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THE EBBTIDE: A TRIO AND QUARTETTE .............................................................................................1

Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson ..................................................................1

Throughout the island world of the Pacific, scattered men of many European races and from almost every

grade of society carry activity and disseminate disease. Some prosper, some vegetate. Some have mounted

the steps of thrones and owned islands and navies. Others again must marry for a livelihood; a strapping,

merry, chocolatecoloured dame supports them in sheer idleness; and, dressed like natives, but still retaining

some foreign element of gait or attitude, still perhaps with some relic (such as a single eyeglass) of the

officer and gentleman, they sprawl in palmleaf verandahs and entertain an island audience with memoirs of

the musichall. And there are still others, less pliable, less capable, less fortunate, perhaps less base, who

At the far end of the town of Papeete, three such men were seated on the beach under a purao tree.

It was late. Long ago the band had broken up and marched musically home, a motley troop of men and

women, merchant clerks and navy officers, dancing in its wake, arms about waist and crowned with garlands.

Long ago darkness and silence had gone from house to house about the tiny pagan city. Only the street lamps

shone on, making a glowworm halo in the umbrageous alleys or drawing a tremulous image on the waters

of the port. A sound of snoring ran among the piles of lumber by the Government pier. It was wafted ashore

from the graceful clipperbottomed schooners, where they lay moored close in like dinghies, and their crews

were stretched upon the deck under the open sky or huddled in a rude tent amidst the disorder of

But the men under the purao had no thought of sleep. The same temperature in England would have passed

without remark in summer; but it was bitter cold for the South Seas. Inanimate nature knew it, and the bottle

of cocoanut oil stood frozen in every birdcage house about the island; and the men knew it, and shivered.

They wore flimsy cotton clothes, the same they had sweated in by day and run the gauntlet of the tropic

showers; and to complete their evil case, they had no breakfast to mention, less dinner, and no supper at all.

In the telling South Sea phrase, these three men were ON THE BEACH. Common calamity had brought them

acquainted, as the three most miserable Englishspeaking creatures in Tahiti; and beyond their misery, they

knew next to nothing of each other, not even their true names. For each had made a long apprenticeship in

going downward; and each, at some stage of the descent, had been shamed into the adoption of an alias. And

yet not one of them had figured in a court of justice; two were men of kindly virtues; and one, as he sat and

Certainly, if money,could have been raised upon the book, Robert Herrick would long ago have sacrificed

that last possession; but the demand for literature, which is so marked a feature in some parts of the South

Seas, extends not so far as the dead tongues; and the Virgil, which he could not exchange against a meal, had

often consoled him in his hunger. He would study it, as he lay with tightened belt on the floor of the old

calaboose, seeking favourite passages and finding new ones only less beautiful because they lacked the

coinsecration of remembrance. Or he would pause on random country walks; sit on the path side, gazing over

the sea on the mountains of Eimeo; and dip into the Aeneid, seeking sortes. And if the oracle (as is the way of

oracles) replied with no very certain nor encouraging voice, visions of England at least would throng upon

the exile's memory: the busy schoolroom, the green playingfields, holidays at home, and the perennial roar

of London, and the fireside, and the white head of his father. For it is the destiny of those grave, restrained

and classic writers, with whom we make enforced and often painful acquaintanceship at school, to pass into

the blood and become native in the memory; so that a phrase of Virgil speaks not so much of Mantua or

Robert Herrick was the son of an intelligent, active, and ambitious man, small partner in a considerable

London house. Hopes were conceived of the boy; he was sent to a good school, gained there an Oxford

scholarship, and proceeded in course to the Western University. With all his talent and taste (and he had

much of both) Robert was deficient in consistency and intellectual manhood, wandered in bypaths of study,

worked at music or at metaphysics when he should have been at Greek, and took at last a paltry degree.

Almost at the same time, the London house was disastrously wound up; Mr Herrick must begin the world

again as a clerk in a strange office, and Robert relinquish his ambitions and accept with gratitude a career that

he detested and despised. He had no head for figures, no interest in affairs, detested the constraint of hours,

and despised the aims and the success of merchants. To grow rich was none of his ambitions; rather to do

well. A worse or a more bold young man would have refused the destiny; perhaps tried his future with his

pen; perhaps enlisted. Robert, more prudent, possibly more timid, consented to embrace that way of life in

which he could most readily assist his family. But he did so with a mind divided; fled the neighbourhood of

former comrades; and chose, out of several positions placed at his disposal, a clerkship in New York.

His career thenceforth was one of unbroken shame. He did not drink, he was exactly honest, he was never

rude to his employers, yet was everywhere discharged. Bringing no interest to his duties, he brought no

attention; his day was a tissue of things neglected and things done amiss; and from place to place and from

town to town, he carried the character of one thoroughly incompetent. No man can bear the word applied to

him without some flush of colour, as indeed there is none other that so emphatically slams in a man's face the

door of selfrespect. And to Herrick, who was conscious of talents and acquirements, who looked down upon

those humble duties in which he was found wanting, the pain was the more exquisite. Early in his fall, he had

ceased to be able to make remittances; shortly after, having nothing but failure to communicate, he ceased

writing home; and about a year before this tale begins, turned suddenly upon the streets of San Francisco by a

vulgar and infuriated German Jew, he had broken the last bonds of selfrespect, and upon a sudden Impulse,

changed his name and invested his last dollar in a passage on the mail brigantine, the City of Papeete. With

what expectation he had trimmed his flight for the South Seas, Herrick perhaps scarcely knew. Doubtless

there were fortunes to be made in pearl and copra; doubtless others not more gifted than himself had climbed

in the island world to be queen's consorts and king's ministers. But if Herrick had gone there with any manful

purpose, he would have kept his father's name; the alias betrayed his moral bankruptcy; he bad struck his

flag; he entertained no hope to reinstate himself or help his straitened family; and he came to the islands

(where he knew the climate to be soft, bread cheap, and manners easy) a skulker from life's battle and his

own immediate duty. Failure, he had said, was his portion; let it be a pleasant failure.

It is fortunately not enough to say 'I will be base.' Herrick continued in the islands his career of failure; but in

the new scene and under the new name, he suffered no less sharply than before. A place was got, it was lost

in the old style; from the longsuffering of the keepers of restaurants he fell to more open charity upon the

wayside; as time went on, good nature became weary, and after a repulse or two, Herrick became shy. There

were women enough who would have supported a far worse and a far uglier man; Herrick never met or never

knew them: or if he did both, some manlier feeling would revolt, and he preferred starvation. Drenched with

rains, broiling by day, shivering by night, a disused and ruinous prison for a bedroom, his diet begged or

pilfered out of rubbish heaps, his associates two creatures equally outcast with himself, he had drained for

months the cup of penitence. He had known what it was to be resigned, what it was to break forth in a

childish fury of rebellion against fate, and what it was to sink into the coma of despair. The time had changed

him. He told himself no longer tales of an easy and perhaps agreeable declension; he read his nature

otherwise; he had proved himself incapable of rising, and he now learned by experience that he could not

stoop to fall. Something that was scarcely pride or strength, that was perhaps only refinement, withheld him

from capitulation; but he looked on upon his own misfortune with a growing rage, and sometimes wondered

It was now the fourth month completed, and still there was no change or sign of change. The moon, racing

through a world of flying clouds of every size and shape and density, some black as ink stains, some delicate

as lawn, threw the marvel of her Southern brightness over the same lovely and detested scene: the island

mountains crowned with the perennial island cloud, the embowered city studded with rare lamps, the masts in

the harbour, the smooth mirror of the lagoon, and the mole of the barrier reef on which the breakers whitened.

The moon shone too, with bull'seye sweeps, on his companions; on the stalwart frame of the American who

called himself Brown, and was known to be a master mariner in some disgrace; and on the dwarfish person,

the pale eyes and toothless smile of a vulgar and badhearted cockney clerk. Here was society for Robert

Herrick! The Yankee skipper was a man at least: he had sterling qualities of tenderness and resolution; he

was one whose hand you could take without a blush. But there was no redeeming grace about the other, who

called himself sometimes Hay and sometimes Tomkins, and laughed at the discrepancy; who had been

employed in every store in Papeete, for the creature was able in his way; who had been discharged from each

in turn, for he was wholly vile; who had alienated all his old employers so that they passed him in the street

as if he were a dog, and all his old comrades so that they shunned him as they would a creditor.

Not long before, a ship from Peru had brought an influenza, and it now raged in the island, and particularly in

Papeete. From all round the purao arose and fell a dismal sound of men coughing, and strangling as they

coughed. The sick natives, with the islander's impatience of a touch of fever, had crawled from their houses

to be cool and, squatting on the shore or on the beached canoes, painfully expected the new day. Even as the

crowing of cocks goes about the country in the night from farm to farm, accesses of coughing arose, and

spread, and died in the distance, and sprang up again. Each miserable shiverer caught the suggestion from his

neighbour, was torn for some minutes by that cruel ecstasy, and left spent and without voice or courage when

it passed. If a man had pity to spend, Papeete beach, in that cold night and in that infected season, was a place

to spend it on. And of all the sufferers, perhaps the least deserving, but surely the most pitiable, was the

London clerk. He was used to another life, to houses, beds, nursing, and the dainties of the sickroom; he lay

there now, in the cold open, exposed to the gusting of the wind, and with an empty belly. He was besides

infirm; the disease shook him to the vitals; and his companions watched his endurance with surprise. A

profound commiseration filled them, and contended with and conquered their abhorrence. The disgust

attendant on so ugly a sickness magnified this dislike; at the same time, and with more than compensating

strength, shame for a sentiment so inhuman bound them the more straitly to his service; and even the evil

they knew of him swelled their solicitude, for the thought of death is always the least supportable when it

draws near to the merely sensual and selfish. Sometimes they held him up; sometimes, with mistaken

helpfulness, they beat him between the shoulders; and when the poor wretch lay back ghastly and spent after

a paroxysm of coughing, they would sometimes peer into his face, doubtfully exploring it for any mark of

life. There is no one but has some virtue: that of the clerk was courage; and he would make haste to reassure

'I'm all right, pals,' he gasped once: 'this is the thing to strengthen the muscles of the larynx.'

'O, I'm good plucked enough,' pursued the sufferer with a broken utterance. 'But it do seem bloomin' hard to

me, that I should be the only party down with this form of vice, and the only one to do the funny business. I

'Tell us anything,' said the clerk, 'I only want to be reminded that I ain't dead.'

Herrick took up his parable, lying on his face and speaking slowly and scarce above his breath, not like a man

'Well, I was thinking this,' he began: 'I was thinking I lay on Papeete beach one nightall moon and squalls

and fellows coughingand I was cold and hungry, and down in the mouth, and was about ninety years of

age, and had spent two hundred and twenty of them on Papeete beach. And I was thinking I wished I had a

ring to rub, or had a fairy godmother, or could raise Beelzebub. And I was trying to remember how you did it.

I knew you made a ring of skulls, for I had seen that in the Freischultz: and that you took off your coat and

turned up your sleeves, for I had seen Formes do that when he was playing Kaspar, and you could see (by the

way he went about it) it was a business he had studied; and that you ought to have something to kick up a

smoke and a bad smell, I dare say a cigar might do, and that you ought to say the Lord's Prayer backwards.

Well, I wondered if I could do that; it seemed rather a feat, you see. And then I wondered if I would say it

forward, and I thought I did. Well, no sooner had I got to WORLD WITHOUT END, than I saw a man in a

pariu, and with a mat under his arm, come along the beach from the town. He was rather a hardfavoured old

party, and he limped and crippled, and all the time he kept coughing. At first I didn't cotton to his looks, I

thought, and then I got sorry for the old soul because he coughed so hard. I remembered that we had some of

that cough mixture the American consul gave the captain for Hay. It never did Hay a ha'porth of service, but I

thought it might do the old gentleman's business for him, and stood up. "Yorana!" says I. "Yorana!" says he.

"Look here," I said, "I've got some firstrate stuff in a bottle; it'll fix your cough, savvy? Harry my and I'll

measure you a tablespoonful in the palm of my hand, for all our plate is at the bankers." So I thought the old

party came up, and the nearer he came, the less I took to him. But I had passed my word, you see.'

'Wot is this bloomin' drivel?' interrupted the clerk. 'It's like the rot there is in tracts.'

'It's a story; I used to tell them to the kids at home,' said Herrick. 'If it bores you, I'll drop it.'

'Well,' continued Herrick, 'I had no sooner given him the cough mixture than he seemed to straighten up and

change, and I saw he wasn't a Tahitian after all, but some kind of Arab, and had a long beard on his chin.

