growing cooler already, and the sun had declined +sufficiently for the shadows of Mr. Jones and his henchman to be +projected towards the bungalow side by side--one infinitely slender, +the other short and broad. + +The two visitors stood still and gazed. To keep up the fiction of +his invalidism, Mr. Jones, the gentleman, leaned on the arm of +Ricardo, the secretary, the top of whose hat just came up to his +governor's shoulder. + +"Do you see them?" Heyst whispered into the girl's ear. "Here they +are, the envoys of the outer world. Here they are before you--evil +intelligence, instinctive savagery, arm in arm. The brute force is +at the back. A trio of fitting envoys perhaps--but what about the +welcome? Suppose I were armed, could I shoot these two down where +they stand? Could I?" + +Without moving her head, the girl felt for Heyst's hand, pressed it +and thereafter did not let it go. He continued, bitterly playful: + +"I don't know. I don't think so. There is a strain in me which +lays me under an insensate obligation to avoid even the appearance +of murder. I have never pulled a trigger or lifted my hand on a +man, even in self-defence." + +The suddenly tightened grip of her hand checked him. + +"They are making a move," she murmured. + +"Can they be thinking of coming here?" Heyst wondered anxiously. + +"No, they aren't coming this way," she said; and there was another +pause. "They are going back to their house," she reported finally. + +After watching them a little longer, she let go Heyst's hand and +moved away from the screen. He followed her into the room. + +"You have seen them now," he began. "Think what it was to me to see +them land in the dusk, fantasms from the sea--apparitions, chimeras! +And they persist. That's the worst of it--they persist. They have +no right to be--but they are. They ought to have aroused my fury. +But I have refined everything away by this time--anger, indignation, +scorn itself. Nothing's left but disgust. Since you have told me +of that abominable calumny, it has become immense--it extends even +to myself." He looked up at her. + +"But luckily I have you. And if only Wang had, not carried off that +miserable revolver--yes, Lena, here we are, we two!" + +She put both her hands on his shoulders and looked straight into his +eyes. He returned her penetrating gaze. It baffled him. He could +not pierce the grey veil of her eyes; but the sadness of her voice +thrilled him profoundly. + +"You are not reproaching me?" she asked slowly. + +"Reproach? What a word between us! It could only be myself--but +the mention of Wang has given me an idea. I have been, not exactly +cringing, not exactly lying, but still dissembling. You have been +hiding yourself, to please me, but still you have been hiding. All +this is very dignified. Why shouldn't we try begging now? A noble +art? Yes. Lena, we must go out together. I couldn't think of +leaving you alone, and I must--yes, I must speak to Wang. We shall +go and seek that man, who knows what he wants and how to secure what +he wants. We will go at once!" + +"Wait till I put my hair up," she agreed instantly, and vanished +behind the curtain. + +When the curtain had fallen behind her, she turned her head back +with an expression of infinite and tender concern for him--for him +whom she could never hope to understand, and whom she was afraid she +could never satisfy, as if her passion were of a hopelessly lower +quality, unable to appease some exalted and delicate desire of his +superior soul. In a couple of minutes she reappeared. They left +the house by the door of the compound, and passed within three feet +of the thunderstruck Pedro, without even looking in his direction. +He rose from stooping over a fire of sticks, and, balancing himself +clumsily, uncovered his enormous fangs in gaping astonishment. Then +suddenly he set off rolling on his bandy legs to impart to his +masters the astonishing discovery of a woman. + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + + +As luck would have it, Ricardo was lounging alone on the veranda of +the former counting-house. He scented some new development at once, +and ran down to meet the trotting, bear-like figure. The deep, +growling noises it made, though they had only a very remote +resemblance to the Spanish language, or indeed to any sort of human +speech, were from long practice quite intelligible to Mr. Jones's +secretary. Ricardo was rather surprised. He had imagined that the +girl would continue to keep out of sight. That line apparently was +given up. He did not mistrust her. How could he? Indeed, he could +not think of her existence calmly. + +He tried to keep her image out of his mind so that he should be able +to use its powers with some approach to that coolness which the +complex nature of the situation demanded from him, both for his own +sake and as the faithful follower of plain Mr. Jones, gentleman. + +He collected his wits and thought. This was a change of policy, +probably on the part of Heyst. If so, what could it mean? A deep +fellow! Unless it was her doing; in which case--h'm--all right. +Must be. She would know what she was doing. Before him Pedro, +lifting his feet alternately, swayed to and fro sideways--his usual +attitude of expectation. His little red eyes, lost in the mass of +hair, were motionless. Ricardo stared into them with calculated +contempt and said in a rough, angry voice: + +"Woman! Of course there is. We know that without you!" He gave +the tame monster a push. "Git! Vamos! Waddle! Get back and cook +the dinner. Which way did they go, then?" + +Pedro extended a huge, hairy forearm to show the direction, and went +off on his bandy legs. Advancing a few steps, Ricardo was just in +time to see, above some bushes, two white helmets moving side by +side in the clearing. They disappeared. Now that he had managed to +keep Pedro from informing the governor that there was a woman on the +island, he could indulge in speculation as to the movements of these +people. His attitude towards Mr. Jones had undergone a spiritual +change, of which he himself was not yet fully aware. + +That morning, before tiffin, after his escape from the Heyst +bungalow, completed in such an inspiring way by the recovery of the +slipper, Ricardo had made his way to their allotted house, reeling +as he ran, his head in a whirl. He was wildly excited by visions of +inconceivable promise. He waited to compose himself before he dared +to meet the governor. On entering the room, he found Mr. Jones +sitting on the camp bedstead like a tailor on his board, cross- +legged, his long back against the wall. + +"I say, sir. You aren't going to tell me you are bored?" + +"Bored! No! Where the devil have you been all this time?" + +"Observing--watching--nosing around. What else? I knew you had +company. Have you talked freely, sir?" + +"Yes, I have," muttered Mr. Jones. + +"Not downright plain, sir?" + +"No. I wished you had been here. You loaf all the morning, and now +you come in out of breath. What's the matter?" + +"I haven't been wasting my time out there," said Ricardo. +"Nothing's the matter. I--I--might have hurried a bit." He was in +truth still panting; only it was not with running, but with the +tumult of thoughts and sensations long repressed, which had been set +free by the adventure of the morning. He was almost distracted by +them now. He forgot himself in the maze of possibilities +threatening and inspiring. "And so you had a long talk?" he said, +to gain time. + +"Confound you! The sun hasn't affected your head, has it? Why are +you staring at me like a basilisk?" + +"Beg pardon, sir. Wasn't aware I stared," Ricardo apologized good- +humouredly. "The sun might well affect a thicker skull than mine. +It blazes. Phew! What do you think a fellow is, sir--a +salamander?" + +"You ought to have been here," observed Mr. Jones. + +"Did the beast give any signs of wanting to prance?" asked Ricardo +quickly, with absolutely genuine anxiety. "It wouldn't do, sir. +You must play him easy for at least a couple of days, sir. I have a +plan. I have a notion that I can find out a lot in a couple of +days." + +"You have? In what way?" + +"Why, by watching," Ricardo answered slowly. + +Mr Jones grunted. + +"Nothing new, that. Watch, eh? Why not pray a little, too?" + +"Ha, ha, ha! That's a good one," burst out the secretary, fixing +Mr. Jones with mirthless eyes. + +The latter dropped the subject indolently. + +"Oh, you may be certain of at least two days," he said. + +Ricardo recovered himself. His eyes gleamed voluptuously. + +"We'll pull this off yet--clean--whole--right through, if you will +only trust me, sir." + +"I am trusting you right enough," said Mr. Jones. "It's your +interest, too." + +And, indeed, Ricardo was truthful enough in his statement. He did +absolutely believe in success now. But he couldn't tell his +governor that he had intelligences in the enemy's camp. It wouldn't +do to tell him of the girl. Devil only knew what he would do if he +learned there was a woman about. And how could he begin to tell of +it? He couldn't confess his sudden escapade. + +"We'll pull it off, sir," he said, with perfectly acted +cheerfulness. He experienced gusts of awful joy expanding in his +heart and hot like a fanned flame. + +"We must," pronounced Mr. Jones. "This thing, Martin, is not like +our other tries. I have a peculiar feeling about this. It's a +different thing. It's a sort of test." + +Ricardo was impressed by the governor's manner; for the first time a +hint of passion could be detected in him. But also a word he used, +the word "test," had struck him as particularly significant somehow. +It was the last word uttered during that morning's conversation. +Immediately afterwards Ricardo went out of the room. It was +impossible for him to keep still. An elation in which an +extraordinary softness mingled with savage triumph would not allow +it. It prevented his thinking, also. He walked up and down the +veranda far into the afternoon, eyeing the bungalow at every turn. +It gave no sign of being inhabited. Once or twice he stopped dead +short and looked down at his left slipper. Each time he chuckled +audibly. His restlessness kept on increasing till at last it +frightened him. He caught hold of the balustrade of the veranda and +stood still, smiling not at his thought but at the strong sense of +life within him. He abandoned himself to it carelessly, even +recklessly. He cared for no one, friend or enemy. At that moment +Mr. Jones called him by name from within. A shadow fell on the +secretary's face. + +"Here, sir," he answered; but it was a moment before he could make +up his mind to go in. + +He found the governor on his feet. Mr. Jones was tired of lying +down when there was no necessity for it. His slender form, gliding +about the room, came to a standstill. + +"I've been thinking, Martin, of something you suggested. At the +time it did not strike me as practical; but on reflection it seems +to me that to propose a game is as good a way as any to let him +understand that the time has come to disgorge. It's less--how +should I say?--vulgar. He will know what it means. It's not a bad +form to give to the business--which in itself is crude, Martin, +crude." + +"Want to spare his feelings?" jeered the secretary in such a bitter +tone that Mr. Jones was really surprised. + +"Why, it was your own notion, confound you!" + +"Who says it wasn't?" retorted Ricardo sulkily. "But I am fairly +sick of this crawling. No! No! Get the exact bearings of his swag +and then a rip up. That's plenty good enough for him." + +His passions being thoroughly aroused, a thirst for blood was allied +in him with a thirst for tenderness--yes, tenderness. A sort of +anxious, melting sensation pervaded and softened his heart when he +thought of that girl--one of his own sort. And at the same time +jealousy started gnawing at his breast as the image of Heyst +intruded itself on his fierce anticipation of bliss. + +"The crudeness of your ferocity is positively gross, Martin," Mr. +Jones said disdainfully. "You don't even understand my purpose. I +mean to have some sport out of him. Just try to imagine the +atmosphere of the game--the fellow handling the cards--the agonizing +mockery of it! Oh, I shall appreciate this greatly. Yes, let him +lose his money instead of being forced to hand it over. You, of +course, would shoot him at once, but I shall enjoy the refinement +and the jest of it. He's a man of the best society. I've been +hounded out of my sphere by people very much like that fellow. How +enraged and humiliated he will be! I promise myself some exquisite +moments while watching his play." + +"Ay, and suppose he suddenly starts prancing. He may not appreciate +the fun." + +"I mean you to be present," Mr. Jones remarked calmly. + +"Well, as long as I am free to plug him or rip him up whenever I +think the time has come, you are welcome to your bit of sport, sir. +I shan't spoil it." + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + + +It was at this precise moment of their conversation that Heyst had +intruded on Mr. Jones and his secretary with his warning about Wang, +as he had related to Lena. When he left them, the two looked at +each other in wondering silence. My Jones was the first to break +it. + +"I say, Martin!" + +"Yes, sir." + +"What does this mean?" + +"It's some move. Blame me if I can understand." + +"Too deep for you?" Mr. Jones inquired dryly. + +"It's nothing but some of his infernal impudence," growled the +secretary. "You don't believe all that about the Chink, do you, +sir? 'Tain't true." + +"It isn't necessary for it to be true to have a meaning for us. +It's the why of his coming to tell us this tale that's important." + +"Do you think he made it up to frighten us?" asked Ricardo. + +Mr Jones scowled at him thoughtfully. + +"The man looked worried," he muttered, as if to himself. "Suppose +that Chinaman has really stolen his money! The man looked very +worried." + +"Nothing but his artfulness, sir," protested Ricardo earnestly, for +the idea was too disconcerting to entertain. "Is it likely that he +would have trusted a Chink with enough knowledge to make it +possible?" he argued warmly. "Why, it's the very thing that he +would keep close about. There's something else there. Ay, but +what?" + +"Ha, ha, ha!" Mr. Jones let out a ghostly, squeaky laugh. "I've +never been placed in such a ridiculous position before," he went on, +with a sepulchral equanimity of tone. "It's you, Martin, who +dragged me into it. However, it's my own fault too. I ought to-- +but I was really too bored to use my brain, and yours is not to be +trusted. You are a hothead!" + +A blasphemous exclamation of grief escaped from Ricardo. Not to be +trusted! Hothead! He was almost tearful. + +"Haven't I heard you, sir, saying more than twenty times since we +got fired out from Manila that we should want a lot of capital to +work the East Coast with? You were always telling me that to prime +properly all them officials and Portuguese scallywags we should have +to lose heavily at first. Weren't you always worrying about some +means of getting hold of a good lot of cash? It wasn't to be got +hold of by allowing yourself to become bored in that rotten Dutch +town and playing a two-penny game with confounded beggarly bank +clerks and such like. Well, I've brought you here, where there is +cash to be got--and a big lot, to a moral," he added through his set +teeth. + +Silence fell. Each of them was staring into a different corner of +the room. Suddenly, with a slight stamp of his foot, Mr. Jones made +for the door. Ricardo caught him up outside. + +"Put an arm through mine, sir," he begged him gently but firmly. +"No use giving the game away. An invalid may well come out for a +breath of fresh air after the sun's gone down a bit. That's it, +sir. But where do you want to go? Why did you come out, sir?" + +Mr Jones stopped short. + +"I hardly know myself," he confessed in a hollow mutter, staring +intently at the Number One bungalow. "It's quite irrational," he +declared in a still lower tone. + +"Better go in, sir," suggested Ricardo. "What's that? Those +screens weren't down before. He's spying from behind them now, I +bet--the dodging, artful, plotting beast!" + +"Why not go over there and see if we can't get to the bottom of this +game?" was the unexpected proposal uttered by Mr. Jones. "He will +have to talk to us." + +Ricardo repressed a start