"One good turn deserves another," says he. "I am a magician out of the Arabian Nights, and this mat that I

have under my arm is the original carpet of Mohammed Ben Somebodyorother. Say the word, and you can

have a cruise upon the carpet." "You don't mean to say this is the Travelling Carpet?" I cried. "You bet I do,"

said he. "You've been to America since last I read the Arabian Nights," said I, a little suspicious. "I should

think so," said he. "Been everywhere. A man with a carpet like this isn't going to moulder in a semidetached

villa." Well, that struck me as reasonable. "All right," I said; "and do you mean to tell me I can get on that

carpet and go straight to London, England?" I said, "London, England," captain, because he seemed to have

been so long in your part of the world. "In the crack of a whip," said he. I figured up the time. What is the

'Taking Greenwich and Point Venus, nine hours, odd minutes and seconds,' replied the mariner.

'Well, that's about what I made it,' resumed Herrick, 'about nine hours. Calling this three in the morning, I

made out I would drop into London about noon; and the idea tickled me immensely. "There's only one

bother," I said, "I haven't a copper cent. It would be a pity to go to London and not buy the morning

Standard." "O!" said he, "you don't realise the conveniences of this carpet. You see this pocket? you've only

'That was what it was!' cried Herrick. 'I thought they seemed unusually big, and I remember now I had to go

'Well, you see, it was just as the old boy saidlike the cut of a whip,' said Herrick. 'The one minute I was

here on the beach at three in the morning, the next I was in front of the Golden Cross at midday. At first I was

dazzled, and covered my eyes, and there didn't seem the smallest change; the roar of the Strand and the roar

of the reef were like the same: hark to it now, and you can hear the cabs and buses rolling and the streets

resound! And then at last I could look about, and there was the old place, and no mistake! With the statues in

the square, and St Martin'sin theFields, and the bobbies, and the sparrows, and the hacks; and I can't tell

you what I felt like. I felt like crying, I believe, or dancing, or jumping clean over the Nelson Column. I was

like a fellow caught up out of Hell and flung down into the dandiest part of Heaven. Then I spotted for a

hansom with a spanking horse. "A shilling for yourself, if you're there in twenty minutes!" said I to the

jarvey. He went a good pace, though of course it was a trifle to the carpet; and in nineteen minutes and a half

'But it was a publichouse!' cried the clerkonly these were not his words. 'And w'y didn't you take the

'Well, I think you are about the poorest 'and at a yarn!' cried the clerk. 'Crikey, it's like Ministering Children!

I can tell you there would be more beer and skittles about my little jaunt. I would go and have a B. and S. for

luck. Then I would get a big ulster with astrakhan fur, and take my cane and do the ladela down Piccadilly.

Then I would go to a slapup restaurant, and have green peas, and a bottle of fizz, and a chump chopOh!

and I forgot, I'd 'ave some devilled whitebait firstand green gooseberry tart, and 'ot coffee, and some of

that form of vice in big bottles with a sealBenedictinethat's the bloomin' nyme! Then I'd drop into a

theatre, and pal on with some chappies, and do the dancing rooms and bars, and that, and wouldn't go 'ome

till morning, till daylight doth appear. And the next day I'd have watercresses, 'am, muffin, and fresh butter;

'Well, now, I'll tell you what I would do,' said the captain: 'I would have none of your fancy rigs with the man

driving from the mizzen crosstrees, but a plain foreandaft hack cab of the highest registered tonnage.

First of all, I would bring up at the market and get a turkey and a suckingpig. Then I'd go to a wine

merchant's and get a dozen of champagne, and a dozen of some sweet wine, rich and sticky and strong,

something in the port or madeira line, the best in the store. Then I'd bear up for a toystore, and lay out

twenty dollars in assorted toys for the piccaninnies; and then to a confectioner's and take in cakes and pies

and fancy bread, and that stuff with the plums in it; and then to a newsagency and buy all the papers, all the

picture ones for the kids, and all the story papers for the old girl about the Earl discovering himself to

AnnaMariar and the escape of the Lady Maude from the private madhouse; and then I'd tell the fellow to

'There ought to be some syrup for the kids,' suggested Herrick; 'they like syrup.'

'Yes, syrup for the kids, red syrup at that!' said the captain. 'And those things they pull at, and go pop, and

have measly poetry inside. And then I tell you we'd have a thanksgiving day and Christmas tree combined.

Great Scott, but I would like to see the kids! I guess they would light right out of the house, when they saw

'They can't be worse off than we are, and that's one comfort,' returned the clerk. 'I defy the devil to make me

It seemed as if the devil heard him. The light of the moon had been some time cut off and they had talked in

darkness. Now there was heard a roar, which drew impetuously nearer; the face of the lagoon was seen to

whiten; and before they had staggered to their feet, a squall burst in rain upon the outcasts. The rage and

volume of that avalanche one must have lived in the tropics to conceive; a man panted in its assault, as he

They fled, groping for their usual shelterit might be almost called their homein the old calaboose; came

drenched into its empty chambers; and lay down, three sops of humanity on the cold coral floors, and

presently, when the squall was overpast, the others could hear in the darkness the chattering of the clerk's

'I say, you fellows,' he walled, 'for God's sake, lie up and try to warm me. I'm blymed if I don't think I'll die

So the three crept together into one wet mass, and lay until day came, shivering and dozing off, and

The clouds were all fled, the beauty of the tropic day was spread upon Papeete; and the wall of breaking seas

upon the reef, and the palms upon the islet, already trembled in the heat. A French manofwar was going

out, homeward bound; she lay in the middle distance of the port, an ant heap for activity. In the night a

schooner had come in, and now lay far out, hard by the passage; and the yellow flag, the emblem of

pestilence, flew on her. From up the coast, a long procession of canoes headed round the point and towards

the market, bright as a scarf with the manycoloured clothing of the natives and the piles of fruit. But not

even the beauty and the welcome warmth of the morning, not even these naval movements, so interesting to

sailors and to idlers, could engage the attention of the outcasts. They were still cold at heart, their mouths

sour from the want of steep, their steps rambling from the lack of food; and they strung like lame geese along

the beach in a disheartened silence. It was towards the town they moved; towards the town whence smoke

arose, where happier folk were breakfasting; and as they went, their hungry eyes were upon all sides, but they

A small and dingy schooner lay snug against the quay, with which it was connected by a plank. On the

forward deck, under a spot of awning, five Kanakas who made up the crew, were squatted round a basin of

'Eight bells: knock off for breakfast!' cried the captain with a miserable heartiness. 'Never tried this craft

He came close up to where the plank rested on the grassy quay; turned his back upon the schooner, and began

to whistle that lively air, 'The Irish Washerwoman.' It caught the ears of the Kanaka seamen like a

preconcerted signal; with one accord they looked up from their meal and crowded to the ship's side, fei in

hand and munching as they looked. Even as a poor brown Pyrenean bear dances in the streets of English

towns under his master's baton; even so, but with how much more of spirit and precision, the captain footed it

in time to his own whistling, and his long morning shadow capered beyond him on the grass. The Kanakas

smiled on thie performance; Herrick looked on heavyeyed, hunger for the moment conquering all sense of

shame; and a little farther off, but still hard by, the clerk was torn by the seven devils of the influenza.

The captain stopped suddenly, appeared to perceive his audience for the first time, and represented the part of

'All right. Me got,' said the sailor; 'you tome here. Plenty toffee, plenty fei. Nutha man him tome too.'

'I guess we'll drop right in,' observed the captain; and he and his companions hastened up the plank. They

were welcomed on board with the shaking of hands; place was made for them about the basin; a sticky

demijohn of molasses was added to the feast in honour of company, and an accordion brought from the

'Ariana," said he lightly, touching the instrument as he spoke; and he fell to on a long savoury fei, made an

end of it, raised his mug of coffee, and nodded across at the spokesman of the crew. 'Here's your health, old

With the unsightly greed of hounds they glutted themselves with the hot food and coffee; and even the clerk

revived and the colour deepened in his eyes. The kettle was drained, the basin cleaned; their entertainers, who

had waited on their wants throughout with the pleased hospitality of Polynesians, made haste to bring

forward a dessert of island tobacco and rolls of pandanus leaf to serve as paper; and presently all sat about the

'When a man 'as breakfast every day, he don't know what it is,' observed the clerk.

'The next point is dinner,' said Herrick; and then with a passionate utterance: 'I wish to God I was a Kanaka!'

'There's one thing sure,' said the captain. 'I'm about desperate, I'd rather hang than rot here much longer.' And

'No more can I,' said the captain. 'I've got to play something though: got to pay the shot, my son.' And he

struck up 'John Brown's Body' in a fine sweet baritone: 'Dandy Jim of Carolina,' came next; 'Rorin the Bold,'

'Swing low, Sweet Chariot,' and 'The Beautiful Land' followed. The captain was paying his shot with usury,

as he had done many a time before; many a meal had he bought with the same currency from the

He was in the middle of 'Fifteen Dollars in the Inside Pocket,' singing with dogged energy, for the task went

sore against the grain, when a sensation was suddenly to be observed among the crew.

And the three beachcombers, following his indication, saw the figure of a man in pyjama trousers and a white

'That's Tapena Tom, is it?' said the captain, pausing in his music. 'I don't seem to place the brute.'

'Well,' said the musician deliberately, 'one can't most generally always tell. I'll try it on, I guess. Music has

charms to soothe the savage Tapena, boys. We might strike it rich; it might amount to iced punch in the

'Hiced punch? O my!' said the clerk. 'Give him something 'ot, captain. "Way down the Swannee River"; try

'No, sir! Looks Scotch,' said the captain; and he struck, for his life, into 'Auld Lang Syne.'

Captain Tom continued to approach with the same businesslike alacrity; no change was to be perceived in

his bearded face as he came swinging up the plank: he did not even turn his eyes on the performer.

Captain Tom had a parcel under his arm, which he laid on the house roof, and then turning suddenly to the

The clerk and Herrick stood not on the order of their going, but fled incontinently by the plank. The

performer, on the other hand, flung down the instrument and rose to his full height slowly.

'What's that you say?' he said. 'I've half a mind to give you a lesson in civility.'

'You set up any more of your gab to me,' returned the Scotsman, 'and I'll show ye the wrong side of a jyle.

I've heard tell of the three of ye. Ye're not long for here, I can tell ye that. The Government has their eyes

upon ye. They make short work of damned beachcombers, I'll say that for the French.'

'You wait till I catch you off your ship!' cried the captain: and then, turning to the crew, 'Goodbye, you

fellows!' he said. 'You're gentlemen, anyway! The worst nigger among you would look better upon a

Captain Tom scorned to reply; he watched with a hard smile the departure of his guests; and as soon as the

The beachcombers beat their inglorious retreat along the shore; Herrick first, his face dark with blood, his

knees trembling under him with the hysteria of rage. Presently, under the same purao where they had shivered

the night before, he cast himself down, and groaned aloud, and ground his face into the sand.

'Wot can't he stand now?' said the clerk. ''Asn't he 'ad a meal? I'M lickin' my lips.'

Herrick reared up his wild eyes and burning face. 'I can't beg!' he screamed, and again threw himself prone.

'This thing's got to come to an end,' said the captain with an intake of the breath.

'He's not so far from it, and don't you deceive yourself,' replied the captain. 'Well,' he added in a livelier

Whereupon he turned on his heel, and set off at a swinging sailor's walk towards Papeete.

It was some half hour later when he returned. The clerk was dozing with his back against the tree: Herrick

'See, boys!' cried the captain, with that artificial heartiness of his which was at times so painful, 'here's a new

idea.' And he produced note paper, stamped envelopes, and pencils, three of each. 'We can all write home by

the mail brigantine; the consul says I can come over to his place and ink up the addresses.'

'It was that yarning last night about going home that put me up to it,' said the captain.

'Well, 'and over,' said the clerk. 'I'll 'ave a shy,' and he retired a little distance to the shade of a canoe.

The others remained under the purao. Now they would write a word or two, now scribble it out; now they

would sit biting at the pencil end and staring seaward; now their eyes would rest on the clerk, where he sat

propped on the canoe, leering and coughing, his pencil racing glibly on the paper.

'See here,' said the captain, speaking with unwonted gravity; 'it may be hard to write, and to write lies at that;

and God knows it is; but it's the square thing. It don't cost anything to say you're well and happy, and sorry

you can't make a remittance this mail; and if you don't, I'll tell you what I think it isI think it's about the

'It's easy to talk,' said Herrick. 'You don't seem to have written much yourself, I notice.'

'What do you bring in me for?' broke from the captain. His voice was indeed scarce raised above a whisper,

but emotion clanged in it. 'What do you know about me? If you had commanded the finest barque that ever

sailed from Portland; if you had been drunk in your berth when she struck the breakers in Fourteen Island

Group, and hadn't had the wit to stay there and drown, but came on deck, and given drunken orders, and lost

six livesI could understand your talking then! There,' he said more quietly, 'that's my yarn, and now you

know it. It's a pretty one for the father of a family. Five men and a woman murdered. Yes, there was a woman

on board, and hadn't no business to be either. Guess I sent her to Hell, if there is such a place. I never dared

go home again; and the wife and the little ones went to England to her father's place. I don't know what's

They shook hands, short and hard, with eyes averted, tenderness swelling in their bosoms.

'I'll give my father up,' returned Herrick with a writhen smile. 'I'll try my sweetheart instead for a change of

'Emma, I have scratched out the beginning to my father, for I think I can write more easily to you. This is my

last farewell to all, the last you will ever hear or see of an unworthy friend and son. I have failed in life; I am

quite broken down and disgraced. I pass under a false name; you will have to tell my father that with all your

kindness. It is my own fault. I know, had I chosen, that I might have done well; and yet I swear to you I tried

to choose. I could not bear that you should think I did not try. For I loved you all; you must never doubt me in

that, you least of all. I have always unceasingly loved, but what was my love worth? and what was I worth? I

had not the manhood of a common clerk, I could not work to earn you; I have lost you now, and for your sake

I could be glad of it. When you first came to my father's housedo you remember those days? I want you

toyou saw the best of me then, all that was good in me. Do you remember the day I took your hand and

would not let it goand the day on Battersea Bridge, when we were looking at a barge, and I began to tell

you one of my silly stories, and broke off to say I loved you? That was the beginning, and now here is the

end. When you have read this letter, you will go round and kiss them all goodbye, my father and mother,

and the children, one by one, and poor uncle; And tell them all to forget me, and forget me yourself. Turn the

key in the door; let no thought of me return; be done with the poor ghost that pretended he was a man and

stole your love. Scorn of myself grinds in me as I write. I should tell you I am well and happy, and want for

nothing. I do not exactly make money, or I should send a remittance; but I am well cared for, have friends,

live in a beautiful place and climate, such as we have dreamed of together, and no pity need be wasted on me.

In such places, you understand, it is easy to live, and live well, but often hard to make sixpence in money.

Explain this to my father, he will understand. I have no more to say; only linger, going out, like an unwilling

guest. God in heaven bless you. Think of me to the last, here, on a bright beach, the sky and sea

immoderately blue, and the great breakers roaring outside on a barrier reef, where a little isle sits green with

palms. I am well and strong. It is a more pleasant way to die than if you were crowding about me on a

sickbed. And yet I am dying. This is my last kiss. Forgive, forget the unworthy.'

So far he bad written, his paper was all filled, when there returned a memory of evenings at the piano, and

that song, the masterpiece of love, in which so many have found the expression of their dearest thoughts.

'Einst, O wunder!' he added. More was not required; he knew that in his love's heart the context would spring

up, escorted with fair images and harmony; of how all through life her name should tremble in his ears, her

name be everywhere repeated in the sounds of nature; and when death came, and he lay dissolved, her

Herrick and the captain finished their letters about the same time; each was breathing deep, and their eyes met

'Sorry I write so big,' said the captain gruffly. 'Came all of a rush, when it did come.'

'Same here,' said Herrick. 'I could have done with a ream when I got started; but it's long enough for all the

They were still at the addresses when the clerk strolled up, smirking and twirling his envelope, like a man

'I am, though,' said Herrick; 'she lives with my father. Oh, I see what you mean,' he added. 'My real name is

Herrick. No more Hay'they had both used the same alias'no more Hay than yours, I dare say.'

'Clean bowled in the middle stump!' laughed the clerk. 'My name's 'Uish if you want to know. Everybody has

'So I have too,' replied the captain; 'and I've never told my own since the day I tore the title page out of my

Bowditch and flung the damned thing into the sea. But I'll tell it to you, boys. John Davis is my name. I'm

'She was the fastest barque out of Portland, Maine,' replied the captain; 'and for the way I lost her, I might as

No answer being returned to this sally, Huish, still brimming over with vanity and conversation, struck into

'I've a good mind to read you my letter,' said he. 'I've a good fist with a pen when I choose, and this is a prime

lark. She was a barmaid I ran across in Northampton; she was a spanking fine piece, no end of style; and we

cottoned at first sight like parties in the play. I suppose I spent the chynge of a fiver on that girl. Well, I

'appened to remember her nyme, so I wrote to her, and told her 'ow I had got rich, and married a queen in the

Hislands, and lived in a blooming palace. Such a sight of crammers! I must read you one bit about my

The captain jumped to his feet. 'That's what you did with the paper that I went and begged for you?' he

It was perhaps lucky for Huishit was surely in the end unfortunate for allthat he was seized just then by

one of his prostrating accesses of cough; his comrades would have else deserted him, so bitter was their

resentment. When the fit had passed, the clerk reached out his hand, picked up the letter, which had fallen to

The old calaboose, in which the waifs had so long harboured, is a low, rectangular enclosure of building at

the corner of a shady western avenue and a little townward of the British consulate. Within was a grassy

court, littered with wreckage and the traces of vagrant occupation. Six or seven cells opened from the court:

the doors, that had once been locked on mutinous whalermen, rotting before them in the grass. No mark

The floor of one of the cells had been a little cleared; a bucket (the last remaining piece of furniture of the

three caitiffs) stood full of water by the door, a half cocoanut shell beside it for a drinking cup; and on some

ragged ends of mat Huish sprawled asleep, his mouth open, his face deathly. The glow of the tropic

afternoon, the green of sunbright foliage, stared into that shady place through door and window; and Herrick,

pacing to and fro on the coral floor, sometimes paused and laved his face and neck with tepid water from the

bucket. His long arrears of suffering, the night's vigil, the insults of the morning, and the harrowing business

of the letter, had strung him to that point when pain is almost pleasure, time shrinks to a mere point, and

death and life appear indifferent. To and fro he paced like a caged brute; his mind whirling through the

universe of thought and memory; his eyes, as he went, skimming the legends on the wall. The crumbling

whitewash was all full of them: Tahitian names, and French, and English, and rude sketches of ships under

It came to him of a sudden that he too must leave upon these walls the memorial of his passage. He paused

before a clean space, took the pencil out, and pondered. Vanity, so hard to dislodge, awoke in him. We call it

vanity at least; perhaps unjustly. Rather it was the bare sense of his existence prompted him; the sense of his

life, the one thing wonderful, to which he scarce clung with a finger. From his jarred nerves there came a

strong sentiment of coming change; whether good or ill he could not say: change, he knew no morechange,

with inscrutable veiled face, approaching noiseless. With the feeling, came the vision of a concert room, the

rich hues of instruments, the silent audience, and the loud voice of the symphony. 'Destiny knocking at the

door,' he thought; drew a stave on the plaster, and wrote in the famous phrase from the Fifth Symphony. 'So,'

thought he, 'they will know that I loved music and had classical tastes. They? He, I suppose: the unknown,

kindred spirit that shall come some day and read my memor querela. Ha, he shall have Latin too!' And he

He turned again to his uneasy pacing, but now with an irrational and supporting sense of duty done. He had

dug his grave that morning; now he had carved his epitaph; the folds of the toga were composed, why should

he delay the insignificant trifle that remained to do? He paused and looked long in the face of the sleeping

Huish, drinking disenchantment and distaste of life. He nauseated himself with that vile countenance. Could

the thing continue? What bound him now? Had he no rights? only the obligation to go on, without

discharge or furlough, bearing the unbearable? Ich trage unertragliches, the quotation rose in his mind; he

repeated the whole piece, one of the most perfect of the most perfect of poets; and a phrase struck him like a

blow: Du, stolzes Herz, A hast es ja gewolit. Where was the pride of his heart? And he raged against himself,

as a man bites on a sore tooth, in a heady sensuality of scorn. 'I have no pride, I have no heart, no manhood,'

he thought, 'or why should I prolong a life more shameful than the gallows? Or why should I have fallen to

it? No pride, no capacity, no force. Not even a bandit! and to be starving here with worse than bandittiwith

this trivial hellhound!' His rage against his comrade rose and flooded him, and he shook a trembling fist at

A swift step was audible. The captain appeared upon the threshold of the cell, panting and flushed, and with a

foolish face of happiness. In his arms he carried a loaf of bread and bottles of beer; the pockets of his coat

He rolled his treasures on the floor, grasped Herrick by both hands, and crowed with laughter.

'Beer?' repeated Huish, struggling to his feet. 'Beer it is!' cried Davis. 'Beer and plenty of it. Any number of

persons can use it (like Lyon's toothtablet) with perfect propriety and neatness. Who's to officiate?'

'Leave me alone f6r that,' said the clerk. He knocked the necks off with a lump of coral, and each drank in

The captain fell suddenly grave. 'I'm coming to that,' said he. 'I want to speak with Herrick here. You,

Hayor Huish, or whatever your name isyou take a weed and the other bottle, and go and see how the

'Look here, my son,' said the captain, 'this is business, and don't you make any mistake about it. If you're

going to make trouble, you can have it your own way and stop right here. Only get the thing right: if Herrick

'Oh, I don't want to shove my oar in,' returned Huish. 'I'll cut right enough. Give me the swipes. You can jaw

till you're blue in the face for what I care. I don't think it's the friendly touch: that's all.' And he shambled

'I'll tell you,' said Davis. 'I want to consult you. It's a chance we've got. What's that?' he cried, pointing to the

'What?' said the other. 'Oh, that! It's music; it's a phrase of Beethoven's I was writing up. It means Destiny

'Does it?' said the captain, rather low; and he went near and studied the inscription; 'and this French?' he

'O, it just means I should have been luckier if I had died at horne,' returned Herrick impatiently. 'What is this

'Destiny knocking at the door,' repeated the captain; and then, looking over his shoulder. 'Well, Mr Herrick,

But the captain was again staring at the music. 'About how long ago since you wrote up this truck?' he asked.

'My God, it's strange!' cried Davis. 'There's some men would call that accidental: not me. That' and he

'Yes, SIR!' said the captain, wheeling suddenly face to face with his companion. 'I did so. If you're the man I

'I don't know what you take me for,' was the reply. 'You can scarce take me too low.'

'Shake hands, Mr Herrick,' said the captain. 'I know you. You're a gentleman and a man of spirit. I didn't want

to speak before that bummer there; you'll see why. But to you I'll rip it right out. I got a ship.'

'That's the hooker,' said Davis. 'She's the Farallone, hundred and sixty tons register, out of 'Frisco for Sydney,

in California champagne. Captain, mate, and one hand all died of the smallpox, same as they had round in the

Paumotus, I guess. Captain and mate were the only white men; all the hands Kanakas; seems a queer kind of

outfit from a Christian port. Three of them left and a cook; didn't know where they were; I can't think where

they were either, if you come to that; Wiseman must have been on the booze, I guess, to sail the course he

did. However, there HE was, dead; and here are the Kanakas as good as lost. They bummed around at sea like

the babes in the wood; and tumbled endon upon Tahiti. The consul here took charge. He offered the berth to

Williams; Williams had never had the smallpox and backed down. That was when I came in for the letter

paper; I thought there was something up when the consul asked me to look in again; but I never let on to you

fellows, so's you'd not be disappointed. Consul tried M'Neil; scared of smallpox. He tried Capirati, that

Corsican and Leblue, or whatever his name is, wouldn't lay a hand on it; all too fond of their sweet lives. Last

of all, when there wasn't nobody else left to offer it to, he offers it to me. "Brown, will you ship captain and

take her to Sydney?" says he. "Let me choose my own mate and another white hand," says I, "for I don't hold

with this Kanaka crew racket; give us all two months' advance to get our clothes and instruments out of pawn,

and I'll take stock tonight, fill up stores, and get to sea tomorrow before dark!" That's what I said. "That's

good enough," says the consul, "and you can count yourself damned lucky, Brown," says he. And he said it

pretty meaningfulappearing, too. However, that's all one now. I'll ship Huish before the mastof course I'll

let him berth aftand I'll ship you mate at seventyfive dollars and two months' advance.'

'Guess you've got to learn,' said the captain. 'You don't fancy I'm going to skip and leave you rotting on the

beach perhaps? I'm not that sort, old man. And you're handy anyway; I've been shipmates with worse.'

'God knows I can't refuse,' said Herrick. 'God knows I thank you from my heart.'

'That's all right,' said the captain. 'But it ain't all.' He turned aside to light a cigar.

'I'm coming to that,' said Davis, and then paused a little. 'See here,' he began, holding out his cigar between

his finger and thumb, 'suppose you figure up what this'll amount to. You don't catch on? Well, we get two

months' advance; we can't get away from Papeeteour creditors wouldn't let us gofor less; it'll take us

along about two months to get to Sydney; and when we get there, I just want to put it to you squarely: What

'I guess there's a beach at Sydney,' returned the captain; 'and I'll tell you one thing, Mr HerrickI don't mean

'Plain Dutch,' replied the captain. 'I'm going to own that schooner. It's nothing new; it's done every year in the

Pacific. Stephens stole a schooner the other day, didn't he? Hayes and Pease stole vessels all the time. And it's

the making of the crowd of us. See hereyou think of that cargo. Champagne! why, it's like as if it was put

up on purpose. In Peru we'll sell that liquor off at the pierhead, and the schooner after it, if we can find a

fool to buy her; and then light out for the mines. If you'll back me up, I stake my life I carry it through.'