of dismay, but for a moment could not +speak. He only pressed the governor's hand to his side +instinctively. + +"No, sir. What could you say? Do you expect to get to the bottom +of his lies? How could you make him talk? It isn't time yet to +come to grips with that gent. You don't think I would hang back, do +you? His Chink, of course, I'll shoot like a dog the moment I catch +sight of him; but as to that Mr. Blasted Heyst, the time isn't yet. +My head's cooler just now than yours. Let's go in again. Why, we +are exposed here. Suppose he took it into his head to let off a gun +on us! He's an unaccountable, 'yporcritical skunk." + +Allowing himself to be persuaded, Mr. Jones returned to his +seclusion. The secretary, however, remained on the veranda--for the +purpose, he said, of seeing whether that Chink wasn't sneaking +around; in which case he proposed to take a long shot at the galoot +and chance the consequences. His real reason was that he wanted to +be alone, away from the governor's deep-sunk eyes. He felt a +sentimental desire to indulge his fancies in solitude. A great +change had come over Mr. Ricardo since that morning. A whole side +of him which from prudence, from necessity, from loyalty, had been +kept dormant, was aroused now, colouring his thoughts and disturbing +his mental poise by the vision of such staggering consequences as, +for instance, the possibility of an active conflict with the +governor. The appearance of the monstrous Pedro with his news drew +Ricardo out of a feeling of dreaminess wrapped up in a sense of +impending trouble. A woman? Yes, there was one; and it made all +the difference. After driving away Pedro, and watching the white +helmets of Heyst and Lena vanishing among the bushes he stood lost +in meditation. + +"Where could they be off to like this?" he mentally asked himself. + +The answer found by his speculative faculties on their utmost +stretch was--to meet that Chink. For in the desertion of Wang +Ricardo did not believe. It was a lying yarn, the organic part of a +dangerous plot. Heyst had gone to combine some fresh move. But +then Ricardo felt sure that the girl was with him--the girl full of +pluck, full of sense, full of understanding; an ally of his own +kind! + +He went indoors briskly. Mr. Jones had resumed his cross-legged +pose at the head of the bed, with his back against the wall. + +"Anything new?" + +"No, sir." + +Ricardo walked about the room as if he had no care in the world. He +hummed snatches of song. Mr. Jones raised his waspish eyebrows, at +the sound. The secretary got down on his knees before an old +leather trunk, and, rummaging in there, brought out a small looking- +glass. He fell to examining his physiognomy in it with silent +absorption. + +"I think I'll shave," he decided, getting up. + +He gave a sidelong glance to the governor, and repeated it several +times during the operation, which did not take long, and even +afterwards, when after putting away the implements, he resumed his +walking, humming more snatches of unknown songs. Mr. Jones +preserved a complete immobility, his thin lips compressed, his eyes +veiled. His face was like a carving. + +"So you would like to try your hand at cards with that skunk, sir?" +said Ricardo, stopping suddenly and rubbing his hands. + +Mr Jones gave no sign of having heard anything. + +"Well, why not? Why shouldn't he have the experience? You remember +in that Mexican town--what's its name?--the robber fellow they +caught in the mountains and condemned to be shot? He played cards +half the night with the jailer and the sheriff. Well, this fellow +is condemned, too. He must give you your game. Hang it all, a +gentleman ought to have some little relaxation! And you have been +uncommonly patient, sir." + +"You are uncommonly volatile all of a sudden," Mr. Jones remarked in +a bored voice. "What's come to you?" + +The secretary hummed for a while, and then said: + +"I'll try to get him over here for you tonight, after dinner. If I +ain't here myself, don't you worry, sir. I shall be doing a bit of +nosing around--see?" + +"I see," sneered Mr. Jones languidly. "But what do you expect to +see in the dark?" + +Ricardo made no answer, and after another turn or two slipped out of +the room. He no longer felt comfortable alone with the governor. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + + +Meantime Heyst and Lena, walking rather fast, approached Wang's hut. +Asking the girl to wait, Heyst ascended the little ladder of bamboos +giving access to the door. It was as he had expected. The smoky +interior was empty, except for a big chest of sandalwood too heavy +for hurried removal. Its lid was thrown up, but whatever it might +have contained was no longer there. All Wang's possessions were +gone. Without tarrying in the hut, Heyst came back to the girl, who +asked no questions, with her strange air of knowing or understanding +everything. + +"Let us push on," he said. + +He went ahead, the rustle of her white skirt following him into the +shades of the forest, along the path of their usual walk. Though +the air lay heavy between straight denuded trunks, the sunlit +patches moved on the ground, and raising her eyes Lena saw far above +her head the flutter of the leaves, the surface shudder on the +mighty limbs extended horizontally in the perfect immobility of +patience. Twice Heyst looked over his shoulder at her. Behind the +readiness of her answering smile there was a fund of devoted, +concentrated passion, burning with the hope of a more perfect +satisfaction. They passed the spot where it was their practice to +turn towards the barren summit of the central hill. Heyst held +steadily on his way towards the upper limit of the forest. The +moment they left its shelter, a breeze enveloped them, and a great +cloud, racing over the sun, threw a peculiar sombre tint over +everything. Heyst pointed up a precipitous, rugged path clinging to +the side of the hill. It ended in a barricade of felled trees, a +primitively conceived obstacle which must have cost much labour to +erect at just that spot. + +"This," Heyst, explained in his urbane tone, "is a barrier against +the march of civilization. The poor folk over there did not like +it, as it appeared to them in the shape of my company--a great step +forward, as some people used to call it with mistaken confidence. +The advanced foot has been drawn back, but the barricade remains." + +They went on climbing slowly. The cloud had driven over, leaving an +added brightness on the face of the world. + +"It's a very ridiculous thing," Heyst went on; "but then it is the +product of honest fear--fear of the unknown, of the +incomprehensible. It's pathetic, too, in a way. And I heartily +wish, Lena, that we were on the other side of it." + +"Oh, stop, stop!" she cried, seizing his arm. + +The face of the barricade they were approaching had been piled up +with a lot of fresh-cut branches. The leaves were still green. A +gentle breeze, sweeping over the top, stirred them a little; but +what had startled the girl was the discovery of several spear-blades +protruding from the mass of foliage. She had made them out +suddenly. They did not gleam, but she saw them with extreme +distinctness, very still, very vicious to look at. + +"You had better let me go forward alone, Lena," said Heyst. + +She tugged, persistently at his arm, but after a time, during which +he never ceased to look smilingly into her terrified eyes, he ended +by disengaging himself. + +"It's a sign rather than a demonstration," he argued, persuasively. +"Just wait here a moment. I promise not to approach near enough to +be stabbed." + +As in a nightmare she watched Heyst go up the few yards of the path +as if he never meant to stop; and she heard his voice, like voices +heard in dreams, shouting unknown words in an unearthly tone. Heyst +was only demanding to see Wang. He was not kept waiting very long. +Recovering from the first flurry of her fright, Lena noticed a +commotion in the green top-dressing of the barricade. She exhaled a +sigh of relief when the spear-blades retreated out of sight, sliding +inward--the horrible things! in a spot facing Heyst a pair of yellow +hands parted the leaves, and a face filled the small opening--a face +with very noticeable eyes. It was Wang's face, of course, with no +suggestion of a body belonging to it, like those cardboard faces at +which she remembered gazing as a child in the window of a certain +dim shop kept by a mysterious little man in Kingsland Road. Only +this face, instead of mere holes, had eyes which blinked. She could +see the beating of the eyelids. The hands on each side of the face, +keeping the boughs apart, also did not look as if they belonged to +any real body. One of them was holding a revolver--a weapon which +she recognized merely by intuition, never having seen such an object +before. + +She leaned her shoulders against the rock of the perpendicular +hillside and kept her eyes on Heyst, with comparative composure, +since the spears were not menacing him any longer. Beyond the rigid +and motionless back he presented to her, she saw Wang's unreal +cardboard face moving its thin lips and grimacing artificially. She +was too far down the path to hear the dialogue, carried on in an +ordinary voice. She waited patiently for its end. Her shoulders +felt the warmth of the rock; now and then a whiff of cooler air +seemed to slip down upon her head from above; the ravine at her +feet, choked fun of vegetation, emitted the faint, drowsy hum of +insect life. Everything was very quiet. She failed to notice the +exact moment when Wang's head vanished from the foliage, taking the +unreal hands away with it. To her horror, the spear-blades came +gliding slowly out. The very hair on her head stirred; but before +she had time to cry out, Heyst, who seemed rooted to the ground, +turned round abruptly and began to move towards her. His great +moustaches did not quite hide an ugly but irresolute smile; and when +he had come down near enough to touch her, he burst out into a harsh +laugh: + +"Ha, ha, ha!" + +She looked at him, uncomprehending. He cut short his laugh and said +curtly: + +"We had better go down as we came." + +She followed him into the forest. The advance of the afternoon had +filled it with gloom. Far away a slant of light between the trees +closed the view. All was dark beyond. Heyst stopped. + +"No reason to hurry, Lena," he said in his ordinary, serenely polite +tones. "We return unsuccessful. I suppose you know, or at least +can guess, what was my object in coming up there?" + +"No, I can't guess, dear," she said, and smiled, noticing with +emotion that his breast was heaving as if he had been out of breath. +Nevertheless, he tried to command his speech, pausing only a little +between the words. + +"No? I went up to find Wang. I went up"--he gasped again here, but +this was for the last time--"I made you come with me because I +didn't like to leave you unprotected in the proximity of those +fellows." Suddenly he snatched his cork helmet off his head and +dashed it on the ground. "No!" he cried roughly. "All this is too +unreal altogether. It isn't to be borne! I can't protect you! I +haven't the power." + +He glared at her for a moment, then hastened after his hat which had +bounded away to some distance. He came back looking at her face, +which was very white. + +"I ought to beg your pardon for these antics," he said, adjusting +his hat. "A movement of childish petulance! Indeed, I feel very +much like a child in my ignorance, in my powerlessness, in my want +of resource, in everything except in the dreadful consciousness of +some evil hanging over your head--yours!" + +"It's you they are after," she murmured. + +"No doubt, but unfortunately--" + +"Unfortunately--what?" + +"Unfortunately, I have not succeeded with Wang," he said. "I failed +to move his Celestial, heart--that is, if there is such a thing. He +told me with horrible Chinese reasonableness that he could not let +us pass the barrier, because we should be pursued. He doesn't like +fights. He gave me to understand that he would shoot me with my own +revolver without any sort of compunction, rather than risk a rude +and distasteful contest with the strange barbarians for my sake. He +has preached to the villagers. They respect him. He is the most +remarkable man they have ever seen, and their kinsman by marriage. +They understand his policy. And anyway only women and children and +a few old fellows are left in the village. This is the season when +the men are away in trading vessels. But it would have been all the +same. None of them have a taste for fighting--and with white men +too! They are peaceable, kindly folk and would have seen me shot +with extreme satisfaction. Wang seemed to think my insistence--for +I insisted, you know--very stupid and tactless. But a drowning man +clutches at straws. We were talking in such Malay as we are both +equal to. + +"'Your fears are foolish,' I said to him. + +"'Foolish? of course I am foolish,' he replied. 'If I were a wise +man, I would be a merchant with a big hong in Singapore, instead of +being a mine coolie turned houseboy. But if you don't go away in +time, I will shoot you before it grows too dark to take aim. Not +till then, Number One, but I will do it then. Now--finish!' + +"'All right,' I said. 'Finish as far as I am concerned; but you can +have no objections to the mem putih coming over to stay with the +Orang Kaya's women for a few days. I will make a present in silver +for it.' Orang Kaya, is the head man of the village, Lena," added +Heyst. + +She looked at him in astonishment. + +"You wanted me to go to that village of savages?" she gasped. "You +wanted me to leave you?" + +"It would have given me a freer hand." + +Heyst stretched out his hands and looked at them for a moment, then +let them fall by his side. Indignation was expressed more in the +curve of her lips than in her clear eyes, which never wavered. + +"I believe Wang laughed," he went on. "He made a noise like a +turkey-cock." + +"'That would be worse than anything,' he told me. + +"I was taken aback. I pointed out to him that he was talking +nonsense. It could not make any difference to his security where +you were, because the evil men, as he calls them, did not know of +your existence. I did not lie exactly, Lena, though I did stretch +the truth till it cracked; but the fellow seems to have an uncanny +insight. He shook his head. He assured me they knew all about you. +He made a horrible grimace at me." + +"It doesn't matter," said the girl. "I didn't want--I would not +have gone." + +Heyst raised his eyes. + +"Wonderful intuition! As I continued to press him, Wang made that +very remark about you. When he smiles, his face looks like a +conceited death's head. It was his very last remark that you +wouldn't want to. I went away then." + +She leaned back against a tree. Heyst faced her in the same +attitude of leisure, as if they had done with time and all the other +concerns of the earth. Suddenly, high above their heads the roof of +leaves whispered at them tumultuously and then ceased. + +"That was a strange notion of yours, to send me away," she said. +"Send me away? What for? Yes, what for?" + +"You seem indignant," he remarked listlessly. + +"To these savages, too!" she pursued. "And you think I would have +gone? You can do what you like with me--but not that, not that!" + +Heyst looked into the dim aisles of the forest. Everything was so +still now that the very ground on which they stood seemed to exhale +silence into the shade. + +"Why be indignant?" he remonstrated. "It has not happened. I gave +up pleading with Wang. Here we are, repulsed! Not only without +power to resist the evil, but unable to make terms for ourselves +with the worthy envoys, the envoys extraordinary of the world we +thought we had done with for years and years. And that's bad, Lena, +very bad." + +"It's funny," she said thoughtfully. "Bad? I suppose it is. I +don't know that it is. But do you? Do you? You talk as if you +didn't believe in it." + +She gazed at him earnestly. + +"Do I? Ah! That's it. I don't know how to talk. I have managed +to refine everything away. I've said to the Earth that bore me: 'I +am I and you are a shadow.' And, by Jove, it is so! But it appears +that such words cannot be uttered with impunity. Here I am on a +Shadow inhabited by Shades. How helpless a man is against the +Shades! How is one