'I'm desperate,' returned Davis. 'I've got a chance; I may never get another. Herrick, say the word; back me

'I can't do it. I'm sorry. I can't do it. I've not fallen as low as that,' said Herrick, deadly pale.

'What did you say this morning?' said Davis. 'That you couldn't beg? It's the one thing or the other, my son.'

'Did you hear what the skipper said on board that schooner?' pursued the captain. 'Well, I tell you he talked

straight. The French have let us alone for a long time; It can't last longer; they've got their eye on us; and as

sure as you live, in three weeks you'll be in jail whatever you do. I read it in the consul's face.'

'You forget, captain,' said the young man. 'There is another way. I can die; and to say truth, I think I should

The captain folded his arms and looked the other in the face. 'Yes,' said he, 'yes, you can cut your throat;

The light of a strange excitement came in Herrick's face. 'Both of us,' said he, 'both of us together. It's not

possible you can enjoy this business. Come,' and he reached out a timid hand, 'a few strokes in the

'I tell you, Herrick, I'm 'most tempted to answer you the way the man does in the Bible, and say, "Get thee

behind me, Satan!"' said the captain. 'What! you think I would go drown myself, and I got children starving?

Enjoy it? No, by God, I do not enjoy it! but it's the row I've got to hoe, and I'll hoe it till I drop right here. I

have three of them, you see, two boys and the one girl, Adar. The trouble is that you are not a parent yourself.

I tell you, Herrick, I love you,' the man broke out; 'I didn't take to you at first, you were so anglified and tony,

but I love you now; it's a man that loves you stands here and wrestles with you. I can't go to sea with the

bummer alone; it's not possible. Go drown yourself, and there goes my last chancethe last chance of a poor

miserable beast, earning a crust to feed his family. I can't do nothing but sail ships, and I've no papers. And

here I get a chance, and you go back on me! Ah, you've no family, and that's where the trouble is!'

'Yes, I know,' said the captain, 'you think so. But no man's got a family till he's got children. It's only the kids

count. There's something about the little shavers ... I can't talk of them. And if you thought a cent about this

father that I hear you talk of, or that sweetheart you were writing to this morning, you would feel like me.

You would say, What matters laws, and God, and that? My folks are hard up, I belong to them, I'll get them

bread, or, by God! I'll get them wealth, if I have to burn down London for it. That's what you would say. And

I'll tell you more: your heart is saying so this living minute. I can see it in your face. You're thinking, Here's

poor friendship for the man I've starved along of, and as for the girl that I set up to be in love with, here's a

mighty limp kind of a love that won't carry me as far as 'most any man would go for a demijohn of whisky.

There's not much ROmance to that love, anyway; it's not the kind they carry on about in songbooks. But

what's the good of my carrying on talking, when it's all in your inside as plain as print? I put the question to

you once for all. Are you going to desert me in my hour of need?you know if I've deserted youor will

you give me your hand, and try a fresh deal, and go home (as like as not) a millionaire? Say no, and God pity

me! Say yes, and I'll make the little ones pray for you every night on their bended knees. "God bless Mr

Herrick!" that's what they'll say, one after the other, the old girl sitting there holding stakes at the foot of the

bed, and the damned little innocents. . . He broke off. 'I don't often rip out about the kids,' he said; 'but when I

'I'll prophesy if you like,' said the captain with renewed vigour. 'Refuse this, because you think yourself too

honest, and before a month's out you'll be jailed for a sneakthief. I give you the word fair. I can see it,

Herrick, if you can't; you're breaking down. Don't think, if you refuse this chance, that you'll go on doing the

evangelical; you're about through with your stock; and before you know where you are, you'll be right out on

the other side. No, it's either this for you; or else it's Caledonia. I bet you never were there, and saw those

white, shaved men, in their dust clothes and straw hats, prowling around in gangs in the lamplight at

Noumea; they look like wolves, and they look like preachers, and they look like the sick; Hulsh is a daisy to

the best of them. Well, there's your company. They're waiting for you, Herrick, and you got to go; and that's a

And as the man stood and shook through his great stature, he seemed indeed like one in whom the spirit of

divination worked and might utter oracles. Herrick looked at him, and looked away; It seemed not decent to

'WE could,' said the other. 'Captain Brown couldn't, nor Mr Hay, that shipped mate with him couldn't. But

'But Hayes had these wild islands where he used to call,' came the next fainter objection.

'We have the wild islands of Peru,' retorted Davis. 'They were wild enough for Stephens, no longer agone

'All Kanakas. Come, I see you're right, old man. I see you'll stand by.' And the captain once more offered his

'Have it your own way then,' said Herrick. 'I'll do it: a strange thing for my father's son. But I'll do it. I'll stand

'God bless you!' cried the captain, and stood silent. 'Herrick,' he added with a smile, 'I believe I'd have died in

The schooner Farallone lay well out in the jaws of the pass, where the terrified pilot had made haste to bring

her to her moorings and escape. Seen from the beach through the thin line of shipping, two objects stood

conspicuous to seaward: the little isle, on the one hand, with its palms and the guns and batteries raised forty

years before in defence of Queen Pomare's capital; the outcast Farallone, upon the other, banished to the

threshold of the port, rolling there to her scuppers, and flaunting the plagueflag as she rolled. A few sea

birds screamed and cried about the ship; and within easy range, a manofwar guard boat hung off and on

and glittered with the weapons of marines. The exuberant daylight and the blinding heaven of the tropics

A neat boat, manned by natives in uniform, and steered by the doctor of the port, put from shore towards

three of the afternoon, and pulled smartly for the schooner. The foresheets were heaped with sacks of

flour, onions, and potatoes, perched among which was Huish dressed as a foremast hand; a heap of chests and

cases impeded the action of the oarsmen; and in the stern, by the left hand of the doctor, sat Herrick, dressed

in a fresh rig of slops, his brown beard trimmed to a point, a pile of paper novels on his lap, and nursing the

while between his feet a chronometer, for which they had exchanged that of the Farallone, long since run

They passed the guard boat, exchanging hails with the boatswain's mate in charge, and drew near at last to

the forbidden ship. Not a cat stirred, there was no speech of man; and the sea being exceeding high outside,

and the reef close to where the schooner lay, the clamour of the surf hung round her like the sound of battle.

Instantly, from the house where they had been stowing away stores, first Davis, and then the ragamuffin,

'Hullo, Hay, that you?' said the captain, leaning on the rail. 'Tell the old man to lay her alongside, as if she

The movement of the schooner was at that time more than usually violent. Now she heaved her side as high

as a deep sea steamer's, and showed the flashing of her copper; now she swung swiftly toward the boat until

Indeed, to board the Farallone, in that exposed position where she lay, was an affair of some dexterity. The

less precious goods were hoisted roughly in; the chronometer, after repeated failures, was passed gently and

successfully from hand to hand; and there remained only the more difficult business of embarking Huish.

Even that piece of dead weight (shipped A.B. at eighteen dollars, and described by the captain to the consul

as an invaluable man) was at last hauled on board without mishap; and the doctor, with civil salutations, took

The three coadventurers looked at each other, and Davis heaved a breath of relief.

'Now let's get this chronometer fixed,' said he, and led the way into the house. It was a fairly spacious place;

two staterooms and a goodsized pantry opened from the main cabin; the bulkheads were painted white, the

floor laid with waxcloth. No litter, no sign of life remained; for the effects of the dead men had been

disinfected and conveyed on shore. Only on the table, in a saucer, some sulphur burned, and the fumes set

them coughing as they entered. The captain peered into the starboard stateroom, where the bedclothes still

lay tumbled in the bunk, the blanket flung back as they had flung it back from the disfigured corpse before its

'Now, I told these niggers to tumble that truck overboard,' grumbled Davis. 'Guess they were afraid to lay

hands on it. Well, they've hosed the place out; that's as much as can be expected, I suppose. Huish, lay on to

'What's that?' snapped the captain. 'I'll tell you, my young friend, I think you make a mistake. I'm captain

'That so?' said Davis. 'Then you'll berth forward with the niggers! Walk right out of this cabin.'

'Well, now, I'll explain this business, and you'll see (once for all) just precisely how much lark there is to it,'

said Davis. 'I'm captain, and I'm going to be it. One thing of three. First, you take my orders here as cabin

steward, in which case you mess with us. Or second, you refuse, and I pack you forwardand you get as

quick as the word's said. Or, third and last, I'll signal that manofwar and send you ashore under arrest for

'And who's to believe you, my son?' inquired the captain. 'No, sir! There ain't no lark about my captainising.

Huish was no fool, he knew when he was beaten; and he was no coward either, for he stepped to the bunk,

took the infected bedclothes fairly in his arms, and carried them out of the house without a check or tremor.

'I was waiting for the chance,' said Davis to Herrick. 'I needn't do the same with you, because you understand

'Are you going to berth here?' asked Herrick, following the captain into the stateroom, where he began to

'Not much!' replied he. 'I guess I'll berth on deck. I don't know as I'm afraid, but I've no immediate use for

'I don't know that I'm afraid either,' said Herrick. 'But the thought of these two men sticks in my throat; that

captain and mate dying here, one opposite to the other. It's grim. I wonder what they said last?'

'Wiseman and Wishart?' said the captain. 'Probably mighty small potatoes. That's a thing a fellow figures out

for himself one way, and the real business goes quite another. Perhaps Wiseman said, "Here old man, fetch

'And so it is,' said Davis. 'There; there's that chronometer fixed. And now it's about time to up anchor and

'Here, you! What's YOUR name?' he cried to one of the hands, a leanflanked, cleanbuilt fellow from some

'Devil it is,' said the captain. 'Didn't know we had ladies on board. Well, Sally, oblige me by hauling down

that rag there. I'll do the same for you another time.' He watched the yellow bunting as it was eased past the

crosstrees and handed down on deck. 'You'll float no more on this ship,' he observed. 'Muster the people aft,

It was with a singular sensation that Herrick prepared for the first time to address a crew. He thanked his stars

indeed, that they were natives. But even natives, he reflected, might be critics too quick for such a novice as

himself; they might perceive some lapse from that precise and cutanddry English which prevails on board

a ship; it was even possible they understood no other; and he racked his brain, and overhauled his

For some time the captain continued to face the stern; then turned with ferocious suddenness on the crew, and

'Now,' he said, twisting his cigar in his mouth and toying with the spokes of the wheel, 'I'm Captain Brown. I

command this ship. This is Mr Hay, first officer. The other white man is cabin steward, but he'll stand watch

and do his trick. My orders shall be obeyed smartly. You savvy, "smartly"? There shall be no growling about

the kaikai, which will be above allowance. You'll put a handle to the mate's name, and tack on "sir" to every

order I give you. If you're smart and quick, I'll make this ship comfortable for all hands.' He took the cigar out

of his mouth. 'If you're not,' he added, in a roaring voice, 'I'll make it a floating hell. Now, Mr Hay, we'll pick

'You will please use "sir" when you address me, Mr Hay,' said the captain. 'I'll take the lady. Step to

'What's your name?' said the captain. 'What's that you say? Oh, that's no English; I'll have none of your

highway gibberish on my ship. We'll call you old Uncle Ned, because you've got no wool on the top of your

head, just the place where the wool ought to grow. Step to port, Uncle. Don't you hear Mr Hay has picked

you? Then I'll take the white man. White Man, step to starboard. Now which of you two is the cook? You?

Then Mr Hay takes your friend in the blue dungaree. Step to port, Dungaree. There, we know who we all are:

Dungaree, Uncle Ned, Sally Day, White Man, and Cook. All F.F.V.'s I guess. And now, Mr Hay, we'll up

An hour later, the Farallone was under all plain sail, the rudder hard aport, and the cheerfully clanking

The captain met her with the wheel, as she bounded like a stag from her repose, trembling and bending to the

puffs. The guard boat gave a parting hail, the wake whitened and ran out; the Farallone was under weigh.

Her berth had been close to the pass. Even as she forged ahead Davis slewed her for the channel between the

pier ends of the reef, the breakers sounding and whitening to either hand. Straight through the narrow band of

blue, she shot to seaward: and the captain's heart exulted as he felt her tremble underfoot, and (looking back

over the taffrail) beheld the roofs of Papeete changing position on the shore and the island mountains rearing

But they were not yet done with the shore and the horror of the yellow flag. About midway of the pass, there

was a cry and a scurry, a man was seen to leap upon the rail, and, throwing his arms over his head, to stoop

The next moment he was forward in the midst of the Kanakas, belaying pin in hand.

'Anybody else for shore?' he cried, and the savage trumpeting of his voice, no less than the ready weapon in

his hand, struck fear in all. Stupidly they stared after their escaped companion, whose black head was visible

upon the water, steering for the land. And the schooner meanwhile slipt like a racer through the pass, and met

'Fool that I was, not to have a pistol ready!' exclaimed Davis. 'Well, we go to sea shorthanded, we can't help

Both turned instinctively and looked astern. The fair island was unfolding mountain top on mountain top;

Eimeo, on the port board, lifted her splintered pinnacles; and still the schooner raced to the open sea.

'Think!' cried the captain with a gesture, 'yesterday morning I danced for my breakfast like a poodle dog.'

The ship's head was laid to clear Eimeo to the north, and the captain sat down in the cabin, with a chart, a

'East a half no'the,' said he, raising his face from his labours. 'Mr Hay, you'll have to watch your dead

reckoning; I want every yard she makes on every hair'sbreadth of a course. I'm going to knock a hole right

straight through the Paumotus, and that's always a near touch. Now, if this South East Trade ever blew out of

the S.E., which it don't, we might hope to lie within half a point of our course. Say we lie within a point of it.

That'll just about weather Fakarava. Yes, sir, that's what we've got to do, if we tack for it. Brings us through

this slush of little islands in the cleanest place: see?' And he showed where his ruler intersected the

widelying labyrinth of the Dangerous Archipelago. 'I wish it was night, and I could put her about right now;

we're losing time and easting. Well, we'll do our best. And if we don't fetch Peru, we'll bring up to Ecuador.

All one, I guess. Depreciated dollars down, and no questions asked. A remarkable fine institootion, the South

Tahiti was already some way astern, the Diadem rising from among broken mountainsEimeo was already

close aboard, and stood black and strange against the golden splendour of the westwhen the captain took

Some twenty minutes later, Sally Day, who was continually leaving the wheel to peer in at the cabin clock,

announced in a shrill cry 'Fo'bell,' and the cook was to be seen carrying the soup into the cabin.

'I guess I'll sit down and have a pick with you,' said Davis to Herrick. 'By the time I've done, it'll be dark, and

In the cabin at one corner of the table, immediately below the lamp, and on the lee side of a bottle of

champagne, sat Huish. 'What's this? Where did that come from?' asked the captain.

'It's fizz, and it came from the after'old, if you want to know,' said Huish, and drained his mug.

'This'll never do,' exclaimed Davis, the merchant seaman's horror of breaking into cargo showing

incongruously forth on board that stolen ship. 'There was never any good came of games like that.'

'You byby!' said Huish. 'A fellow would think (to 'ear him) we were on the square! And look 'ere, you've put

this job up 'ansomely for me, 'aven't you? I'm to go on deck and steer while you two sit and guzzle, and I'm to

go by nickname, and got to call you "sir" and "mister." Well, you look here, my bloke: I'll have fizz ad lib., or

it won't wash. I tell you that. And you know mighty well, you ain't got any manofwar to signal now.'

Davis was staggered. 'I'd give fifty dollars this had never happened,' he said weakly.

'Well, it 'as 'appened, you see,' returned Huish. 'Try some; it's devilish good.'

The Rubicon was crossed without another struggle. The captain filled a mug and drank.

'I wish it was beer,' he said with a sigh. 'But there's no denying it's the genuine stuff and cheap at the money.

The little wretch had gained a point, and he was gay. 'Ay, ay, sir,' said he, and left the others to their meal.

'Pea soup!' exclaimed the captain. 'Blamed if I thought I should taste pea soup again!'

Herrick sat inert and silent. It was impossible after these months of hopeless want to smell the rough,

highspiced sea victuals without lust, and his mouth watered with desire of the champagne. It was no less

impossible to have assisted at the scene between Huish and the captain, and not to perceive, with sudden

bluntness, the gulf where he had fallen. He was a thief among thieves. He said it to himself. He could not

touch the soup. If he had moved at all, it must have been to leave the table, throw himself overboard, and

The champagne creamed and bubbled in the mug; its bright colour, its lively effervescence, seized his eye. 'It

is too late to hesitate,' he thought; his hand took the mug instinctively; he drank, with unquenchable pleasure

and desire of more; drained the vessel dry, and set it down with sparkling eyes.

'There is something in life after all!' he cried. 'I had forgot what it was like. Yes, even this is worth while.

Wine, food, dry clotheswhy, they're worth dying, worth hanging, for! Captain, tell me one thing: why

'They must be damned good,' cried Herrick. 'There's something here beyond me. Think of that calaboose!

Suppose we were sent suddenly back.' He shuddered as though stung by a convulsion, and buried his face in

'Here, what's wrong with you?' cried the captain. There was no reply; only Herrick's shoulders heaved, so that

the table was shaken. 'Take some more of this. Here, drink this. I order you to. Don't start crying when you're

'I'm not crying,' said Herrick, raising his face and showing his dry eyes. 'It's worse than crying. It's the horror

'Come now, you tackle your soup; that'll fix you,' said Davis kindly. 'I told you you were all broken up. You

'That's the dreadful part of it!' cried Herrick. 'Another week and I'd have murdered someone for a dollar!

'Quietly, quietly! Quietly does it, my son. Take your pea soup. Food, that's what you want,' said Davis.

The soup strengthened and quieted Herrick's nerves; another glass of wine, and a piece of pickled pork and

fried banana completed what the soup began; and he was able once more to look the captain in the face.

'Well,' said Davis, 'you were as steady as a rock all day: now you've had a little lunch, you'll be as steady as a

'Yes,'was the reply, 'I'm steady enough now, but I'm a queer kind of a first officer.'

'Shucks!' cried the captain. 'You've only got to mind the ship's course, and keep your slate to half a point. A

babby could do that, let alone a college graduate like you. There ain't nothing TO sailoring, when you come

to look it in the face. And now we'll go and put her about. Bring the slate; we'll have to start our dead

The distance run since the departure was read off the log by the binnacle light and entered on the slate.

'Ready about,' said the captain. 'Give me the wheel, White Man, and you stand by the mainsheet. Boom

'Hard alee!' cried the captain. 'Haul in your slack as she comes,' he called to Huish. 'Haul in your slack, put

your back into it; keep your feet out of the coils.' A sudden blow sent Huish flat along the deck, and the

captain was in his place. 'Pick yourself up and keep the wheel hard over!' he roared. 'You wooden fool, you

wanted to get killed, I guess. Draw the jib,' he cried a moment later; and then to Huish, 'Give me the wheel

But Huish stood and looked at Davis with an evil countenance. 'Do you know you struck me?' said he.

'Do you know I saved your life?' returned the other, not deigning to look at him, his eyes travelling instead

between the compass and the sails. 'Where would you have been, if that boom had swung out and you

bundled in the clack? No, SIR, we'll have no more of you at the mainsheet. Seaport towns are full of

mainsheetmen; they hop upon one leg, my son, what's left of them, and the rest are dead. (Set your boom

'Well,' said Huish slowly, 'I daresay there may be somethink in that. 'Ope there is.' He turned his back

elaborately on the captain, and entered the house, where the speedy explosion of a champagne cork showed

'East and by no'the a half no'the,' said Davis. 'It's about as good as I expected.'

'That's a nasty little beast, that's a biter,' replied the captain, shaking his head. 'But so long as you and me

Herrick lay down in the weather alleyway; the night was cloudless, the movement of the ship cradled him, he

was oppressed besides by the first generous meal after so long a time of famine; and he was recalled from

'By the wind,' said the captain. 'It comes a little puffy; when you get a heavy puff, steal all you can to

'Got such a thing as a concertina forward?' said he. 'Bully for you, Uncle Ned. Fetch it aft, will you?'

The schooner steered very easy; and Herrick, watching the moonwhitened sails, was overpowered by

drowsiness. A sharp report from the cabin startled him; a third bottle had been opened; and Herrick

remembered the Sea Ranger and Fourteen Island Group. Presently the notes of the accordion sounded, and

So it went to its quaint air; and the watch below lingered and listened by the forward door, and Uncle Ned

was to be seen in the moonlight nodding time; and Herrick smiled at the wheel, his anxieties a while

forgotten. Song followed song; another cork exploded; there were voices raised, as though the pair in the

cabin were in disagreement; and presently it seemed the breach was healed; for it was now the voice of Huish

A wave of nausea overcame Herrick at the wheel. He wondered why the air, the words (which were yet

written with a certain knack), and the voice and accent of the singer, should all jar his spirit like a file on a

man's teeth. He sickened at the thought of his two comrades drinking away their reason upon stolen wine,

quarrelling and hiccupping and waking up, while the doors of the prison yawned for them in the near future.

'Shall I have sold my honour for nothing?' he thought; and a heat of rage and resolution glowed in his

bosomrage against his comradesresolution to carry through this business if it might be carried; pluck

profit out of shame, since the shame at least was now inevitable; and come home, home from South

so the words ran in his head; and the honey took on visible form, the quay rose before him and he knew it for

the lamplit Embankment, and he saw the lights of Battersea bridge bestride the sullen river. All through the

remainder of his trick, he stood entranced, reviewing the past. He had been always true to his love, but not

always sedulous to recall her. In the growing calamity of his life, she had swum more distant, like the moon

in mist. The letter of farewell, the dishonourable hope that had surprised and corrupted him in his distress, the

changed scene, the sea, the night and the musicall stirred him to the roots of manhood. 'I WILL win her,'

'Fo' bell, matey. I think um fo' bell'he was suddenly recalled by these words in the voice of Uncle Ned.

'Look in at the clock, Uncle,' said he. He would not look himself, from horror of the tipplers.

'So much the better for you, Uncle,' he replied; and he gave up the wheel, repeating the directions as he had

He took two steps forward and remembered his dead reckoning. 'How has she been heading?' he thought; and

he flushed from head to foot. He had not observed or had forgotten; here was the old incompetence; the slate

must be filled up by guess. 'Never again!' he vowed to himself in silent fury, 'never again. It shall be no fault

of mine if this miscarry.' And for the remainder of his watch, he stood close by Uncle Ned, and read the face

All the time, and spurring him to the more attention, song, loud talk, fleering laughter and the occasional

popping of a cork, reached his ears from the interior of the house; and when the port watch was relieved at

midnight, Huish and the captain appeared upon the quarterdeck with flushed faces and uneven steps, the

former laden with bottles, the latter with two tin mugs. Herrick silently passed them by. They hailed him in

thick voices, he made no answer, they cursed him for a churl, he paid no heed although his belly quivered

with disgust and rage. He closedto the door of the house behind him, and cast himself on a locker in the

cabinnot to sleep he thoughtrather to think and to despair. Yet he had scarce turned twice on his uneasy

bed, before a drunken voice hailed him in the ear, and he must go on deck again to stand the morning watch.

The first evening set the model for those that were to follow. Two cases of champagne scarce lasted the

fourandtwenty hours, and almost the whole was drunk by Huish and the captain. Huish seemed to thrive

on the excess; he was never sober, yet never wholly tipsy; the food and the sea air had soon healed him of his

disease, and he began to lay on flesh. But with Davis things went worse. In the drooping, unbuttoned figure

that sprawled all day upon the lockers, tippling and reading novels; in the fool who made of the evening

watch a public carouse on the quarterdeck, it would have been hard to recognise the vigorous seaman of

Papeete roads. He kept himself reasonably well in hand till he had taken the sun and yawned and blotted

through his calculations; but from the moment he rolled up the chart, his hours were passed in slavish

selfindulgence or in hoggish slumber. Every other branch of his duty was neglected, except maintaining a

stern discipline about the dinner table. Again and again Herrick would hear the cook called aft, and see him

running with fresh tins, or carrying away again a meal that had been totally condemned. And the more the

captain became sunk in drunkenness, the more delicate his palate showed itself. Once, in the forenoon, he had

a bo'sun's chair rigged over the rail, stripped to his trousers, and went overboard with a pot of paint. 'I don't

like the way this schooner's painted,' said he, 'and I've taken a down upon her name.' But he tired of it in half

an hour, and the schooner went on her way with an incongruous patch of colour on the stern, and the word

Farallone part obliterated and part looking through. He refused to stand either the middle or the morning

watch. It was fineweather sailing, he said; and asked, with a laugh, 'Who ever heard of the old man standing

watch himself?' To the dead reckoning which Herrick still tried to keep, he would pay not the least attention

'What do we want of dead reckoning?' he asked. 'We get the sun all right, don't we?'

'We mayn't get it always though,' objected Herrick. 'And you told me yourself you weren't sure of the

'Oblige me so far, captain,' said Herrick stiffly. 'I am anxious to keep this reckoning, which is a part of my

duty; I do not know what to allow for current, nor how to allow for it. I am too inexperienced; and I beg of

'Never discourage zealous officer,' said the captain, unrolling the chart again, for Herrick had taken him over

his day's work and while he was still partly sober. 'Here it is: look for yourself; anything from west to west

no'thewest, and anyways from five to twentyfive miles. That's what the A'm'ralty chart says; I guess you

'I am trying to do my duty, Captain Brown,' said Herrick, with a dark flush, 'and I have the honour to inform

'What in thunder do you want?' roared Davis. 'Go and look at the blamed wake. If you're trying to do your

duty, why don't you go and do it? I guess it's no business of mine to go and stick my head over the ship's

rump? I guess it's yours. And I'll tell you what it is, my fine fellow, I'll trouble you not to come the dude over

me. You're insolent, that's what's wrong with you. Don't you crowd me, Mr Herrick, Esquire.'