to intimidate, persuade, resist, assert oneself +against them? I have lost all belief in realities . . . Lena, give +me your hand." + +She looked at him surprised, uncomprehending. + +"Your hand," he cried. + +She obeyed; he seized it with avidity as if eager to raise it to his +lips, but halfway up released his grasp. They looked at each other +for a time. + +"What's the matter, dear?" she whispered timidly. + +"Neither force nor conviction," Heyst muttered wearily to himself. +"How am I to meet this charmingly simple problem?" + +"I am sorry," she murmured. + +"And so am I," he confessed quickly. "And the bitterest of this +humiliation is its complete uselessness--which I feel, I feel!" + +She had never before seen him give such signs of feeling. Across +his ghastly face the long moustaches flamed in the shade. He spoke +suddenly: + +"I wonder if I could find enough courage to creep among them in the +night, with a knife, and cut their throats one after another, as +they slept! I wonder--" + +She was frightened by his unwonted appearance more than by the words +in his mouth, and said earnestly: + +"Don't you try to do such a thing! Don't you think of it!" + +"I don't possess anything bigger than a penknife. As to thinking of +it, Lena, there's no saying what one may think of. I don't think. +Something in me thinks--something foreign to my nature. What is the +matter?" + +He noticed her parted lips, and the peculiar stare in her eyes, +which had wandered from his face. + +"There's somebody after us. I saw something white moving," she +cried. + +Heyst did not turn his head; he only glanced at her out-stretched +arm. + +"No doubt we are followed; we are watched." + +"I don't see anything now," she said. + +"And it does not matter," Heyst went on in his ordinary voice. +"Here we are in the forest. I have neither strength nor persuasion. +Indeed, it's extremely difficult to be eloquent before a Chinaman's +head stuck at one out of a lot of brushwood. But can we wander +among these big trees indefinitely? Is this a refuge? No! What +else is left to us? I did think for a moment of the mine; but even +there we could not remain very long. And then that gallery is not +safe. The props were too weak to begin with. Ants have been at +work there--ants after the men. A death-trap, at best. One can die +but once, but there are many manners of death." + +The girl glanced about fearfully, in search of the watcher or +follower whom she had glimpsed once among the trees; but if he +existed, he had concealed himself. Nothing met her eyes but the +deepening shadows of the short vistas between the living columns of +the still roof of leaves. She looked at the man beside her +expectantly, tenderly, with suppressed affright and a sort of awed +wonder. + +"I have also thought of these people's boat," Heyst went on. "We +could get into that, and--only they have taken everything out of +her. I have seen her oars and mast in a corner of their room. To +shove off in an empty boat would be nothing but a desperate +expedition, supposing even that she would drift out a good distance +between the islands before the morning. It would only be a +complicated manner of committing suicide--to be found dead in a +boat, dead from sun and thirst. A sea mystery. I wonder who would +find us! Davidson, perhaps; but Davidson passed westward ten days +ago. I watched him steaming past one early morning, from the +jetty." + +"You never told me," she said. + +"He must have been looking at me through his big binoculars. +Perhaps, if I had raised my arm--but what did we want with Davidson +then, you and I? He won't be back this way for three weeks or more, +Lena. I wish I had raised my arm that morning." + +"What would have been the good of it?" she sighed out. + +"What good? No good, of course. We had no forebodings. This +seemed to be an inexpugnable refuge, where we could live untroubled +and learn to know each other." + +"It's perhaps in trouble that people get to know each other," she +suggested. + +"Perhaps," he said indifferently. "At any rate, we would not have +gone away from here with him; though I believe he would have come in +eagerly enough, and ready for any service he could render. It's +that fat man's nature--a delightful fellow. You would not come on +the wharf that time I sent the shawl back to Mrs. Schomberg through +him. He has never seen you." + +"I didn't know that you wanted anybody ever to see me," she said. + +He had folded his arms on his breast and hung his head. + +"And I did not know that you cared to be seen as yet. A +misunderstanding evidently. An honourable misunderstanding. But it +does not matter now." + +He raised his head after a silence. + +"How gloomy this forest has grown! Yet surely the sun cannot have +set already." + +She looked round; and as if her eyes had just been opened, she +perceived the shades of the forest surrounding her, not so much with +gloom, but with a sullen, dumb, menacing hostility. Her heart sank +in the engulfing stillness, at that moment she felt the nearness of +death, breathing on her and on the man with her. If there had been +a sudden stir of leaves, the crack of a dry branch, the faintest +rustle, she would have screamed aloud. But she shook off the +unworthy weakness. Such as she was, a fiddle-scraping girl picked +up on the very threshold of infamy, she would try to rise above +herself, triumphant and humble; and then happiness would burst on +her like a torrent, flinging at her feet the man whom she loved. + +Heyst stirred slightly. + +"We had better be getting back, Lena, since we can't stay all night +in the woods--or anywhere else, for that matter. We are the slaves +of this infernal surprise which has been sprung on us by--shall I +say fate?--your fate, or mine." + +It was the man who had broken the silence, but it was the woman who +led the way. At the very edge of the forest she stopped, concealed +by a tree. He joined her cautiously. + +"What is it? What do you see, Lena?" he whispered. + +She said that it was only a thought that had come into her head. +She hesitated for a moment giving him over her shoulder a shining +gleam in her grey eyes. She wanted to know whether this trouble, +this danger, this evil, whatever it was, finding them out in their +retreat, was not a sort of punishment. + +"Punishment?" repeated Heyst. He could not understand what she +meant. When she explained, he was still more surprised. "A sort of +retribution, from an angry Heaven?" he said in wonder. "On us? +What on earth for?" + +He saw her pale face darken in the dusk. She had blushed. Her +whispering flowed very fast. It was the way they lived together-- +that wasn't right, was it? It was a guilty life. For she had not +been forced into it, driven, scared into it. No, no--she had come +to him of her own free will, with her whole soul yearning +unlawfully. + +He was so profoundly touched that he could not speak for a moment. +To conceal his trouble, he assumed his best Heystian manner. + +"What? Are our visitors then messengers of morality, avengers of +righteousness, agents of Providence? That's certainly an original +view. How flattered they would be if they could hear you!" + +"Now you are making fun of me," she said in a subdued voice which +broke suddenly. + +"Are you conscious of sin?" Heyst asked gravely. She made no +answer. "For I am not," he added; "before Heaven, I am not!" + +"You! You are different. Woman is the tempter. You took me up +from pity. I threw myself at you." + +"Oh, you exaggerate, you exaggerate. It was not so bad as that," he +said playfully, keeping his voice steady with an effort. + +He considered himself a dead man already, yet forced to pretend that +he was alive for her sake, for her defence. He regretted that he +had no Heaven to which he could recommend this fair, palpitating +handful of ashes and dust--warm, living sentient his own--and +exposed helplessly to insult, outrage, degradation, and infinite +misery of the body. + +She had averted her face from him and was still. He suddenly seized +her passive hand. + +"You will have it so?" he said. "Yes? Well, let us then hope for +mercy together." + +She shook her head without looking at him, like an abashed child. + +"Remember," he went on incorrigible with his delicate raillery, +"that hope is a Christian virtue, and surely you can't want all the +mercy for yourself." + +Before their eyes the bungalow across the cleared ground stood +bathed in a sinister light. An unexpected chill gust of wind made a +noise in the tree-tops. She snatched her hand away and stepped out +into the open; but before she had advanced more than three yards, +she stood still and pointed to the west. + +"Oh look there!" she exclaimed. + +Beyond the headland of Diamond Bay, lying black on a purple sea, +great masses of cloud stood piled up and bathed in a mist of blood. +A crimson crack like an open wound zigzagged between them, with a +piece of dark red sun showing at the bottom. Heyst cast an +indifferent glance at the ill-omened chaos of the sky. + +"Thunderstorm making up. We shall hear it all night, but it won't +visit us, probably. The clouds generally gather round the volcano." + +She was not listening to him. Her eyes reflected the sombre and +violent hues of the sunset. + +"That does not look much like a sign of mercy," she said slowly, as +if to herself, and hurried on, followed by Heyst. Suddenly she +stopped. "I don't care. I would do more yet! And some day you'll +forgive me. You'll have to forgive me!" + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + + +Stumbling up the steps, as if suddenly exhausted, Lena entered the +room and let herself fall on the nearest chair. Before following +her, Heyst took a survey of the surroundings from the veranda. It +was a complete solitude. There was nothing in the aspect of this +familiar scene to tell him that he and the girl were not completely +alone as they had been in the early days of their common life on +this abandoned spot, with only Wang discreetly materializing from +time to time and the uncomplaining memory of Morrison to keep them +company. + +After the cold gust of wind there was an absolute stillness of the +air. The thunder-charged mass hung unbroken beyond the low, ink- +black headland, darkening the twilight. By contrast, the sky at the +zenith displayed pellucid clearness, the sheen of a delicate glass +bubble which the merest movement of air might shatter. A little to +the left, between the black masses of the headland and of the +forest, the volcano, a feather of smoke by day and a cigar-glow at +night, took its first fiery expanding breath of the evening. Above +it a reddish star came out like an expelled spark from the fiery +bosom of the earth, enchanted into permanency by the mysterious +spell of frozen spaces. + +In front of Heyst the forest, already full of the deepest shades, +stood like a wall. But he lingered, watching its edge, especially +where it ended at the line of bushes, masking the land end of the +jetty. Since the girl had spoken of catching a glimpse of something +white among the trees, he believed pretty firmly that they had been +followed in their excursion up the mountain by Mr. Jones's +secretary. No doubt the fellow had watched them out of the forest, +and now, unless he took the trouble to go back some distance and +fetch a considerable circuit inland over the clearing, he was bound +to walk out into the open space before the bungalows. Heyst did, +indeed, imagine at one time some movement between the trees, lost as +soon as perceived. He stated patiently, but nothing more happened. +After all, why should he trouble about these people's actions? Why +this stupid concern for the preliminaries, since, when the issue was +joined, it would find him disarmed and shrinking from the ugliness +and degradation of it? + +He turned and entered the room. Deep dusk reigned in there already. +Lena, near the door, did not move or speak. The sheen of the white +tablecloth was very obtrusive. The brute these two vagabonds had +tamed had entered on its service while Heyst and Lena were away. +The table was laid. Heyst walked up and down the room several +times. The girl remained without sound or movement on the chair. +But when Heyst, placing the two silver candelabra on the table, +struck a match to light the candles, she got up suddenly and went +into the bedroom. She came out again almost immediately, having +taken off her hat. Heyst looked at her over his shoulder. + +"What's the good of shirking the evil hour? I've lighted these +candles for a sign of our return. After all, we might not have been +watched--while returning, I mean. Of course we were seen leaving +the house." + +The girl sat down again. The great wealth of her hair looked very +dark above her colourless face. She raised her eyes, glistening +softly in the light with a sort of unreadable appeal, with a strange +effect of unseeing innocence. + +"Yes," said Heyst across the table, the fingertips of one hand +resting on the immaculate cloth. "A creature with an antediluvian +lower jaw, hairy like a mastodon, and formed like a pre-historic +ape, has laid this table. Are you awake, Lena? Am I? I would +pinch myself, only I know that nothing would do away with this +dream. Three covers. You know it is the shorter of the two who's +coming--the gentleman who, in the play of his shoulders as he walks, +and in his facial structure, recalls a Jaguar. Ah, you don't know +what a jaguar is? But you have had a good look at these two. It's +the short one, you know, who's to be our guest." + +She made a sign with her head that she knew; Heyst's insistence +brought Ricardo vividly before her mental vision. A sudden languor, +like the physical echo of her struggle with the man, paralysed all +her limbs. She lay still in the chair, feeling very frightened at +this phenomenon--ready to pray aloud for strength. + +Heyst had started to pace the room. + +"Our guest! There is a proverb--in Russia, I believe--that when a +guest enters the house, God enters the house. The sacred virtue of +hospitality! But it leads one into trouble as well as any other." + +The girl unexpectedly got up from the chair, swaying her supple +figure and stretching her arms above her head. He stopped to look +at her curiously, paused, and then went on: + +"I venture to think that God has nothing to do with such a +hospitality and with such a guest!" + +She had jumped to her feet to react against the numbness, to +discover whether her body would obey her will. It did. She could +stand up, and she could move her arms freely. Though no +physiologist, she concluded that all that sudden numbness was in her +head, not in her limbs. Her fears assuaged, she thanked God for it +mentally, and to Heyst murmured a protest: + +"Oh, yes! He's got to do with everything--every little thing. +Nothing can happen--" + +"Yes," he said hastily, "one of the two sparrows can't be struck to +the ground--you are thinking of that." The habitual playful smile +faded on the kindly lips under the martial moustache. "Ah, you +remember what you have been told--as a child--on Sundays." + +"Yes, I do remember." She sank into the chair again. "It was the +only decent bit of time I ever had when I was a kid, with our +landlady's two girls, you know." + +"I wonder, Lena," Heyst said, with a return to his urbane +playfulness, "whether you are just a little child, or whether you +represent something as old as the world." + +She surprised Heyst by saying dreamily: + +"Well--and what about you?" + +"I? I date later--much later. I can't call myself a child, but I +am so recent that I may call myself a man of the last hour--or is it +the hour before last? I have been out of it so long that I am not +certain how far the hands of the clock have moved since--since--" + +He glanced at the portrait of his father, exactly above the head of +the girl, as if it were ignoring her in its painted austerity of +feeling. He did not finish the sentence; but he did not remain +silent for long. + +"Only what must be avoided are fallacious inferences, my dear Lena-- +especially at this hour." + +"Now you are making fun of me again," she said without looking up. + +"Am I?" he cried. "Making fun? No, giving warning. Hang it all, +whatever truth people told you in the old days, there is also this +one--that sparrows do fall to the ground, that they are brought to +the ground. This is no vain assertion, but a fact. That's why"-- +again