'He thinks himself too good for his company, that's what ails Herrick, Esquire,' raged the captain. 'He thinks I

don't understand when he comes the heavy swell. Won't sit down with us, won't he? won't say a civil word?

I'll serve the son of a gun as he deserves. By God, Huish, I'll show him whether he's too good for John Davis!'

'Easy with the names, cap',' said Huish, who was always the more sober. 'Easy over the stones, my boy!'

'All right, I will. You're a good sort, Huish. I didn't take to you at first, but I guess you're right enough. Let's

open another bottle,' said the captain; and that day, perhaps because he was excited by the quarrel, he drank

Herrick and Huish supped alone, one after the other, opposite his flushed and snorting body. And if the sight

killed Herrick's hunger, the isolation weighed so heavily on the clerk's spirit, that he was scarce risen from

Herrick was at the wheel when he approached, and Huish leaned confidentially across the binnacle.

Herrick gave her a spoke or two in silence; his eye, as it skirted from the needle to the luff of the foresail,

passed the man by without speculation. But Huish was really dull, a thing he could support with difficulty,

having no resources of his own. The idea of a private talk with Herrick, at this stage of their relations, held

out particular inducements to a person of his character. Drink besides, as it renders some men

hypersensitive, made Huish callous. And it would almost have required a blow to make him quit his

'Pretty business, ain't it?' he continued; 'Dyvis on the lush? Must say I thought you gave it 'im A1 today. He

didn't like it a bit; took on hawful after you were gone."'Ere," says I, "'old on, easy on the lush," I says.

"'Errick was right, and you know it. Give 'im a chanst," I says."Uish," sezee, "don't you gimme no more of

your jaw, or I'll knock your bloomin' eyes out." Well, wot can I do, 'Errick? But I tell you, I don't 'arf like it.

The clerk looked at him, long and straight and black; his figure seemed to writhe like that of a snake about to

strike; then he turned on his heel, went back to the cabin and opened a bottle of champagne. When eight bells

were cried, he slept on the floor beside the captain on the locker; and of the whole starboard watch, only Sally

Day appeared upon the summons. The mate proposed to stand the watch with him, and let Uncle Ned lie

down; it would make twelve hours on deck, and probably sixteen, but in this fairweather sailing, he might

safely sleep between his tricks of wheel, leaving orders to be called on any sign of squalls. So far he could

trust the men, between whom and himself a close relation had sprung up. With Uncle Ned he held long

nocturnal conversations, and the old man told him his simple and hard story of exile, suffering, and injustice

among cruel whites. The cook, when he found Herrick messed alone, produced for him unexpected and

sometimes unpalatable dainties, of which he forced himself to eat. And one day, when he was forward, he

was surprised to feel a caressing hand run down his shoulder, and to hear the voice of Sally Day crooning in

his ear: 'You gootch man!' He turned, and, choking down a sob, shook hands with the negrito. They were

kindly, cheery, childish souls. Upon the Sunday each brought forth his separate Biblefor they were all men

of alien speech even to each other, and Sally Day communicated with his mates in English only, each read or

made believe to read his chapter, Uncle Ned with spectacles on his nose; and they would all join together in

the singing of missionary hymns. It was thus a cutting reproof to compare the islanders and the whites aboard

the Farallone. Shame ran in Herrick's blood to remember what employment he was on, and to see these poor

soulsand even Sally Day, the child of cannibals, in all likelihood a cannibal himselfso faithful to what

they knew of good. The fact that he was held in grateful favour by these innocents served like blinders to his

conscience, and there were times when he was inclined, with Sally Day, to call himself a good man. But the

height of his favour was only now to appear. With one voice, the crew protested; ere Herrick knew what they

were doing, the cook was aroused and came a willing volunteer; all hands clustered about their mate with

expostulations and caresses; and he was bidden to lie down and take his customary rest without alarm.

'He tell you tlue,' said Uncle Ned. 'You sleep. Evely man hae he do all light. Evely man he like you too

Herrick struggled, and gave way; choked upon some trivial words of gratitude; and walked to the side of the

'It's no use, Uncle Ned,' he replied. 'I couldn't sleep. I'm knocked over with all your goodness.'

'Ah, no call me Uncle Ned no mo'!' cried the old man. 'No my name! My name Taveeta, allesame Taveeta

King of Islael. Wat for he call that Hawaii? I think no savvy nothingallesame Wiseamana.'

It was the first time the name of the late captain had been mentioned, and Herrick grasped the occasion. The

reader shall be spared Uncle Ned's unwieldy dialect, and learn in less embarrassing English, the sum of what

he now communicated. The ship had scarce cleared the Golden Gates before the captain and mate had entered

on a career of drunkenness, which was scarcely interrupted by their malady and only closed by death. For

days and weeks they had encountered neither land nor ship; and seeing themselves lost on the huge deep with

At length they made a low island, and went in; and Wiseman and Wishart landed in the boat.

There was a great village, a very fine village, and plenty Kanakas in that place; but all mighty serious; and

from every here and there in the back parts of the settlement, Taveeta heard the sounds of island lamentation.

'I no savvy TALK that island,' said he. 'I savvy hear um CLY. I think, Hum! too many people die here!' But

upon Wiseman and Wishart the significance of that barbaric keening was lost. Full of bread and drink, they

rollicked along unconcerned, embraced the girls who had scarce energy to repel them, took up and joined

(with drunken voices) in the death wail, and at last (on what they took to be an invitation) entered under the

roof of a house in which was a considerable concourse of people sitting silent. They stooped below the eaves,

flushed and laughing; within a minute they came forth again with changed faces and silent tongues; and as

the press severed to make way for them, Taveeta was able to perceive, in the deep shadow of the house, the

sick man raising from his mat a head already defeatured by disease. The two tragic triflers fled without

hesitation for their boat, screaming on Taveeta to make haste; they came aboard with all speed of oars, raised

anchor and crowded sail upon the ship with blows and curses, and were at sea againand again

drunkbefore sunset. A week after, and the last of the two had been committed to the deep. Herrick asked

Taveeta where that island was, and he replied that, by what he gathered of folks' talk as they went up together

from the beach, he supposed it must be one of the Paumotus. This was in itself probable enough, for the

Dangerous Archipelago had been swept that year from east to west by devastating smallpox; but Herrick

'I think so too,' said Uncle Ned. 'I think no savvy. This one mo' betta,' he added, pointing to the house where

The implied last touch completed Herrick's picture of the life and death of his two predecessors; of their

prolonged, sordid, sodden sensuality as they sailed, they knew not whither, on their last cruise. He held but a

twinkling and unsure belief in any future state; the thought of one of punishment he derided; yet for him (as

for all) there dwelt a horror about the end of the brutish man. Sickness fell upon him at the image thus called

up; and when he compared it with the scene in which himself was acting, and considered the doom that

seemed to brood upon the schooner, a horror that was almost superstitious fell upon him. And yet the strange

thing was, he did not falter. He who had proved his incapacity in so many fields, being now falsely placed

amid duties which he did not understand, without help, and it might be said without countenance, had hitherto

surpassed expectation; and even the shameful misconduct and shocking disclosures of that night seemed but

to nerve and strengthen him. He had sold his honour; he vowed it should not be in vain; 'it shall be no fault of

mine if this miscarry,' he repeated. And in his heart he wondered at himself. Living rage no doubt supported

him; no doubt also, the sense of the last cast, of the ships burned, of all doors closed but one, which is so

strong a tonic to the merely weak, and so deadly a depressant to the merely cowardly.

For some time the voyage went otherwise well. They weathered Fakarava with one board; and the wind

holding well to the southward and blowing fresh, they passed between Ranaka and Ratiu, and ran some days

northeast by easthalfeast under the lee of Takume and Honden, neither of which they made. In about 14

degrees South and between 134 and 135 degrees West, it fell a dead calm with rather a heavy sea. The

captain refused to take in sail, the helm was lashed, no watch was set, and the Farallone rolled and banged for

three days, according to observation, in almost the same place. The fourth morning, a little before day, a

breeze sprang up and rapidly freshened. The captain had drunk hard the night before; he was far from sober

when he was roused; and when he came on deck for the first time at halfpast eight, it was plain he had

already drunk deep again at breakfast. Herrick avoided his eye; and resigned the deck with indignation to a

By the loud commands of the captain and the singing out of fellows at the ropes, he could judge from the

house that sail was being crowded on the ship; relinquished his halfeaten breakfast; and came on deck again,

to find the main and the jib topsails set, and both watches and the cook turned out to hand the staysail. The

Farallone lay already far over; the sky was obscured with misty scud; and from the windward an ominous

Fear thrilled in Herrick's vitals. He saw death hard by; and if not death, sure ruin. For if the Farallone lived

through the coming squall, she must surely be dismasted. With that their enterprise was at an end, and they

themselves bound prisoners to the very evidence of their crime. The greatness of the peril and his own alarm

sufficed to silence him. Pride, wrath, and shame raged without issue in his mind; and he shut his teeth and

The captain sat in the boat to windward, bellowing orders and insults, his eyes glazed, his face deeply

congested; a bottle set between his knees, a glass in his hand half empty. His back was to the squall, and he

was at first intent upon the setting of the sail. When that was done, and the great trapezium of canvas had

begun to draw and to trail the leerail of the Farallone level with the foam, he laughed out an empty laugh,

drained his glass, sprawled back among the lumber in the boat, and fetched out a crumpled novel.

Herrick watched him, and his indignation glowed red hot. He glanced to windward where the squall already

whitened the near sea and heralded its coming with a singular and dismal sound. He glanced at the steersman,

and saw him clinging to the spokes with a face of a sickly blue. He saw the crew were running to their

stations without orders. And it seemed as if something broke in his brain; and the passion of anger, so long

restrained, so long eaten in secret, burst suddenly loose and shook him like a sail. He stepped across to the

'You lost the Sea Ranger because you were a drunken sot,' said Herrick. 'Now you're going to lose the

Farallone. You're going to drown here the same way as you drowned others, and be damned. And your

For the moment, the words struck the captain white and foolish. 'My God!' he cried, looking at Herrick as

The wretched man, already partly sobered, did as he was told, and in the same breath of time leaped to his

feet. 'Down staysail!' he trumpeted. The hands were thrilling for the order, and the great sail came with a run,

and fell half overboard among the racing foam. 'Jib topsailhalyards! Let the stays'l be,' he said again.

But before it was well uttered, the squall shouted aloud and fell, in a solid mass of wind and rain

commingled, on the Farallone; and she stooped under the blow, and lay like a thing dead. From the mind of

Herrick reason fled; he clung in the weather rigging, exulting; he was done with life, and he gloried in the

release; he gloried in the wild noises of the wind and the choking onslaught of the rain; he gloried to die so,

and now, amid this coil of the elements. And meanwhile, in the waist up to his knees in waterso low. the

schooner laythe captain was hacking at the foresheet with a pocket knife. It was a question of seconds, for

the Farallone drank deep of the encroaching seas. But the hand of the captain had the advance; the foresail

boom tore apart the last strands of the sheet and crashed to leeward; the Farallone leaped up into the wind and

righted; and the peak and throat halyards, which had long been let go, began to run at the same instant.

For some ten minutes more she careered under the impulse of the squall; but the captain was now master of

himself and of his ship, and all danger at an end. And then, sudden as a trick change upon the stage, the squall

blew by, the wind dropped into light airs, the sun beamed forth again upon the tattered schooner; and the

captain, having secured the foresail boom and set a couple of hands to the pump, walked aft, sober, a little

pale, and with the sodden end of a cigar still stuck between his teeth even as the squall had found it. Herrick

followed him; he could scarce recall the violence of his late emotions, but he felt there was a scene to go

The captain, turning at the house end, met him face to face, and averted his eyes. 'We've lost the two tops'ls

and the stays'l,' he gabbled. 'Good business, we didn't lose any sticks. I guess you think we're all the better

'That's not what I'm thinking,' said Herrick, in a voice strangely quiet, that yet echoed confusion in the

'I know that,' he cried, holding up his hand. 'I know what you're thinking. No use to say it now. I'm sober.'

'Hold on, Herrick; you've said enough,' said Davis. 'You've said what I would take from no man breathing but

'I have to tell you, Captain Brown,' pursued Herrick, 'that I resign my position as mate. You can put me in

irons or shoot me, as you please; I will make no resistanceonly, I decline in any way to help or to obey

you; and I suggest you should put Mr Huish in my place. He will make a worthy first officer to your captain,

'Where are you going, Herrick?' cried the captain, detaining him by the shoulder.

'To berth forward with the men, sir,' replied Herrick, with the same hateful smile. 'I've been long enough aft

'You're wrong there,' said Davis. 'Don't you be too quick with me; there ain't nothing wrong but the

drinkit's the old story, man! Let me get sober once, and then you'll see,' he pleaded.

The captain groaned aloud. 'You know what you said about my children?' he broke out.

'Don't!' cried the captain, clapping his hands to his ears. 'Don't make me kill a man I care for! Herrick, if you

see me put glass to my lips again till we're ashore, I give you leave to put bullet through me; I beg you to do

it! You're the only man aboard whose carcase is worth losing; do you think I don't know that? do you think I

ever went back on you? I always knew you were in the right of itdrunk or sober, I knew that. What do you

want?an oath? Man, you're clever enough to see that this is sureenough earnest.'

'Do you mean there shall be no more drinking?' asked Herrick, 'neither by you nor Huish? that you won't go

on stealing my profits and drinking my champagne that I gave my honour for? and that you'll attend to your

duties, and stand watch and watch, and bear your proper share of the ship's work, instead of leaving it all on

the shoulders of a landsman, and making yourself the butt and scoff of native seamen? Is that what you

'You put these things in a way hard for a gentleman to swallow,' said the captain. 'You wouldn't have me say I

was ashamed of myself? Trust me this once; I'll do the square thing, and there's my hand on it.'

'No more now!' interrupted Davis. 'No more, old man! Enough said. You've a riling tongue when your back's

up, Herrick. Just be glad we're friends again, the same as what I am; and go tender on the raws; I'll see as you

don't repent it. We've been mighty near death this daydon't say whose fault it was!pretty near hell, too, I

guess. We're in a mighty bad line of life, us two, and ought to go easy with each other.'

He was maundering; yet it seemed as if he were maundering with some design, beating about the bush of

some communication that he feared to make, or perhaps only talking against time in terror of what Herrick

might say next. But Herrick had now spat his venom; his was a kindly nature, and, content with his triumph,

he had now begun to pity. With a few soothing words, he sought to conclude the interview, and proposed that

'Not right yet,' said Davis. 'There's another thing I want to tell you first. You know what you said about my

children? I want to tell you why it hit me so hard; I kind of think you'll feel bad about it too. It's about my

little Adar. You hadn't ought to have quite said thatbut of course I know you didn't know. Sheshe's

'Why, Davis!' cried Herrick. 'You've told me a dozen times she was alive! Clear your head, man! This must

"No, SIR,' said Davis. 'She's dead. Died of a bowel complaint. That was when I was away in the brig Oregon.

She lies in Portland, Maine. "Adar, only daughter of Captain John Davis and Mariar his wife, aged five." I

had a doll for her on board. I never took the paper off'n that doll, Herrick; it went down the way it was with

The Captain's eyes were fixed on the horizon, he talked with an extraordinary softness but a complete

'Don't think I'm crazy neither,' resumed Davis. 'I've all the cold sense that I know what to do with. But I guess

a man that's unhappy's like a child; and this is a kind of a child's game of mine. I never could act up to the

plaincut truth, you see; so I pretend. And I warn you square; as soon as we're through with this talk, I'll start

in again with the pretending. Only, you see, she can't walk no streets,' added the captain, 'couldn't even make

'Don't do that" cried Davis, recoiling from the touch. 'Can't you see I'm all broken up the way it is? Come

along, then; come along, old man; you can put your trust in me right through; come along and get dry

They entered the cabin, and there was Huish on his knees prising open a case of champagne.

"Vast, there!' cried the captain. 'No more of that. No more drinking on this ship.'

'Turned teetotal, 'ave you?' inquired Hu'sh. 'I'm agreeable. About time, eh? Bloomin' nearly lost another ship,

I fancy.' He took out a bottle and began calmly to burst the wire with the spike of a corkscrew.

'I suppose I do. You speak loud enough,' said Huish. 'The trouble is that I don't care.'

Herrick plucked the captain's sleeve. 'Let him free now,' he said. 'We've had all we want this morning.'

By this time the wire was open, the string was cut, the head of glided paper was torn away; and Huish waited,

mug in hand, expecting the usual explosion. It did not follow. He eased the cork with his thumb; still there

was no result. At last he took the screw and drew it. It came out very easy and with scarce a sound.

He poured some of the wine into the mug; it was colourless and still. He smelt and tasted it.

If the voice of trumpets had suddenly sounded about the ship in the midst of the sea, the three men in the

house could scarcely have been more stunned than by this incident. The mug passed round; each sipped, each

smelt of it; each stared at the bottle in its glory of gold paper as Crusoe may have stared at the footprint; and

their minds were swift to fix upon a common apprehension. The difference between a bottle of champagne

and a bottle of water is not great; between a shipload of one or the other lay the whole scale from riches to

A second bottle was broached. There were two cases standing ready in a stateroom; these two were brought

out, broken open, and tested. Still with the same result: the contents were still colourless and tasteless, and

'Here, let's sample the hold!' said the captain, mopping his brow with a backhanded sweep; and the three

All hands were turned out; two Kanakas were sent below, another stationed at a purchase; and Davis, axe in

Three cases were sent on deck and sampled in turn; from each bottle, as the captain smashed it with the axe,

The command gave the signal for a disastrous change. Case after case came up, bottle after bottle was burst

and bled mere water. Deeper yet, and they came upon a layer where there was scarcely so much as the

intention to deceive; where the cases were no longer branded, the bottles no longer wired or papered, where

'Here's about enough of this foolery!' said Davis. 'Stow back the cases in the hold, Uncle, and get the broken

crockery overboard. Come with me,' he added to his coadventurers, and led the way back into the cabin.

Each took a side of the fixed table; it was the first time they had sat down at it together; but now all sense of

incongruity, all memory of differences, was quite swept away by the presence of the common ruin.

'Gentlemen,' said the captain, after a pause, and with very much the air of a chairman opening a

Huish broke out in laughter. 'Well, if this ain't the 'ighest old rig!' he cried. 'And Dyvis, 'ere, who thought he

had got up so bloomin' early in the mornin'! We've stolen a cargo of spring water! Oh, my crikey!' and he

'Here's Old Man Destiny again,' said he to Herrick, 'but this time I guess he's kicked the door right in.'

'O Lord, it's rich!' laughed Huish. 'it would really be a scrumptious lark if it 'ad 'appened to somebody else!

'That's the trouble,' said Davis. 'There's only one thing certain: it's no use carting this old glass and ballast to

'O my, and the merchand' cried Huish; 'the man that made this shipment! He'll get the news by the mail

'Yes, he'll be a sick merchant,' said the captain. 'One thing: this explains the Kanaka crew. If you're going to

lose a ship, I would ask no better myself than a Kanaka crew. But there's one thing it don't explain; it don't

'A lot you know,' said the captain. 'Nobody wants to lose a schooner; they want to lose her ON HER

COURSE, you skeericks! You seem to think underwriters haven't got enough sense to come in out of the

'Well,' said Herrick, 'I can tell you (I am afraid) why she came so far to the eastward. I had it of Uncle Ned. It

seems these two unhappy devils, Wiseman and Wishart, were drunk on the champagne from the

'They lay in their two bunks, or sat here in this damned house,' he pursued, with rising agitation, 'filling their

skins with the accursed stuff, till sickness took them. As they sickened and the fever rose, they drank the

more. They lay here howling and groaning, drunk and dying, all in one. They didn't know where they were,

'Not take the sun?' cried the captain, looking up. 'Sacred Billy! what a crowd!'

'Well, it don't matter to Joe!' said Huish. 'Wot are Wiseman and the t'other buffer to us?'

'Well, I don't know about that,' returned Davis. 'Appears to me as if it might be worse. 'Tain't worth what the

cargo would have been of course, at least not money down. But I'll tell you what it appears to figure up to.

Appears to me as if it amounted to about the bottom dollar of the man in 'Frisco.'

'Well, my sons,' pursued the captain, who seemed to have recovered his assurance, 'Wiseman and Wishart

were to be paid for casting away this old schooner and its cargo. We're going to cast away the schooner right

enough; and I'll make it my private business to see that we get paid. What were W. and W. to get? That's

more'n I can tell. But W. and W. went into this business themselves, they were on the crook. Now WE'RE on

the square, we only stumbled into it; and that merchant has just got to squeal, and I'm the man to see that he

squeals good. No, sir! there's some stuffing to this Farallone racket after all.'

'Go it, cap!' cried Huish. 'Yoicks! Forrard! 'Old 'ard! There's your style for the money! Blow me if I don't

'I do not understand,' said Herrick. 'I have to ask you to excuse. me; I do not understand.'

'Well now, see here, Herrick,' said Davis, 'I'm going to have a word with you anyway upon a different matter,

and it's good that Huish should hear it too. We're done with this boozing business, and we ask your pardon for

it right here and now. We have to thank you for all you did for us while we were making hogs of ourselves;

you'll find me turnto all right in future; and as for the wine, which I grant we stole from you, I'll take stock

and see you paid for it. That's good enough, I believe. But what I want to point out to you is this. The old

game was a risky game. The new game's as safe as running a Vienna Bakery. We just put this Farallone

before the wind, and run till we're well to looard of our port of departure and reasonably well up with some

other place, where they have an American Consul. Down goes the Farallone, and goodbye to her! A day or

so in the boat; the consul packs us home, at Uncle Sam's expense, to 'Frisco; and if that merchant don't put the

'Well, if you're going to Peru for your health, I won't say no!' replied. the captain. 'But for what other blame'

shadow of a reason you should want to go there, gets me clear. We don't want to go there with this cargo; I

don't know as old bottles is a lively article anywheres; leastways, I'll go my bottom cent, it ain't Peru. It was

always a doubt if we could sell the schooner; I never rightly hoped to, and now I'm sure she ain't worth a hill

of beans; what's wrong with her, I don't know; I only know it's something, or she wouldn't be here with this

truck in her inside. Then again, if we lose her, and land in Peru, where are we? We can't declare the loss, or

how did we get to Peru? In that case the merchant can't touch the insurance; most likely he'll go bust; and

'What's our point? We want to have a consul extrade us as far as San Francisco and that merchant's office

door. My idea is that Samoa would be found an eligible business centre. It's dead before the wind; the States

have a consul there, and 'Frisco steamers call, so's we could skip right back and interview the merchant.'

'No, SIR,' said Davis. 'Ligbt airs and baffling winds. Squalls and calms. D. R.: five miles. No obs. Pumps

attended. And fill in the barometer and thermometer off of last year's trip.' 'Never saw such a voyage,' says

you to the consul. 'Thought I was going to run short . . .' He stopped in mid career. "Say,' he began again, and

once more stopped. 'Beg your pardon, Herrick,' he added with undisguised humility, 'but did you keep the run

'Had I been told to do so, it should have been done, as the rest was done, to the best of my little ability,' said

'I drew it rather fine, you see,' he said at last. 'The great thing was to clear right out of Papeete before the

'My man,' said Herrick, with a sudden gleam of animosity, 'it is still your watch on deck, and surely your

He lit a cigar ostentatiously, and strolled into the waist with his hands in his pockets.

In a surprisingly short time, the captain reappeared; he did not look at Herrick, but called Huish back and sat

'Well,' he began, 'I've taken stockroughly.' He paused as if for somebody to help him out; and none doing

so, both gazing on him instead with manifest anxiety, he yet more heavily resumed. 'Well, it won't fight. We

can't do it; that's the bed rock. I'm as sorry as what you can be, and sorrier. We can't look near Samoa. I don't

'I can't 'most tell myself,' replied the captain. 'I drew it fine; I said I did; but what's been going on here gets

me! Appears as if the devil had been around. That cook must be the holiest kind of fraud. Only twelve days,

too! Seems like craziness. I'll own up square to one thing: I seem to have figured too fine upon the flour. But

the restmy land! I'll never understand it! There's been more waste on this twopenny ship than what there is

to an Atlantic Liner.' He stole a glance at his companions; nothing good was to be gleaned from their dark

faces; and he had recourse to rage. 'You wait till I interview that cook!' he roared and smote the table with his

fist. 'I'll interview the son of a gun so's he's never been spoken to before. I'll put a bead upon the'

'You will not lay a finger on the man,' said Herrick. 'The fault is yours and you know it. If you turn a savage

loose in your storeroom, you know what to expect. I will not allow the man to be molested.'

It is hard to say how Davis might have taken this defiance; but he was diverted to a fresh assailant.

'Well!' drawled Huish, 'you're a plummy captain, ain't you? You're a blooming captain! Don't you, set up any

of your chat to me, John Dyvis: I know you now, you ain't any more use than a bloomin' dawl! Oh, you "don't

know", don't you? Oh, it "gets you", do it? Oh, I dessay! W'y, we en't you 'owling for fresh tins every blessed

day? 'Ow often 'ave I 'eard you send the 'ole bloomin' dinner off and tell the man to chuck it in the swill tub?