his tone changed, while he picked up the table knife and let +it fall disdainfully--"that's why I wish these wretched round knives +had some edge on them. Absolute rubbish--neither edge, point, nor +substance. I believe one of these forks would make a better weapon +at a pinch. But can I go about with a fork in my pocket?" He +gnashed his teeth with a rage very real, and yet comic. + +"There used to be a carver here, but it was broken and thrown away a +long time ago. Nothing much to carve here. It would have made a +noble weapon, no doubt; but--" + +He stopped. The girl sat very quiet, with downcast eyes. As he +kept silence for some time, she looked up and said thoughtfully: + +"Yes, a knife--it's a knife that you would want, wouldn't you, in +case, in case--" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"There must be a crowbar or two in the sheds; but I have given up +all the keys together. And then, do you see me walking about with a +crowbar in my hand? Ha, ha! And besides, that edifying sight alone +might start the trouble for all I know. In truth, why has it not +started yet?" + +"Perhaps they are afraid of you," she whispered, looking down again. + +"By Jove, it looks like it," he assented meditatively. "They do +seem to hang back for some reason. Is that reason prudence, or +downright fear, or perhaps the leisurely method of certitude?" + +Out in the black night, not very far from the bungalow, resounded a +loud and prolonged whistle. Lena's hands grasped the sides of the +chair, but she made no movement. Heyst started, and turned his face +away from the door. + +The startling sound had died away. + +"Whistles, yells, omens, signals, portents--what do they matter?" he +said. "But what about the crowbar? Suppose I had it! Could I +stand in ambush at the side of the door--this door--and smash the +first protruding head, scatter blood and brains over the floor, over +these walls, and then run stealthily to the other door to do the +same thing--and repeat the performance for a third time, perhaps? +Could I? On suspicion, without compunction, with a calm and +determined purpose? No, it is not in me. I date too late. Would +you like to see me attempt this thing while that mysterious prestige +of mine lasts--or their not less mysterious hesitation?" + +"No, no!" she whispered ardently, as if compelled to speak by his +eyes fixed on her face. "No, it's a knife you want to defend +yourself with--to defend--there will be time--" + +"And who knows if it isn't really my duty?" he began again, as if he +had not heard her disjointed words at all. "It may be--my duty to +you, to myself. For why should I put up with the humiliation of +their secret menaces? Do you know what the world would say?" + +He emitted a low laugh, which struck her with terror. She would +have got up, but he stooped so low over her that she could not move +without first pushing him away. + +"It would say, Lena, that I--the Swede--after luring my friend and +partner to his death from mere greed of money, have murdered these +unoffending shipwrecked strangers from sheer funk. That would be +the story whispered--perhaps shouted--certainly spread out, and +believed--and believed, my dear Lena!" + +"Who would believe such awful things?" + +"Perhaps you wouldn't--not at first, at any rate; but the power of +calumny grows with time. It's insidious and penetrating. It can +even destroy one's faith in oneself--dry-rot the soul." + +All at once her eyes leaped to the door and remained fixed, stony, a +little enlarged. Turning his head, Heyst beheld the figure of +Ricardo framed in the doorway. For a moment none of the three +moved, then, looking from the newcomer to the girl in the chair, +Heyst formulated a sardonic introduction. + +"Mr Ricardo, my dear." + +Her head drooped a little. Ricardo's hand went up to his moustache. +His voice exploded in the room. + +"At your service, ma'am!" + +He stepped in, taking his hat off with a flourish, and dropping it +carelessly on a chair near the door. + +"At your service," he repeated, in quite another tone. "I was made +aware there was a lady about, by that Pedro of ours; only I didn't +know I should have the privilege of seeing you tonight, ma'am." + +Lena and Heyst looked at him covertly, but he, with a vague gaze +avoiding them both, looked at nothing, seeming to pursue some point +in space. + +"Had a pleasant walk?" he asked suddenly. + +"Yes. And you?" returned Heyst, who had managed to catch his +glance. + +"I haven't been a yard away from the governor this afternoon till I +started for here." The genuineness of the accent surprised Heyst, +without convincing him of the truth of the words. + +"Why do you ask?" pursued Ricardo with every inflection of perfect +candour. + +"You might have wished to explore the island a little," said Heyst, +studying the man, who, to render him justice, did not try to free +his captured gaze. "I may remind you that it wouldn't be a +perfectly safe proceeding." + +Ricardo presented a picture of innocence. + +"Oh, yes--meaning that Chink that has ran away from you. He ain't +much!" + +"He has a revolver," observed Heyst meaningly. + +"Well, and you have a revolver, too," Mr. Ricardo argued +unexpectedly. "I don't worry myself about that." + +"That's different. I am not afraid of you," Heyst made answer after +a short pause. + +"Of me?" + +"Of all of you." + +"You have a queer way of putting things," began Ricardo. + +At that moment the door on the compound side of the house came open +with some noise, and Pedro entered, pressing the edge of a loaded +tray to his breast. His big, hairy head rolled a little, his feet +fell in front of each other with a short, hard thump on the floor. +The arrival changed the current of Ricardo's thought, perhaps, but +certainly of his speech. + +"You heard me whistling a little while ago outside? That was to +give him a hint, as I came along, that it was time to bring in the +dinner; and here it is." + +Lena rose and passed to the right of Ricardo, who lowered his glance +for a moment. They sat down at the table. The enormous gorilla +back of Pedro swayed out through the door. + +"Extraordinary strong brute, ma'am," said Ricardo. He, had a +propensity to talk about "his Pedro," as some men will talk of their +dog. "He ain't pretty, though. No, he ain't pretty. And he has +got to be kept under. I am his keeper, as it might be. The +governor don't trouble his head much about dee-tails. All that's +left to Martin. Martin, that's me, ma'am." + +Heyst saw the girl's eyes turn towards Mr. Jones's secretary and +rest blankly on his face. Ricardo, however, looked vaguely into +space, and, with faint flickers of a smile about his lips, made +conversation indefatigably against the silence of his entertainers. +He boasted largely of his long association with Mr. Jones--over four +years now, he said. Then, glancing rapidly at Heyst: + +"You can see at once he's a gentleman, can't you?" + +"You people," Heyst said, his habitual playful intonation tinged +with gloom, "are divorced from all reality in my eyes." + +Ricardo received this speech as if he had been expecting to hear +those very words, or else did not mind at all what Heyst might say. +He muttered an absent-minded "Ay, ay," played with a bit of biscuit, +sighed, and said, with a peculiar stare which did not seem to carry +any distance, but to stop short at a point in the air very near his +face: + +"Anybody can see at once YOU are one. You and the governor ought to +understand each other. He expects to see you tonight. The governor +isn't well, and we've got to think of getting away from here." + +While saying these words he turned himself full towards Lena, but +without any marked expression. Leaning back with folded arms, the +girl stared before her as if she had been alone in the room. But +under that aspect of almost vacant unconcern the perils and emotion +that had entered into her life warmed her heart, exalted her mind +with a sense of an inconceivable intensity of existence. + +"Really? Thinking of going away from here?" Heyst murmured. + +"The best of friends must part," Ricardo pronounced slowly. "And, +as long as they part friends, there's no harm done. We two are used +to be on the move. You, I understand, prefer to stick in one +place." + +It was obvious that all this was being said merely for the sake of +talking, and that Ricardo's mind was concentrated on some purpose +unconnected with the words that were coming but of his mouth. + +"I should like to know," Heyst asked with incisive politeness, "how +you have come to understand this or anything else about me? As far +as I can remember, I've made you no confidences." + +Ricardo, gazing comfortably into space out of the back of his chair- +-for some time all three had given up any pretence of eating-- +answered abstractedly: + +"Any fellow might have guessed it!" He sat up suddenly, and +uncovered all his teeth in a grin of extraordinary ferocity, which +was belied by the persistent amiability of his tone. "The governor +will be the man to tell you something about that. I wish you would +say you would see my governor. He's the one who does all our +talking. Let me take you to him this evening. He ain't at all +well; and he can't make up his mind to go away without having a talk +with you." + +Heyst, looking up, met Lena's eyes. Their expression of candour +seemed to hide some struggling intention. Her head, he fancied, had +made an imperceptible affirmative movement. Why? What reason could +she have? Was it the prompting of some obscure instinct? Or was it +simply a delusion of his own senses? But in this strange +complication invading the quietude of his life, in his state of +doubt and disdain and almost of despair with which he looked at +himself, he would let even a delusive appearance guide him through a +darkness so dense that it made for indifference. + +"Well, suppose I DO say so." + +Ricardo did not conceal his satisfaction, which for a moment +interested Heyst. + +"It can't be my life they are after," he said to himself. "What +good could it be to them?" + +He looked across the table at the girl. What did it matter whether +she had nodded or not? As always when looking into her unconscious +eyes, he tasted something like the dregs of tender pity. He had +decided to go. Her nod, imaginary or not imaginary, advice or +illusion, had tipped the scale. He reflected that Ricardo's +invitation could scarcely be anything in the nature of a trap. It +would have been too absurd. Why carry subtly into a trap someone +already bound hand and foot, as it were? + +All this time he had been looking fixedly at the girl he called +Lena. In the submissive quietness of her being, which had been her +attitude ever since they had begun their life on the island, she +remained as secret as ever. Heyst got up abruptly, with a smile of +such enigmatic and despairing character that Mr. Secretary Ricardo, +whose abstract gaze had an all-round efficiency, made a slight +crouching start, as if to dive under the table for his leg-knife--a +start that was repressed, as soon as begun. He had expected Heyst +to spring on him or draw a revolver, because he created for himself +a vision of him in his own image. Instead of doing either of these +obvious things, Heyst walked across the room, opened the door and +put his head through it to look out into the compound. + +As soon as his back was turned, Ricardo's hand sought the girl's arm +under the table. He was not looking at her, but she felt the +groping, nervous touch of his search, felt suddenly the grip of his +fingers above her wrist. He leaned forward a little; still he dared +not look at her. His hard stare remained fastened on Heyst's back. +In an extremely low hiss, his fixed idea of argument found +expression scathingly: + +"See! He's no good. He's not the man for you!" + +He glanced at her at last. Her lips moved a little, and he was awed +by that movement without a sound. Next instant the hard grasp of +his fingers vanished from her arm. Heyst had shut the door. On his +way back to the table, he crossed the path of the girl they had +called Alma--she didn't know why--also Magdalen, whose mind had +remained so long in doubt as to the reason of her own existence. +She no longer wondered at that bitter riddle, since her heart found +its solution in a blinding, hot glow of passionate pride. + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + + +She passed by Heyst as if she had indeed been blinded by some +secret, lurid, and consuming glare into which she was about to +enter. The curtain of the bedroom door fell behind her into rigid +folds. Ricardo's vacant gaze seemed to be watching the dancing +flight of a fly in mid air. + +"Extra dark outside, ain't it?" he muttered. + +"Not so dark but that I could see that man of yours prowling about +there," said Heyst in measured tones. + +"What--Pedro? He's scarcely a man you know; or else I wouldn't be +so fond of him as I am." + +"Very well. Let's call him your worthy associate." + +"Ay! Worthy enough for what we want of him. A great standby is +Peter in a scrimmage. A growl and a bite--oh, my! And you don't +want him about?" + +"I don't." + +"You want him out of the way?" insisted Ricardo with an affectation +of incredulity which Heyst accepted calmly, though the air in the +room seemed to grow more oppressive with every word spoken. + +"That's it. I do want him out of the way." He forced himself to +speak equably. + +"Lor'! That's no great matter. Pedro's not much use here. The +business my governor's after can be settled by ten minutes' rational +talk with--with another gentleman. Quiet talk!" + +He looked up suddenly with hard, phosphorescent eyes. Heyst didn't +move a muscle. Ricardo congratulated himself on having left his +revolver behind. He was so exasperated that he didn't know what he +might have done. He said at last: + +"You want poor, harmless Peter out of the way before you let me take +you to see the governor--is that it?" + +"Yes, that is it." + +"H'm! One can see," Ricardo said with hidden venom, "that you are a +gentleman; but all that gentlemanly fancifulness is apt to turn sour +on a plain man's stomach. However--you'll have to pardon me." + +He put his fingers into his mouth and let out a whistle which seemed +to drive a thin, sharp shaft of air solidly against one's nearest +ear-drum. Though he greatly enjoyed Heyst's involuntary grimace, he +sat perfectly stolid waiting for the effect of the call. + +It brought Pedro in with an extraordinary, uncouth, primeval +impetuosity. The door flew open with a clatter, and the wild figure +it disclosed seemed anxious to devastate the room in leaps and +bounds; but Ricardo raised his open palm, and the creature came in +quietly. His enormous half-closed paws swung to and fro a little in +front of his bowed trunk as he walked. Ricardo looked on +truculently. + +"You go to the boat--understand? Go now!" + +The little red eyes of the tame monster blinked with painful +attention in the mass of hair. + +"Well? Why don't you get? Forgot human speech, eh? Don't you know +any longer what a boat is?" + +"Si--boat," the creature stammered out doubtfully. + +"Well, go there--the boat at the jetty. March off to it and sit +there, lie down there, do anything but go to sleep there--till you +hear my call, and then fly here. Them's your orders. March! Get, +vamos! No, not that way--out through the front door. No sulks!" + +Pedro obeyed with uncouth alacrity. When he had gone, the gleam of +pitiless savagery went out of Ricardo's yellow eyes, and his +physiognomy took on, for the first time that evening, the expression +of a domestic cat which is being noticed. + +"You can watch him right into the bushes, if you like. Too dark, +eh? Why not go with him to the very spot, then?" + +Heyst made a gesture of vague protest. + +"There's nothing to assure me that he will stay there. I have no +doubt of his going, but it's an act without guarantee." + +"There you are!" Ricardo shrugged his shoulders philosophically. +"Can't be helped. Short of shooting our Pedro, nobody can make +absolutely sure of his staying in the same place longer than he has +a mind to; but I tell you, he lives in holy terror of my temper. +That's why I put on my sudden-death air when I talk to him. And yet +I wouldn't shoot him--not I, unless in such a fit of rage as would +make a man shoot his favourite dog. Look here, sir! This deal is +on the square. I didn't tip him a wink to do anything else. He +won't budge from the jetty. Are you coming along now, sir?" + +A short-silence ensued. Ricardo's jaws were working ominously under +his skin. His eyes glided: voluptuously here and there, cruel and +dreamy, Heyst checked a sudden movement, reflected for a while, then +said: + +"You must wait a little." + +"Wait a little! Wait a little! What does he think a fellow is--a +graven image?" grumbled Ricardo half audibly. + +Heyst went into the bedroom, and shut the door after him with a +bang. Coming from the light, he could not see a thing in there at +first; yet he received the impression of the girl getting up from +the floor. On the less opaque darkness of the shutter-hole, her +head detached itself suddenly, very faint, a mere hint of a round, +dark shape without a face. + +"I am going, Lena. I am going to confront these scoundrels." He +was surprised to feel two arms falling on his shoulders. "I thought +that you--" he began. + +"Yes, yes!" the girl whispered hastily. + +She neither clung to him, nor yet did she try to draw him to her. +Her hands grasped his shoulders, and she seemed to him to be staring +into his face in the dark. And now he could see something of her +face, too--an oval without features--and faintly distinguish her +person, in the blackness, a form without definite lines. + +"You have a black dress here, haven't you, Lena?" he asked, speaking +rapidly, and so low that she could just hear him. + +"Yes--an old thing." + +"Very good. Put it on at once." + +"But why?" + +"Not for mourning!" Them was something peremptory in the slightly +ironic murmur. "Can you find it and get into it in the dark?" + +She could. She would try. He waited, very still. He could imagine +her movements over there at the far end of the room; but his eyes, +accustomed now to the darkness, had lost her completely. When she +spoke, her voice surprised him by its nearness. She had done what +he had told her to do, and had approached him, invisible. + +"Good! Where's that piece of purple veil I've seen lying about?" he +asked. + +There was no answer, only a slight rustle. + +"Where is it?" he repeated impatiently. + +Her unexpected breath was on his cheek. + +"In my hands." + +"Capital! Listen, Lena. As soon as I leave the bungalow with that +horrible scoundrel, you slip out at the back--instantly, lose no +time!--and run round into the forest. That will be your time, while +we are walking away, and I am sure he won't give me the slip. Run +into the forest behind the fringe of bushes between the big trees. +You will know, surely, how to find a place in full view of the front +door. I fear for you; but in this black dress, with most of your +face muffled up in that dark veil, I defy anybody to find you there +before daylight. Wait in the forest till the table is pushed into +full view of the doorway, and you see three candles out of four +blown out and one relighted--or, should the lights be put out here +while you watch them, wait till three candles are lighted and then +two put out. At either of these signals run back as hard as you +can, for it will mean that I am waiting for you here." + +While he was speaking, the girl had sought and seized one of his +hands. She did not press it; she held it loosely, as it were +timidly, caressingly. It was no grasp; it was a mere contact, as if +only to make sure that he was there, that he was real and no mere +darker shadow in the obscurity. The warmth of her hand gave Heyst a +strange, intimate sensation of all her person. He had to fight down +a new sort of emotion, which almost unmanned him. He went on, +whispering sternly: + +"But if you see no such signals, don't let anything--fear, +curiosity, despair, or hope--entice you back to this house; and with +the first sign of dawn steal away along the edge of the clearing +till you strike the path. Wait no longer, because I shall probably +be dead." + +The murmur of the word "Never!" floated into his ear as if it formed +itself in the air. + +"You know the path," he continued. "Make your way to the barricade. +Go to Wang--yes, to Wang. Let nothing stop you!" It seemed to him +that the girl's hand trembled a little. "The worst he can do to you +is to shoot you, but he won't. I really think he won't, if I am not +there. Stay with the villagers, with the wild people, and fear +nothing. They will be more awed by you than you can be frightened +of them. Davidson's bound to turn up before very long. Keep a +look-out for a passing steamer. Think of some sort of signal to +call him." + +She made no answer. The sense of the heavy, brooding silence in the +outside world seemed to enter and fill the room--the oppressive +infinity of it, without breath, without light. It was as if the +heart of hearts had ceased to beat and the end of all things had +come. + +"Have you understood? You are to run out of the house at once," +Heyst whispered urgently. + +She lifted his hand to her lips and let it go. He was startled. + +"Lena!" he cried out under his breath. + +She was gone from his side. He dared not trust himself--no, not +even to the extent of a tender word. + +Turning to go out he heard a thud somewhere in the house. To open +the door, he had first to lift the curtain; he did so with his face +over his shoulder. The merest trickle of light, earning through the +keyhole and one or two cracks, was enough for his eyes to see her +plainly, all black, down on her knees, with her head and arms flung +on the foot of the bed--all black in the desolation of a mourning +sinner. What was this? A suspicion that there were everywhere more +things than he could understand crossed Heyst's mind. Her arm, +detached from the bed, motioned him away. He obeyed, and went out, +full of disquiet. + +The curtain behind him had not ceased to tremble when she was up on +her feet, close against it, listening for sounds, for words, in a +stooping, tragic attitude of stealthy attention, one hand clutching +at her breast as if to compress, to make less loud the beating of +her heart. Heyst had caught Mr. Jones's secretary in the +contemplation of his closed writing-desk. Ricardo might have been +meditating how to break into it; but when he turned about suddenly, +he showed so distorted a face that it made Heyst pause in wonder at +the upturned whites of the eyes, which were blinking horribly, as if +the man were inwardly convulsed. + +"I thought you were never coming," Ricardo mumbled. + +"I didn't know you were pressed for time. Even if your going away +depends on this conversation, as you say, I doubt if you are the men +to put to sea on such a night as this," said Heyst, motioning +Ricardo to precede him out of the house. + +With feline undulations of hip and shoulder, the secretary left the +room at once. There was something cruel in the absolute dumbness of +the night. The great cloud covering half the sky hung right against +one, like an enormous curtain hiding menacing preparations of +violence. As the feet of the two men touched the ground, a rumble +came from behind it, preceded by a swift, mysterious gleam of light +on the waters of the bay. + +"Ha!" said Ricardo. "It begins." + +"It may be nothing in the end," observed Heyst, stepping along +steadily. + +"No! Let it come!" Ricardo said viciously. "I am in the humour for +it!" + +By the time the two men had reached the other bungalow, the far-off +modulated rumble growled incessantly, while pale lightning in waves +of cold fire flooded and ran off the island in rapid succession. +Ricardo, unexpectedly, dashed ahead up the steps and put his head +through the doorway. + +"Here he is, governor! Keep him with you as long as you can--till +you hear me whistle. I am on the track." + +He flung these words into the room with inconceivable speed, and +stood aside to let the visitor pass through the doorway; but he had +to wait an appreciable moment, because Heyst, seeing his purpose, +had scornfully slowed his pace. When Heyst entered the room it was +with a smile, the Heyst smile, lurking under his martial moustache. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + + +Two candles were burning on the stand-up desk. Mr. Jones, tightly +enfolded in an old but gorgeous blue silk dressing-gown, kept his +elbows close against his sides and his hands deeply plunged into the +extraordinarily deep pockets of the garment. The costume +accentuated his emaciation. He resembled a painted pole leaning +against the edge of the desk, with a dried head of dubious +distinction stuck on the top of it. Ricardo lounged in the doorway. +Indifferent in appearance to what was going on, he was biding his +time. At a given moment, between two flickers of lightning, he +melted out of his frame into the outer air. His disappearance was +observed on the instant by Mr. Jones, who abandoned his nonchalant +immobility against the desk, and made a few steps calculated to put +him between Heyst and the doorway. + +"It's awfully close," he remarked + +Heyst, in the middle of the room, had made up his mind to speak +plainly. + +"We haven't met to talk about the weather. You favoured me earlier +in the day with a rather cryptic phrase about yourself. 'I am he +that is,' you said. What does that mean?" + +Mr. Jones, without looking at Heyst, continued his absentminded +movements till, attaining the desired position, he brought his +shoulders with a thump against the wall near the door, and raised +his head. In the emotion of the decisive moment his haggard face +glistened with perspiration. Drops ran down his hollow cheeks and +almost blinded the spectral eyes in their bony caverns. + +"It means that I am a person to be reckoned with. No--stop! Don't +put your hand into your pocket--don't." + +His voice had a wild, unexpected shrillness. Heyst started, and +there ensued a moment of suspended animation, during which the +thunder's deep bass muttered distantly and the doorway to the right +of Mr. Jones flickered with bluish light. At last Heyst shrugged +his shoulders; he even looked at his hand. He didn't put it in his +pocket, however. Mr. Jones, glued against the wall, watched him +raise both his hands to the ends of his horizontal moustaches, and +answered the note of interrogation in his steady eyes. + +"A matter of prudence," said Mr. Jones in his natural hollow tones, +and with a face of deathlike composure. "A man of your free life +has surely perceived that. You are a much talked-about man, Mr. +Heyst--and though, as far as I understand, you are accustomed to +employ the subtler weapons of intelligence, still I can't afford to +take any risks of the--er--grosser methods. I am not unscrupulous +enough to be a match for you in the use of intelligence; but I +assure you, Mr. Heyst, that in the other way you are no match for +me. I have you covered at this very moment. You have been covered +ever since you entered this room. Yes--from my pocket." + +During this harangue Heyst looked deliberately over his shoulder, +stepped back a pace, and sat down on the end of the camp bedstead. +Leaning his elbow on one knee, he laid his cheek in the palm of his +hand and seemed to meditate on what he should say next. Mr. Jones, +planted against the wall, was obviously waiting for some sort of +overture. As nothing came, he resolved to speak himself; but he +hesitated. For, though he considered that the most difficult step +had been taken, he said to himself that every stage of progress +required great caution, lest the man in Ricardo's phraseology, +should "start to prance"--which would be most inconvenient. He fell +back on a previous statement: + +"And I am a person to be reckoned with." + +The other man went on looking at the floor, as if he were alone in +the room. There was a pause. + +"You have heard of me, then?" Heyst said at length, looking up. + +"I should think so! We have been staying at Schomberg's hotel." + +"Schom--" Heyst choked on the word. + +"What's the matter, Mr. Heyst?" + +"Nothing. Nausea," Heyst said resignedly. He resumed his former +attitude of meditative indifference. "What is this reckoning you +are talking about?" he asked after a time, in the quietest possible +tone. "I don't know you." + +"It's obvious that we belong to the same--social sphere," began Mr. +Jones with languid irony. Inwardly he was as watchful as he could +be. "Something has driven you out--the originality of your ideas, +perhaps. Or your tastes." + +Mr Jones indulged in one of his ghastly smiles. In repose his +features had a curious character of evil, exhausted austerity; but +when he smiled, the whole mask took on an unpleasantly infantile +expression. A recrudescence of the rolling thunder invaded the room +loudly, and passed into silence. + +"You are not taking this very well," observed Mr. Jones. This was +what he said, but as a matter of fact he thought that the business +was shaping quite satisfactorily. The man, he said to himself, had +no stomach for a fight. Aloud he continued: "Come! You can't +expect to have it always your own way. You are a man of the world." + +"And you?" Heyst interrupted him unexpectedly. "How do you define +yourself?" + +"I, my dear sir? In one way I am--yes, I am the world itself, come +to pay you a visit. In another sense I am an outcast--almost an +outlaw. If you prefer a less materialistic view, I am a sort of +fate--the retribution that waits its time." + +"I wish to goodness you were the commonest sort of ruffian!" said +Heyst, raising his equable gaze to Mr. Jones. "One would be able to +talk to you straight then, and hope for some humanity. As it is--" + +"I dislike violence and ferocity of every sort as much as you do," +Mr. Jones declared, looking very languid as he leaned against the +wall, but speaking fairly loud. "You can ask my Martin if it is not +so. This, Mr. Heyst, is a soft age. It is also an age without +prejudices. I've heard that you are free from them yourself. You +mustn't be shocked if I tell you plainly that we are after your +money--or I am, if you prefer to make me alone responsible. Pedro, +of course, knows no more of it than any other animal would. Ricardo +is of the faithful-retainer class--absolutely identified with all my +ideas, wishes, and even whims!" + +Mr Jones pulled his left hand out of his pocket, got a handkerchief +out of another, and began to wipe the perspiration from his +forehead, neck, and chin. The excitement from which he suffered +made his breathing visible. In his long dressing-gown he had the +air of a convalescent invalid who had imprudently overtaxed his +strength. Heyst, broad-shouldered, robust, watched the operation +from the end of the camp bedstead, very calm, his hands on his +knees. + +"And by the by," he asked, "where is he now, that henchman of yours? +Breaking into my desk?" + +"That would be crude. Still, crudeness is one of life's +conditions." There was the slightest flavour of banter in the tone +of Ricardo's governor. "Conceivable, but unlikely. Martin is a +little crude; but you are not, Mr. Heyst. To tell you the truth, I +don't know precisely where he is. He has been a little mysterious +of late; but he has my confidence. No, don't get up, Mr. Heyst!" + +The viciousness of his spectral face was indescribable. Heyst, who +had moved a little, was surprised by the disclosure. + +"It was not my intention," he said. + +"Pray remain seated," Mr. Jones insisted in a languid voice, but +with a very determined glitter in his black eye-caverns. + +"If you were more observant," said Heyst with dispassionate +contempt, "you would have known before I had been five minutes in +the room that I had no weapon of any sort on me." + +"Possibly; but pray keep your hands still. They are very well where +they are. This is too big an affair for me to take any risks." + +"Big? Too big?" Heyst repeated with genuine surprise. "Good +Heavens! Whatever you are looking for, there's very little of it +here--very little of anything." + +"You would naturally say so, but that's not what we have heard," +retorted Mr. Jones quickly, with a grin so ghastly that it was +impossible to think it voluntary. + +Heyst's face had grown very gloomy. He knitted his brows. + +"What have you heard?" he asked. + +"A lot, Mr. Heyst--a lot," affirmed Mr. Jones. He was vying to +recover his manner of languid superiority. "We have heard, for +instance, of a certain Mr. Morrison, once your partner." + +Heyst could not repress a slight movement. + +"Aha!" said Mr. Jones, with a sort of ghostly glee on his face. + +The muffled thunder resembled the echo of a distant cannonade below +the horizon, and the two men seemed to be listening to it in sullen +silence. + +"This diabolical calumny will end in actually and literally taking +my life from me," thought Heyst. + +Then, suddenly, he laughed. Portentously spectral, Mr. Jones +frowned at the sound. + +"Laugh as much as you please," he said. "I, who have been hounded +out from society by a lot of highly moral souls, can't see anything +funny in that story. But here we are, and you will now have to pay +for your fun, Mr. Heyst." + +"You have heard a lot of ugly lies," observed Heyst. "Take my word +for it!" + +"You would say so, of course--very natural. As a matter of fact I +haven't heard very much. Strictly speaking, it was Martin. He +collects information, and so on. You don't suppose I would talk to +that Schomberg animal more than I could help? It was Martin whom he +took into his confidence." + +"The stupidity of that creature is so great that it becomes +formidable," Heyst said, as if speaking to himself. + +Involuntarily, his mind turned to the girl, wandering in the forest, +alone and terrified. Would he ever see her again? At that thought +he nearly lost his self-possession. But the idea that if she +followed his instructions those men were not likely to find her +steadied him a little. They did not know that the island had any +inhabitants; and he himself once disposed of, they would be too +anxious to get away to waste time hunting for a vanished girl. + +All this passed through Heyst's mind in a flash, as men think in +moments of danger. He looked speculatively at Mr. Jones, who, of +course, had never for a moment taken his eyes from his intended +victim. And, the conviction came to Heyst that this outlaw from the +higher spheres was an absolutely hard and pitiless scoundrel. + +Mr Jones's voice made him start. + +"It would be useless, for instance, to tell me that your Chinaman +has run off with your money. A man living alone with a Chinaman on +an island takes care to conceal property of that kind so well that +the devil himself--" + +"Certainly," Heyst muttered. + +Again, with his left hand, Mr. Jones mopped his frontal bone, his +stalk-like neck, his razor jaws, his fleshless chin. Again his +voice faltered and his aspect became still more gruesomely +malevolent as of a wicked and pitiless corpse. + +"I see what you mean," he cried, "but you mustn't put too much trust +in your ingenuity. You don't strike me as a very ingenious person, +Mr. Heyst. Neither am I. My talents lie another way. But Martin-- +" + +"Who is now engaged in rifling my desk," interjected Heyst. + +"I don't think so. What I was going to say is that Martin is much +cleverer than a Chinaman. Do you believe in racial superiority, Mr. +Heyst? I do, firmly. Martin is great at ferreting out such secrets +as yours, for instance." + +"Secrets like mine!" repeated Heyst bitterly. "Well I wish him joy +of all he can ferret out!" + +"That's very kind of you," remarked Mr. Jones. He was beginning to +be anxious for Martin's return. Of iron self-possession at the +gaming-table, fearless in a sudden affray, he found that this rather +special kind of work was telling on his nerves. "Keep still as you +are!" he cried sharply. + +"I've told you I am not armed," said Heyst, folding his arms on his +breast. + +"I am really inclined to believe that you are not," admitted Mr. +Jones seriously. "Strange!" he mused aloud, the caverns of his eyes +turned upon Heyst. Then briskly: "But my object is to keep you in +this room. Don't provoke me, by some unguarded movement, to smash +your knee or do something definite of that sort." He passed his +tongue over his lips, which were dry and black, while his forehead +glistened with moisture. "I don't know if it wouldn't be better to +do it at once!" + +"He who deliberates is lost," said Heyst with grave mockery. + +Mr Jones disregarded the remark. He had the air of communing with +himself. + +"Physically I am no match for you," he said slowly, his black gaze +fixed upon the man sitting on the end of the bed. "You could +spring--" + +"Are you trying to frighten yourself?" asked Heyst abruptly. "You +don't seem to have quite enough pluck for your business. Why don't +you do it at once?" + +Mr Jones, taking violent offence, snorted like a savage skeleton. + +"Strange as it may seem to you, it is because of my origin, my +breeding, my traditions, my early associations, and such-like +trifles. Not everybody can divest himself of the prejudices of a +gentleman as easily as you have done, Mr, Heyst. But don't worry +about my pluck. If you were to make a clean spring at me, you would +receive in mid air, so to speak, something that would make you +perfectly harmless by the time you landed. No, don't misapprehend +us, Mr. Heyst. We are--er--adequate bandits; and we are after the +fruit of your labours as a--er--successful swindler. It's the way +of the world--gorge and disgorge!" + +He leaned wearily the back of his head against the wall. His +vitality seemed exhausted. Even his sunken eyelids drooped within +the bony sockets. Only his thin, waspish, beautifully pencilled +eyebrows, drawn together a little, suggested the will and the power +to sting--something vicious, unconquerable, and deadly. + +"Fruits! Swindler!" repeated Heyst, without heat, almost without +contempt. "You are giving yourself no end of trouble, you and your +faithful henchman, to crack an empty nut. There are no fruits here, +as you imagine. There are a few sovereigns, which you may have if +you like; and since you have called yourself a bandit--" + +"Yaas!" drawled Mr. Jones. "That, rather than a swindler. Open +warfare at least!" + +"Very good! Only let me tell you that there were never in the world +two more deluded bandits--never!" + +Heyst uttered these words with such energy that Mr. Jones, +stiffening up, seemed to become thinner and taller in his metallic +blue dressing-gown against the whitewashed wall. + +"Fooled by a silly, rascally innkeeper!" Heyst went on. "Talked +over like a pair of children with a promise of sweets!" + +"I didn't talk with that disgusting animal," muttered Mr. Jones +sullenly; "but he convinced Martin, who is no fool." + +"I should think he wanted very much to be convinced," said Heyst, +with the courteous intonation so well known in the Islands. "I +don't want to disturb your touching trust in your--your follower, +but he must be the most credulous brigand in existence. What do you +imagine? If the story of my riches were ever so true, do you think +Schomberg would have imparted it to you from sheer altruism? Is +that the way of the world, Mr. Jones?" + +For a moment the lower jaw of Ricardo's gentleman dropped; but it +came up with a snap of scorn, and he said with spectral intensity: + +"The beast is cowardly! He was frightened, and wanted to get rid of +us, if you want to know, Mr. Heyst. I don't know that the material +inducement was so very great, but I was bored, and we decided to +accept the bribe. I don't regret it. All my life I have been +seeking new impressions, and you have turned out to be something +quite out of the common. Martin, of course, looks to the material +results. He's simple--and faithful--and wonderfully acute." + +"Ah, yes! He's on the track--" and now Heyst's speech had the +character of politely grim raillery--"but not sufficiently on the +track, as yet, to make it quite convenient to shoot me without more +ado. Didn't Schomberg tell you precisely where I conceal the fruit +of my rapines? Pah! Don't you know he would have told you +anything, true or false, from a very clear motive? Revenge! Mad +hate--the unclean idiot!" + +Mr Jones did not seem very much moved. On his right hand the +doorway incessantly flickered with distant lightning, and the +continuous rumble of thunder went on irritatingly, like the growl of +an inarticulate giant muttering fatuously. + +Heyst overcame his immense repugnance to allude to her whose image, +cowering in the forest was constantly before his eyes, with all the +pathos and force of its appeal, august, pitiful, and almost holy to +him. It was in a hurried, embarrassed manner that he went on: + +"If it had not been for that girl whom he persecuted with his insane +and odious passion, and who threw herself on my protection, he would +never have--but you know well enough!" + +"I don't know!" burst out Mr. Jones with amazing heat. "That hotel- +keeper tried to talk to me once of some girl he had lost, but I told +him I didn't want to hear any of his beastly women stories. It had +something to do with you, had it?" + +Heyst looked on serenely at this outburst, then lost his patience a +little. + +"What sort of comedy is this? You don't mean to say that you didn't +know that I had--that there was a girl living with me here?" + +One could see that the eyes of Mr. Jones had become fixed in the +depths of their black holes by the gleam of white becoming steady +there. The whole man seemed frozen still. + +"Here! Here!" he screamed out twice. There was no mistaking his +astonishment, his shocked incredulity--something like frightened +disgust. + +Heyst was disgusted also, but in another way. He too was +incredulous. He regretted having mentioned the girl; but the thing +was done, his repugnance had been overcome in the heat of his +argument against the absurd bandit. + +"Is it possible that you didn't know of that significant fact?" he +inquired. "Of the only effective truth in the welter of silly lies +that deceived you so easily?" + +"No, I didn't!" Mr. Jones shouted. "But Martin did!" he added in a +faint whisper, which Heyst's ears just caught and no more. + +"I kept her out of sight as long as I could," said Heyst. "Perhaps, +with your bringing up traditions, and so on; you will understand my +reason for it." + +"He knew. He knew before!" Mr. Jones mourned in a hollow voice. +"He knew of her from the first!" + +Backed hard against the wall he no longer watched Heyst. He had the +air of a man who had seen an abyss yawning under his feet. + +"If I want to kill him, this is my time," thought Heyst; but he did +not move. + +Next moment Mr. Jones jerked his head up, glaring with sardonic +fury. + +"I have a good mind to shoot you, you woman-ridden hermit, you man +in the moon, that can't exist without--no, it won't be you that I'll +shoot. It's the other woman-lover--the prevaricating, sly, low- +class, amorous cuss! And he shaved--shaved under my very nose. +I'll shoot him!" + +"He's gone mad," thought Heyst, startled by the spectre's sudden +fury. + +He felt himself more in danger, nearer death, than ever since he had +entered that room. An insane bandit is a deadly combination. He +did not, could not know that Mr. Jones was quick-minded enough to +see already the end of his reign over his excellent secretary's +thoughts and feelings; the coming failure of Ricardo's fidelity. A +woman had intervened! A woman, a girl, who apparently possessed the +power to awaken men's disgusting folly. Her power had been proved +in two instances already--the beastly innkeeper, and that man with +moustaches, upon whom Mr. Jones, his deadly right hand twitching in +his pocket, glared more in repulsion than in anger. The very object +of the expedition was lost from view in his sudden and overwhelming +sense of utter insecurity. And this made Mr. Jones feel very +savage; but not against the man with the moustaches. Thus, while +Heyst was really feeling that his life was not worth two minutes, +purchase, he heard himself addressed with no affection of languid +impertinence but with a burst of feverish determination. + +"Here! Let's call a truce!" said Mr. Jones. + +Heyst's heart was too sick to allow him to smile. + +"Have I been making war on you?" he asked wearily. "How do you +expect me to attach any meaning to your words?" he went on. "You +seem to be a morbid, senseless sort of bandit. We don't speak the +same language. If I were to tell you why I am here, talking to you, +you wouldn't believe me, because you would not understand me. It +certainly isn't the love of life, from which I have divorced myself +long ago--not sufficiently, perhaps; but if you are thinking of +yours, then I repeat to you that it has never been in danger from +me. I am unarmed." + +Mr Jones was biting his lower lip, in a deep meditation. It was +only towards the last that he looked at Heyst. + +"Unarmed, eh?" Then he burst out violently: "I tell you, a +gentleman is no match for the common herd. And yet one must make +use of the brutes. Unarmed, eh? And I suppose that creature is of +the commonest sort. You could hardly have got her out of a drawing- +room. Though they're all alike, for that matter. Unarmed! It's a +pity. I am in much greater danger than you are or were--or I am +much mistaken. But I am not--I know my man!" + +He lost his air of mental vacancy and broke out into shrill +exclamations. To Heyst they seemed madder than anything that had +gone before. + +"On the track! On the scent!" he cried, forgetting himself to the +point of executing a dance of rage in the middle of the floor. + +Heyst looked on, fascinated by this skeleton in a gay dressing-gown, +jerkily agitated like a grotesque toy on the end of an invisible +string. It became quiet suddenly. + +"I might have smelt a rat! I always knew that this would be the +danger." He changed suddenly to a confidential tone, fixing his +sepulchral stare on Heyst. "And yet here I am, taken in by the +fellow, like the veriest fool. I've been always on the watch for +some beastly influence, but here I am, fairly caught. He shaved +himself right in front of me and I never guessed!" + +The shrill laugh, following on the low tone of secrecy, sounded so +convincingly insane that Heyst got up as if moved by a spring. Mr. +Jones stepped back two paces, but displayed no uneasiness. + +"It's as clear as daylight!" he uttered mournfully, and fell silent. + +Behind him the doorway flickered lividly, and the sound as of a +naval action somewhere away on the horizon filled the breathless +pause. Mr, Jones inclined his head on his shoulder. His mood had +completely changed. + +"What do you say, unarmed man? Shall we go and see what is +detaining my trusted Martin so long? He asked me to keep you +engaged in friendly conversation till he made a further examination +of that track. Ha, ha, ha!" + +"He is no doubt ransacking my house," said Heyst. + +He was is bewildered. It seemed to him that all this was an +incomprehensible dream, or perhaps an elaborate other-world joke, +contrived by that spectre in a gorgeous dressing gown. + +Mr Jones looked at him with a horrible, cadaverous smile of +inscrutable mockery, and pointed to the door. Heyst passed through +it first. His feelings had become so blunted that he did not care +how soon he was shot in the back. + +"How oppressive the air is!" the voice of Mr. Jones said at his +elbow. "This stupid storm gets on my nerves. I would welcome some +rain, though it would be unpleasant to get wet. On the other hand, +this exasperating thunder has the advantage of covering the sound of +our approach. The lightning's not so convenient. Ah, your house is +fully illuminated! My clever Martin is punishing your stock of +candles. He belongs to the unceremonious classes, which are also +unlovely, untrustworthy, and so on." + +"I left the candles burning," said Heyst, "to save him trouble." + +"You really believed he would go to your house?" asked Mr. Jones +with genuine interest. + +"I had that notion, strongly. I do believe he is there now." + +"And you don't mind?" + +"No!" + +"You don't!" Mr. Jones stopped to wonder. "You are an extraordinary +man," he said suspiciously, and moved on, touching elbows with +Heyst. + +In the latter's breast dwelt a deep silence, the complete silence of +unused faculties. At this moment, by simply shouldering Mr. Jones, +he could have thrown him down and put himself, by a couple of leaps, +beyond the certain aim of the revolver; but he did not even think of +that. His very will seemed dead of weariness. He moved +automatically, his head low, like a prisoner captured by the evil +power of a masquerading skeleton out of a grave. Mr. Jones took +charge of the direction. They fetched a wide sweep. The echoes of +distant thunder seemed to dog their footsteps. + +"By the by," said Mr. Jones, as if unable to restrain his curiosity, +"aren't you anxious about that--ouch!--that fascinating creature to +whom you owe whatever pleasure you can find in our visit?" + +"I have placed her in safety," said Heyst. "I--I took good care of +that." + +Mr Jones laid a hand on his arm. + +"You have? Look! is that what you mean?" + +Heyst raised his head. In the flicker of lightning the desolation +of the cleared ground on his left leaped out and sank into the +night, together with the elusive forms of things distant, pale, +unearthly. But in the brilliant square of the door he saw the girl- +-the woman he had longed to see once more as if enthroned, with her +hands on the arms of the chair. She was in black; her face was +white, her head dreamily inclined on her breast. He saw her only as +low as her knees. He saw her--there, in the room, alive with a +sombre reality. It was no mocking vision. She was not in the +forest--but there! She sat there in the chair, seemingly without +strength, yet without fear, tenderly stooping. + +"Can you understand their power?" whispered the hot breath of Mr. +Jones into his ear. "Can there be a more disgusting spectacle? +It's enough to make the earth detestable. She seems to have found +her affinity. Move on closer. If I have to shoot you in the end, +then perhaps you will die cured." + +Heyst obeyed the pushing pressure of a revolver barrel between his +shoulders. He felt it distinctly, but he did not feel the ground +under his feet. They found the steps, without his being aware that +he was ascending them--slowly, one by one. Doubt entered into him-- +a doubt of a new kind, formless, hideous. It seemed to spread +itself all over him, enter his limbs, and lodge in his entrails. He +stopped suddenly, with a thought that he who experienced such a +feeling had no business to live--or perhaps was no longer living. + +Everything--the bungalow, the forest, the open ground--trembled +incessantly, the earth, the sky itself, shivered all the time, and +the only thing immovable in the shuddering universe was the interior +of the lighted room and the woman in black sitting in the light of +the eight candle-flames. They flung around her an intolerable +brilliance which hurt his eyes, seemed to sear his very brain with +the radiation of infernal heat. It was some time before his +scorched eyes made out Ricardo seated on the floor at some little +distance, his back to the doorway, but only partly so; one side of +his upturned face showing the absorbed, all forgetful rapture of his +contemplation. + +The grip of Mr. Jones's hard claw drew Heyst back a little. In the +roll of thunder, swelling and subsiding, he whispered in his ear a +sarcastic: "Of course!" + +A great shame descended upon Heyst--the shame of guilt, absurd and +maddening. Mr. Jones drew him still farther back into the darkness +of the veranda. + +"This is serious," he went on, distilling his ghostly venom into +Heyst's very ear. "I had to shut my eyes many times to his little +flings; but this is serious. He has found his soul-mate. Mud +souls, obscene and cunning! Mud bodies, too--the mud of the gutter! +I tell you, we are no match for the vile populace. I, even I, have +been nearly caught. He asked me to detain you till he gave me the +signal. It won't be you that I'll have to shoot, but him. I +wouldn't trust him near me for five minutes after this!" + +He shook Heyst's arm a little. + +"If you had not happened to mention the creature, we should both +have been dead before morning. He would have stabbed you as you +came down the steps after leaving me and then he would have walked +up to me and planted the same knife between my ribs. He has no +prejudices. The viler the origin, the greater the freedom of these +simple souls!" + +He drew a cautious, hissing breath and added in an agitated murmur: +"I can see right into his mind, I have been nearly caught napping by +his cunning." + +He stretched his neck to peer into the room from the side. Heyst, +too, made a step forward, under the slight impulse of that slender +hand clasping his hand with a thin, bony grasp. + +"Behold!" the skeleton of the crazy bandit jabbered thinly into his +ear in spectral fellowship. "Behold the simple, Acis kissing the +sandals of the nymph, on the way to her lips, all forgetful, while +the menacing life of Polyphemus already sounds close at hand--if he +could only hear it! Stoop a little." + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + + +On returning to the Heyst bungalow, rapid as if on wings, Ricardo +found Lena waiting for him. She was dressed in black; and at once +his uplifting exultation was replaced by an awed and quivering +patience before her white face, before the immobility of her +reposeful pose, the more amazing to him who had encountered the +strength of her limbs and the indomitable spirit in her body. She +had come out after Heyst's departure, and had sat down under the +portrait to wait for the return of the man of violence and death. +While lifting the curtain, she felt the anguish of her disobedience +to her lover, which was soothed by a feeling she had known before--a +gentle flood of penetrating sweetness. She was not automatically +obeying a momentary suggestion, she was under influences more +deliberate, more vague, and of greater potency. She had been +prompted, not by her will, but by a force that was outside of her +and more worthy. She reckoned upon nothing definite; she had +calculated nothing. She saw only her purpose of capturing death-- +savage, sudden, irresponsible death, prowling round the man who +possessed her, death embodied in the knife ready to strike into his +heart. No doubt it had been a sin to throw herself into his arms. +With that inspiration that descends at times from above for the good +or evil of our common mediocrity, she had a sense of having been for +him only a violent and sincere choice of curiosity and pity--a thing +that passes. She did not know him. If he were to go away from her +and disappear, she would utter no reproach, she would not resent it; +for she would hold in herself the impress of something most rare and +precious--his embraces made her own by her courage in saving his +life. + +All she thought of--the essence of her tremors, her flushes of heat, +and her shudders of cold--was the question how to get hold of that +knife, the mark and sign of stalking death. A tremor of impatience +to clutch the frightful thing, glimpsed once and unforgettable, +agitated her hands. + +The instinctive flinging forward of these hands stopped Ricardo dead +short between the door and her chair, with the ready obedience of a +conquered man who can bide his time. Her success disconcerted her. +She listened to the man's impassioned transports of terrible eulogy +and even more awful declarations of love. She was even able to meet +his eyes, oblique, apt to glide away, throwing feral gleams of +desire. + +"No!" he was saying, after a fiery outpouring of words in which the +most ferocious phrases of love were mingled with wooing accents of +entreaty. "I will have no more of it! Don't you mistrust me. I am +sober in my talk. Feel how quietly my heart beats. Ten times today +when you, you, you, swam in my eye, I thought it would burst one of +my ribs or leap out of my throat. It has knocked itself dead and +tired, waiting for this evening, for this very minute. And now it +can do no more. Feel how quiet it is!" + +He made a step forward, but she raised her clear voice commandingly: + +"No nearer!" + +He stopped with a smile of imbecile worship on his lips, and with +the delighted obedience of a man who could at any moment seize her +in his hands and dash her to the ground. + +"Ah! If I had taken you by the throat this morning and had my way +with you, I should never have known what you am. And now I do. You +are a wonder! And so am I, in my way. I have nerve, and I have +brains, too. We should have been lost many times but for me. I +plan--I plot for my gentleman. Gentleman--pah! I am sick of him. +And you are sick of yours, eh? You, you!" + +He shook all over; he cooed at her a string of endearing names, +obscene and tender, and then asked abruptly: + +"Why don't you speak to me?" + +"It's my part to listen," she said, giving him an inscrutable smile, +with a flush on her cheek and her lips cold as ice. + +"But you will answer me?" + +"Yes," she said, her eyes dilated as if with sudden interest. + +"Where's that plunder? Do you know?" + +"No! Not yet." + +"But there is plunder stowed somewhere that's worth having?" + +"Yes, I think so. But who knows?" she added after a pause. + +"And who cares?" he retorted recklessly. "I've had enough of this +crawling on my belly. It's you who are my treasure. It's I who +found you out where a gentleman had buried you to rot for his +accursed pleasure!" + +He looked behind him and all around for a seat, then turned to her +his troubled eyes and dim smile. + +"I am dog-tired," he said, and sat down on the floor. "I went tired +this morning, since I came in here and started talking to you--as +tired as if I had been pouring my life-blood here on these planks +for you to dabble your white feet in." + +Unmoved, she nodded at him thoughtfully. Woman-like, all her +faculties remained concentrated on her heart's desire--on the knife- +-while the man went on babbling insanely at her feet, ingratiating +and savage, almost crazy with elation. But he, too, was holding on +to his purpose. + +"For you! For you I will throw away money, lives--all the lives but +mine! What you want is a man, a master that will let you put the +heel of your shoe on his neck; not that skulker, who will get tired +of you in a year--and you of him. And then what? You are not the +one to sit still; neither am I. I live for myself, and you shall +live for yourself, too--not for a Swedish baron. They make a +convenience of people like you and me. A gentleman is better than +an employer, but an equal partnership against all the 'yporcrits is +the thing for you and me. We'll go on wandering the world over, you +and I both free and both true. You are no cage bird. We'll rove +together, for we are of them that have no homes. We are born +rovers!" + +She listened to him with the utmost attention, as if any unexpected +word might give her some sort of opening to get that dagger, that +awful knife--to disarm murder itself, pleading for her love at her +feet. Again she nodded at him thoughtfully, rousing a gleam in his +yellow eyes, yearning devotedly upon her face. When he hitched +himself a little closer, her soul had no movement of recoil. This +had to be. Anything had to be which would bring the knife within +her reach. He talked more confidentially now. + +"We have met, and their time has come," he began, looking up into +her eyes. "The partnership between me and my gentleman has to be +ripped up. There's no room for him where we two are. Why, he would +shoot me like a dog! Don't you worry. This will settle it not +later than tonight!" + +He tapped his folded leg below the knee, and was surprised, +flattered, by the lighting up of her face, which stooped towards him +eagerly and remained expectant, the lips girlishly parted, red in +the pale face, and quivering in the quickened drawing of her breath. + +"You marvel, you miracle, you man's luck and joy--one in a million! +No, the only one. You have found your man in me," he whispered +tremulously. "Listen! They are having their last talk together; +for I'll do for your gentleman, too, by midnight." + +Without the slightest tremor she murmured, as soon as the tightening +of her breast had eased off and the words would come: + +"I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry--with him." + +The pause, the tone, had all the value of meditated advice. + +"Good, thrifty girl!" he laughed low, with a strange feline gaiety, +expressed by the undulating movement of his shoulders and the +sparkling snap of his oblique eyes. "You am still thinking about +the chance of that swag. You'll make a good partner, that you will! +And, I say, what a decoy you will make! Jee-miny!" + +He was carried away for a moment, but his face darkened swiftly. + +"No! No reprieve. What do you think a fellow is--a scarecrow? All +hat and clothes and no feeling, no inside, no brain to make fancies +for himself? No!" he went on violently. "Never in his life will he +go again into that room of yours--never any more!" + +A silence fell. He was gloomy with the torment of his jealousy, and +did not even look at her. She sat up and slowly, gradually, bent +lower and lower over him, as if ready to fall into his arms. He +looked up at last, and checked this droop unwittingly. + +"Say! You, who are up to fighting a man with your bare hands, could +you--eh?--could you manage to stick one with a thing like that knife +of mine?" + +She opened her eyes very wide and gave him a wild smile. + +"How can I tell?" she whispered enchantingly. "Will you let me have +a look at it?" + +Without taking his eyes from her face, he pulled the knife out of +its sheath--a short, broad, cruel double-edged blade with a bone +handle--and only then looked down at it. + +"A good friend," he said simply. "Take it in your hand and feel the +balance," he suggested. + +At the moment when she bent forward to receive it from him, there +was a flash of fire in her mysterious eyes--a red gleam in the white +mist which wrapped the promptings and longings of her soul. She had +done it! The very sting of death was in her hands, the venom of the +viper in her paradise, extracted, safe in her possession--and the +viper's head all but lying under her heel. Ricardo, stretched on +the mats of the floor, crept closer and closer to the chair in which +she sat. + +All her thoughts were busy planning how to keep possession of that +weapon which had seemed to have drawn into itself every danger and +menace on the death-ridden earth. She said with a low laugh, the +exultation in which he failed to recognize: + +"I didn't think that you would ever trust me with that thing!" + +"Why not?" + +"For fear I should suddenly strike you with it." + +"What for? For this morning's work? Oh, no! There's no spite in +you for that. You forgave me. You saved me. You got the better of +me, too. And anyhow, what good would it be?" + +"No, no good," she admitted. + +In her heart she felt that she would not know how to do it; that if +it came to a struggle, she would have to drop the dagger and fight +with her hands. + +"Listen. When we are going about the world together, you shall +always call me husband. Do you hear?" + +"Yes," she said bracing herself for the contest, in whatever shape +it was coming. + +The knife was lying in her lap. She let it slip into the fold of +her dress, and laid her forearms with clasped fingers over her +knees, which she pressed desperately together. The dreaded thing +was out of sight at last. She felt a dampness break out all over +her. + +"I am not going to hide you, like that good-for-nothing, finicky, +sneery gentleman. You shall be my pride and my chum. Isn't that +better than rotting on an island for the pleasure of a gentleman, +till he gives you the chuck?" + +"I'll be anything you like," she said. + +In his intoxication he crept closer with every word she uttered, +with every movement she made. + +"Give your foot," he begged in a timid murmur, and in the full +consciousness of his power. + +Anything! Anything to keep murder quiet and disarmed till strength +had returned to her limbs and she could make up her mind what to do. +Her fortitude had been shaken by the very facility of success that +had come to her. She advanced her foot forward a little from under +the hem of her skirt; and he threw himself on it greedily. She was +not even aware of him. She had thought of the forest, to which she +had been told to run. Yes, the forest--that was the place for her +to carry off the terrible spoil, the sting of vanquished death. +Ricardo, clasping her ankle, pressed his lips time after time to the +instep, muttering gasping words that were like sobs, making little +noises that resembled the sounds of grief and distress. Unheard by +them both, the thunder growled distantly with angry modulations of +it's tremendous voice, while the world outside shuddered incessantly +around the dead stillness of the room where the framed profile of +Heyst's father looked severely into space. + +Suddenly Ricardo felt himself spurned by the foot he had been +cherishing--spurned with a push of such violence into the very +hollow of his throat that it swung him back instantly into an +upright position on his knees. He read his danger in the stony eyes +of the girl; and in the very act of leaping to his feet he heard +sharply, detached on the comminatory voice of the storm the brief +report of a shot which half stunned him, in the manner of a blow. +He turned his burning head, and saw Heyst towering in the doorway. +The thought that the beggar had started to prance darted through his +mind. For a fraction of a second his distracted eyes sought for his +weapon an over the floor. He couldn't see it. + +"Stick him, you!" he called hoarsely to the girl, and dashed +headlong for the door of the compound. + +While he thus obeyed the instinct of self-preservation, his reason +was telling him that he could not possibly reach it alive. It flew +open, however, with a crash, before his launched weight, and +instantly he swung it to behind him. There, his shoulder leaning +against it, his hands clinging to the handle, dazed and alone in the +night full of shudders and muttered menaces, he tried to pull +himself together. He asked himself if he had been shot at more than +once. His shoulder was wet with the blood trickling from his head. +Feeling above his ear, he ascertained that it was only a graze, but +the shock of the surprise had unmanned him for the moment. + +What the deuce was the governor about to let the beggar break loose +like this? Or--was the governor dead, perhaps? + +The silence within the room awed him. Of going back there could be +no question. + +"But she know show to take care of her self," he muttered. + +She had his knife. It was she now who was deadly, while he was +disarmed, no good for the moment. He stole away from the door, +staggering, the warm trickle running down his neck, to find out what +had become of the governor and to provide himself with a firearm +from the armoury in the trunks. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + + +Mr Jones, after firing his shot over Heyst's shoulder, had thought +it proper to dodge away. Like the spectre he was, he noiselessly +vanished from the veranda. Heyst stumbled into the room and looked +around. All the objects in there--the books, portrait on the wall-- +seemed shadowy, unsubstantial, the dumb accomplices of an amazing +dream-plot ending in an illusory effect of awakening and the +impossibility of ever closing his eyes again. With dread he forced +himself to look at the girl. Still in the chair, she was leaning +forward far over her knees, and had hidden her face in her hands. +Heyst remembered Wang suddenly. How clear all this was--and how +extremely amusing! Very. + +She sat up a little, then leaned back, and taking her hands from her +face, pressed both of them to her breast as if moved to the heart by +seeing him there looking at her with a black, horror-struck +curiosity. He would have pitied her, if the triumphant expression +of her face had not given him a shock which destroyed the balance of +his feelings. She spoke with an accent of wild joy: + +"I knew you would come back in time! You are safe now. I have done +it! I would never, never have let him--" Her voice died out, while +her eyes shone at him as when the sun breaks through a mist. "Never +get it back. Oh, my beloved!" + +He bowed his head gravely, and said in his polite. Heystian tone: + +"No doubt you acted from instinct. Women have been provided with +their own weapon. I was a disarmed man, I have been a disarmed man +all my life as I see it now. You may glory in your resourcefulness +and your profound knowledge of yourself; but I may say that the +other attitude, suggestive of shame, had its charm. For you are +full of charm!" + +The exultation vanished from her face. + +"You mustn't make fun of me now. I know no shame. I was thanking +God with all my sinful heart for having been able to do it--for +giving you to me in that way--oh, my beloved--all my own at last!" + +He stared as if mad. Timidly she tried to excuse herself for +disobeying his directions for her safety. Every modulation of her +enchanting voice cut deep into his very breast, so that he could +hardly understand the words for the sheer pain of it. He turned his +back on her; but a sudden drop, an extraordinary faltering of her +tone, made him spin round. On her white neck her pale head dropped +as in a cruel drought a withered flower droops on its stalk. He +caught his breath, looked at her closely, and seemed to read some +awful intelligence in her eyes. At the moment when her eyelids fell +as if smitten from above by an the gleam of old silver familiar to +him from boyhood, the very invisible power, he snatched her up +bodily out of the chair, and disregarding an unexpected metallic +clatter on the floor, carried her off into the other room. The +limpness of her body frightened him. Laying her down on the bed, he +ran out again, seized a four-branched candlestick on the table, and +ran back, tearing down with a furious jerk the curtain that swung +stupidly in his way, but after putting the candlestick on the table +by the bed, he remained absolutely idle. There did not seem +anything more for him to do. Holding his chin in his hand he looked +down intently at her still face. + +"Has she been stabbed with this thing?" asked Davidson, whom +suddenly he saw standing by his side and holding up Ricardo's dagger +to his sight. Heyst uttered no word of recognition or surprise. He +gave Davidson only a dumb look of unutterable awe, then, as if +possessed with a sudden fury, started tearing open the front of the +girls dress. She remained insensible under his hands, and Heyst let +out a groan which made Davidson shudder inwardly the heavy plaint of +a man who falls clubbed in the dark. + +They stood side by side, looking mournfully at the little black hole +made by Mr. Jones's bullet under the swelling breast of a dazzling +and as it were sacred whiteness. It rose and fell slightly--so +slightly that only the eyes of the lover could detect the faint stir +of life. Heyst, calm and utterly unlike himself in the face, moving +about noiselessly, prepared a wet cloth, and laid it on the +insignificant wound, round which there was hardly a trace of blood +to mar the charm, the fascination, of that mortal flesh. + +Her eyelids fluttered. She looked drowsily about, serene, as if +fatigued only by the exertions of her tremendous victory, capturing +the very sting of death in the service of love. But her eyes became +very wide awake when they caught sight of Ricardo's dagger, the +spoil of vanquished death, which Davidson was still holding, +unconsciously. + +"Give it to me," she said. "It's mine." + +Davidson put the symbol of her victory into her feeble hands +extended to him with the innocent gesture of a child reaching +eagerly for a toy. + +"For you," she gasped, turning her eyes to Heyst. "Kill nobody." + +"No," said Heyst, taking the dagger and laying it gently on her +breast, while her hands fell powerless by her side. + +The faint smile on her deep-cut lips waned, and her head sank deep +into the pillow, taking on the majestic pallor and immobility of +marble. But over the muscles, which seemed set in their +transfigured beauty for ever, passed a slight and awful tremor. +With an amazing strength she asked loudly: + +"What's the matter with me?" + +"You have been shot, dear Lena," Heyst said in a steady voice, while +Davidson, at the question, turned away and leaned his forehead +against the post of the foot of the bed. + +"Shot? I did think, too, that something had struck me." + +Over Samburan the thunder had ceased to growl at last, and the world +of material forms shuddered no more under the emerging stars. The +spirit of the girl which was passing away from under them clung to +her triumph convinced of the reality of her victory over death. + +"No more," she muttered. "There will be no more! Oh, my beloved," +she cried weakly, "I've saved you! Why don't you take me into your +arms and carry me out of this lonely place?" + +Heyst bent low over her, cursing his fastidious soul, which even at +that moment kept the true cry of love from his lips in its infernal +mistrust of all life. He dared not touch her and she had no longer +the strength to throw her arms about his neck. + +"Who else could have done this for you?" she whispered gloriously. + +"No one in the world," he answered her in a murmur of unconcealed +despair. + +She tried to raise herself, but all she could do was to lift her +head a little from the pillow. With a terrible and gentle movement, +Heyst hastened to slip his arm under her neck. She felt relieved at +once of an intolerable weight, and was content to surrender to him +the infinite weariness of her tremendous achievement. Exulting, she +saw herself extended on the bed, in a black dress, and profoundly at +peace, while, stooping over her with a kindly, playful smile, he was +ready to lift her up in his firm arms and take her into the +sanctuary of his innermost heart--for ever! The flush of rapture +flooding her whole being broke out in a smile of innocent, girlish +happiness; and with that divine radiance on her lips she breathed +her, last triumphant, seeking for his glance in the shades of death. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + + +"Yes, Excellency," said Davidson in his placid voice; "there are +more dead in this affair--more white people, I mean--than have been +killed in many of the battles in the last Achin war." + +Davidson was talking with an Excellency, because what was alluded to +in conversation as "the mystery of Samburan" had caused such a +sensation in the Archipelago that even those in the highest spheres +were anxious to hear something at first hand. Davidson had been +summoned to an audience. It was a high official on his tour. + +"You knew the late Baron Heyst well?" + +"The truth is that nobody out here can boast of having known him +well," said Davidson. "He was a queer chap. I doubt if he himself +knew how queer he was. But everybody was aware that I was keeping +my eye on him in a friendly way. And that's how I got the warning +which made me turn round in my tracks. In the middle of my trip and +steam back to Samburan, where, I am grieved to say, I arrived too +late." + +Without enlarging very much, Davidson explained to the attentive +Excellency how a woman, the wife of a certain hotel-keeper named +Schomberg, had overheard two card-sharping rascals making inquiries +from her husband as to the exact position of the island. She caught +only a few words referring to the neighbouring volcano, but there +were enough to arouse her suspicions--"which," went on Davidson, +"she imparted to me, your Excellency. They were only too well +founded!" + +"That was very clever of her," remarked the great man. + +"She's much cleverer than people have any conception of," said +Davidson. + +But he refrained from disclosing to the Excellency the real cause +which had sharpened Mrs. Schomberg's wits. The poor woman was in +mortal terror of the girl being brought back within reach of her +infatuated Wilhelm. Davidson only said that her agitation had +impressed him; but he confessed that while going back, he began to +have his doubts as to there being anything in it. + +"I steamed into one of those silly thunderstorms that hang about the +volcano, and had some trouble in making the island," narrated +Davidson. "I had to grope my way dead slow into Diamond Bay. I +don't suppose that anybody, even if looking out for me, could have +heard me let go the anchor." + +He admitted that he ought to have gone ashore at once; but +everything was perfectly dark and absolutely quiet. He felt ashamed +of his impulsiveness. What a fool he would have looked, waking up a +man in the middle of the night just to ask him if he was all right! +And then the girl being there, he feared that Heyst would look upon +his visit as an unwarrantable intrusion. + +The first intimation he had of there being anything wrong was a big +white boat, adrift, with the dead body of a very hairy man inside, +bumping against the bows of his steamer. Then indeed he lost no +time in going ashore--alone, of course, from motives of delicacy. + +"I arrived in time to see that poor girl die, as I have told your +Excellency," pursued Davidson. "I won't tell you what a time I had +with him afterwards. He talked to me. His father seems to have +been a crank, and to have upset his head when he was young. He was +a queer chap. Practically the last words be said to me, as we came +out on the veranda, were: + +"'Ah, Davidson, woe to the man whose heart has not learned while +young to hope, to love--and to put its trust in life!' + +"As we stood there, just before I left him, for he said be wanted to +be alone with his dead for a time, we heard a snarly sort of voice +near the bushes by the shore calling out: + +"'Is that you, governor?' + +"'Yes, it's me.' + +"'Jeeminy! I thought the beggar had done for you. He has started +prancing and nearly had me. I have been dodging around, looking for +you ever since.' + +"'Well, here I am,' suddenly screamed the other voice, and then a +shot rang out. + +"'This time he has not missed him,' Heyst said to me bitterly, and +went back into the house. + +"I returned on board as he had insisted I should do. I didn't want +to intrude on his grief. Later, about five in the morning, some of +my calashes came running to me, yelling that there was a fire +ashore. I landed at once, of course. The principal bungalow was +blazing. The heat drove us back. The other two houses caught one +after another like kindling-wood. There was no going beyond the +shore end of the jetty till the afternoon." + +Davidson sighed placidly. + +"I suppose you are certain that Baron Heyst is dead?" + +"He is--ashes, your Excellency," said Davidson, wheezing a little; +"he and the girl together. I suppose he couldn't stand his thoughts +before her dead body--and fire purifies everything. That Chinaman +of whom I told your Excellency helped me to investigate next day, +when the embers got cooled a little. We found enough to be sure. +He's not a bad Chinaman. He told me that he had followed Heyst and +the girl through the forest from pity, and partly out of curiosity. +He watched the house till he saw Heyst go out, after dinner, and +Ricardo come back alone. While he was dodging there, it occurred to +him that he had better cast the boat adrift, for fear those +scoundrels should come round by water and bombard the village from +the sea with their revolvers and Winchesters. He judged that they +were devils enough for anything. So he walked down the wharf +quietly; and as he got into the boat, to cast her off, that hairy +man who, it seems, was dozing in her, jumped up growling, and Wang +shot him dead. Then he shoved the boat off as far as he could and +went away." + +There was a pause. Presently Davidson went on, in his tranquil +manner: + +"Let Heaven look after what has been purified. The wind and rain +will take care of the ashes. The carcass of that follower, +secretary, or whatever the unclean ruffian called himself, I left +where it lay, to swell and rot in the sun. His principal had shot +him neatly through the head. Then, apparently, this Jones went down +to the wharf to look for the boat and for the hairy man. I suppose +he tumbled into the water by accident--or perhaps not by accident. +The boat and the man were gone, and the scoundrel saw himself alone, +his game clearly up, and fairly trapped. Who knows? The water's +very clear there, and I could see him huddled up on the bottom, +between two piles, like a heap of bones in a blue silk bag, with +only the head and the feet sticking out. Wang was very pleased when +he discovered him. That made everything safe, he said, and he went +at once over the hill to fetch his Alfuro woman back to the hut." + +Davidson took out his handkerchief to wipe the perspiration off his +forehead. + +"And then, your Excellency, I went away. There was nothing to be +done there." + +"Clearly!" assented the Excellency. + +Davidson, thoughtful, seemed to weigh the matter in his mind, and +then murmured with placid sadness: + +"Nothing!" + + +October 1912--May 1914 + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, VICTORY *** + +This file should be named vcty10.txt or vcty10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, vcty11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, vcty10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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