And breakfast? Oh, my crikey! breakfast for ten, and you 'ollerin' for more! And now you "can't 'most tell"!

Blow me, if it ain't enough to make a man write an insultin' letter to Gawd! You dror it mild, John Dyvis;

Davis sat like one bemused; it might even have been doubted if he heard, but the voice of the clerk rang about

'Oh, so you tyke his part, do you? you stuckup sneerin' snob! Tyke it then. Come on, the pair of you. But as

for John Dyvis, let him look out! He struck me the first night aboard, and I never took a blow yet but wot I

gave as good. Let him knuckle down on his marrow bones and beg my pardon. That's my last word.'

'I stand by the Captain,' said Herrick. 'That makes us two to one, both good men; and the crew will all follow

me. I hope I shall die very soon; but I have not the least objection to killing you before I go. I should prefer it

so; I should do it with no more remorse than winking. Take caretake care, you little cad!'

The animosity with which these words were uttered was so marked in itself, and so remarkable in the man

who uttered them that Huish stared, and even the humiliated Davis reared up his head and gazed at his

defender. As for Herrick, the successive agitations and disappointments of the day had left him wholly

reckless; he was conscious of a pleasant glow, an agreeable excitement; his head seemed empty, his eyeballs

burned as he turned them, his throat was dry as a biscuit; the least dangerous man by nature, except in so far

as the weak are always dangerous, at that moment he was ready to slay or to be slain with equal unconcern.

Here at least was the gage thrown down, and battle offered; he who should speak next would bring the matter

to an issue there and then; all knew it to be so and hung back; and for many seconds by the cabin clock, the

'Land!' cried Davis, springing to his feet. 'What's this? There ain't no land here.'

And as men may run from the chamber of a murdered corpse, the three ran forth out of the house and left

The sky shaded down at the sea level to the white of opals; the sea itself, insolently, inkily blue, drew all

about them the uncompromising wheel of the horizon. Search it as they pleased, not even the practisect eye of

Captain Davis could descry the smallest interruption. A few filmy clouds were slowly melting overhead; and

about the schooner, as around the only point of interest, a tropic bird, white as a snowflake, hung, and circled,

and displayed, as it turned, the long vermilion feather of its tall. Save the sea and the heaven, that was all.

'Who sang out land?' asked Davis. 'If there's any boy playing funny dog with me, I'll teach him skylarking!'

But Uncle Ned contentedly pointed to a part of the horizon, where a greenish, filmy iridescence could be

Davis applied his glass to it, and then looked at the Kanaka. 'Call that land?' said he. 'Well, it's more than I

'One time long ago,' said Uncle Ned, 'I see Anaa allesame that, four five hours befo' we come up. Capena

'Oh, ah! mirror,' said Davis. 'I see; reflection from the lagoon. Well, you know, it is just possible, though it's

They went back to the cabin, and found the position of the schooner well to windward of the archipelago in

'And yet I don't know,' said Herrick, 'I somehow think there's something in it. I'll tell you one thing too,

'Fetch up that Findlay, then!' said Davis. 'I'll try it all ways. An island wouldn't come amiss, the way we're

The bulky volume was handed up to him, brokenbacked as is the way with Findlay; and he turned to the

place and began to run over the text, muttering to himself and turning over the pages with a wetted finger.

'Hullo!' he exclaimed. 'How's this?' And he read aloud. 'New Island. According to M. Delille this island,

which from private interests would remain unknown, lies, it is said, in lat. 12 degrees 49' 10" S. long.

113degrees 6' W. In addition to the position above given Commander Matthews, H.M.S. Scorpion, states that

an island exists in lat. 12 degrees 0' S. long. 13 degrees 16' W. This must be the same, if such an island exists,

'It's anything you please,' cried Davis, 'only there it is! That's our place, and don't you make any mistake.'

"'Which from private interests would remain unknown,"' read Herrick, over his shoulder. 'What may that

'It should mean pearls,' said Davis. 'A pearling island the government don't know about? That sounds like real

estate. Or suppose it don't mean anything. Suppose it's just an island; I guess we could fill up with fish, and

cocoanuts, and native stuff, and carry out the Samoa scheme hand over fist. How long did he say it was

Davis stepped to the door. 'What breeze had you that time you made Anaa, Uncle Ned?' said he.

'Thirty or thirtyfive miles,' said Davis. 'High time we were shortening sail, then. If it is an island, we don't

want to be butting our head against it in the dark; and if it isn't an island, we can get through it just as well by

And the schooner's head was laid for that elusive glimmer in the sky, which began already to pale in lustre

and diminish in size, as the stain of breath vanishes from a window pane. At the same time she was reefed

About four in the morning, as the captain and Herrick sat together on the rail, there arose from the midst of

the night in front of them the voice of breakers. Each sprang to his feet and stared and listened. The sound

was continuous, like the passing of a train; no rise or fall could be distinguished; minute by minute the ocean

heaved with an equal potency against the invisible isle; and as time passed, and Herrick waited in vain for

any vicissitude in the volume of that roaring, a sense of the eternal weighed upon his mind. To the expert eye

the isle itself was to be inferred from a certain string of blots along the starry heaven. And the schooner was

There was little or no morning bank. A brightening came in the east; then a wash of some ineffable, faint,

nameless hue between crimson and silver; and then coals of fire. These glimmered a while on the sea line,

and seemed to brighten and darken and spread out, and still the night and the stars reigned undisturbed; it was

as though a spark should catch and glow and creep along the foot of some heavy and almost incombustible

wallhanging, and the room itself be scarce menaced. Yet a little after, and the whole east glowed with gold

The islethe undiscovered, the scarce believedinnow lay before them and close aboard; and Herrick

thought that never in his dreams had he beheld anything more strange and delicate. The beach was excellently

white, the continuous barrier of trees inimitably green; the land perhaps ten feet high, the trees thirty more.

Every here and there, as the schooner coasted northward, the wood was intermitted; and he could see clear

over the inconsiderable strip of land (as a man looks over a wall) to the lagoon withinand clear over that

again to where the far side of the atoll prolonged its pencilling of trees against the morning sky. He tortured

himself to find analogies. The isle was like the rim of a great vessel sunken in the waters; it was like the

embankment of an annular railway grown upon with wood: so slender it seemed amidst the outrageous

breakers, so frail and pretty, he would scarce have wondered to see it sink and disappear without a sound, and

Meanwhile the captain was in the forecrosstrees, glass in hand, his eyes in every quarter, spying for an

entrance, spying for signs of tenancy. But the isle continued to unfold itself in joints, and to run out in

indeterminate capes, and still there was neither house nor man, nor the smoke of fire. Here a multitude of

seabirds soared and twinkled, and fished in the blue waters; and there, and for miles together, the fringe of

cocoapalm and pandanus extended desolate, and made desirable green bowers for nobody to visit, and the

The airs were very light, their speed was small; the heat intense. The decks were scorching underfoot, the sun

flamed overhead, brazen, out of a brazen sky; the pitch bubbled in the seams, and the brains in the brainpan.

And all the while the excitement of the three adventurers glowed about their bones like a fever. They

whispered, and nodded, and pointed, and put mouth to ear, with a singular instinct of secrecy, approaching

that island underhand like eavesdroppers and thieves; and even Davis from the crosstrees gave his orders

mostly by gestures. The hands shared in this mute strain, like dogs, without comprehending it; and through

the roar of so many miles of breakers, it was a silent ship that approached an empty island.

At last they drew near to the break in that interminable gangway. A spur of coral sand stood forth on the one

hand; on the other a high and thick tuft of trees cut off the view; between was the mouth of the huge laver.

Twice a day the ocean crowded in that narrow entrance and was heaped between these frail walls; twice a

day, with the return of the ebb, the mighty surplusage of water must struggle to escape. The hour in which the

Farallone came there was the hour of flood. The sea turned (as with the instinct of the homing pigeon) for the

vast receptacle, swept eddying through the gates, was transmuted, as it did so, into a wonder of watery and

silken hues, and brimmed into the inland sea beyond. The schooner looked up closehauled, and was caught

and carried away by the influx like a toy. She skimmed; she flew; a momentary shadow touched her decks

from the shoreside trees; the bottom of the channel showed up for a moment and was in a moment gone; the

next, she floated on the bosom of the lagoon, and below, in the transparent chamber of waters, a myriad of

manycoloured fishes were sporting, a myriad paleflowers of coral diversified the floor.

Herrick stood transported. In the gratified lust of his eye, he forgot the past and the present; forgot that he was

menaced by a prison on the one hand and starvation on the other; forgot that he was come to that island,

desperately foraging, clutching at expedients. A drove of fishes, painted like the rainbow and billed like

parrots, hovered up in the shadow of the schooner, and passed clear of it, and glinted in the submarine sun.

They were beautiful, like birds, and their silent passage impressed him like a strain of song.

Meanwhile, to the eye of Davis in the crosstrees, the lagoon continued to expand its empty waters, and the

long succession of the shoreside trees to be paid out like fishing line off a reel. And still there was no mark

of habitation. The schooner, immediately on entering, had been kept away to the nor'ard where the water

seemed to be the most deep; and she was now skimming past the tall grove of trees, which stood on that side

of the channel and denied further view. Of the whole of the low shores of the island, only this bight remained

to be revealed. And suddenly the curtain was raised; they began to open out a haven, snugly elbowed there,

The appearance, thus 'instantaneously disclosed' to those on the deck of the Farallone, was not that of a city,

rather of a substantial country farm with its attendant hamlet: a long line of sheds and storehouses; apart,

upon the one side, a deepverandah' ed dwellinghouse; on the other, perhaps a dozen native huts; a building

with a belfry and some rude offer at architectural features that might be thought to mark it out for a chapel; on

the beach in front some heavy boats drawn up, and a pile of timber running forth into the burning shallows of

the lagoon. From a flagstaff at the pierhead, the red ensign of England was displayed. Behind, about, and

over, the same tall grove of palms, which had masked the settlement in the beginning, prolonged its root of

tumultuous green fans, and turned and ruffled overhead, and sang its silver song all day in the wind. The

place had the indescribable but unmistakable appearance of being in commission; yet there breathed from it a

sense of desertion that was almost poignant, no human figure was to be observed going to and fro about the

houses, and there was no sound of human industry or enjoyment. Only, on the top of the beach and hard by

the flagstaff, a woman of exorbitant stature and as white as snow was to be seen beckoning with uplifted arm.

The second glance identified her as a piece of naval sculpture, the figurehead of a ship that had long

hovered and plunged into so many running billows, and was now brought ashore to be the ensign and

The Farallone made a soldier's breeze of it; the wind, besides, was stronger inside than without under the lee

of the land; and the stolen schooner opened out successive objects with the swiftness of a panorama, so that

the adventurers stood speechless. The flag spoke for itself; it was no frayed and weathered trophy that had

beaten itself to pieces on the post, flying over desolation; and to make assurance stronger, there was to be

descried in the deep shade of the verandah, a glitter of crystal and the fluttering of white napery. If the

figurehead at the pier end, with its perpetual gesture and its leprous whiteness, reigned alone in that hamlet

as it seemed to do, it would not have reigned long. Men's hands had been busy, men's feet stirring there,

within the circuit of the clock. The Farallones were sure of it; their eyes dug in the deep shadow of the palms

for some one hiding; if intensity of looking might have prevailed, they would have pierced the walls of

houses; and there came to them, in these pregnant seconds, a sense of being watched and played with, and of

The extreme point of palms they had just passed enclosed a creek, which was thus hidden up to the last

moment from the eyes of those on board; and from this, a boat put suddenly and briskly out, and a voice

'Schooner aboy!' it cried. 'Stand in for the pier! In two cables' lengths you'll have twenty fathoms water and

The boat was manned with a couple of brown oarsmen in scanty kilts of blue. The speaker, who was steering,

wore white clothes, the full dress oi the tropics; a wide hat shaded his face; but it could be seen that be was of

stalwart size, and his voice sounded like a gentleman's. So much could be made out. It was plain, besides, that

the Farallone had been descried some time before at sea, and the inhabitants were prepared for its reception.

Mechanically the orders were obeyed, and the ship berthed; and the three adventurers gathered aft beside the

house and waited, with galloping pulses and a perfect vacancy of mind, the coming of the stranger who might

mean so much to them. They had no plan, no story prepared; there was no time to make one; they were

caught redhanded and must stand their chance. Yet this anxiety was chequered with hope. The island being

undeclared, it was not possible the man could hold any office or be in a position to demand their papers. And

beyond that, if there was any truth in Findlay, as it now seemed there should be, he was the representative of

the 'private reasons,' he must see their coming with a profound disappointment; and perhaps (hope whispered)

The boat was by that time forging alongside, and they were able at last to see what manner of man they had to

do with. He was a huge fellow, six feet four in height, and of a build proportionately strong, but his sinews

seemed to be dissolved in a listlessness that was more than languor. It was only the eye that corrected this

impression; an eye of an unusual mingled brilliancy and softness, sombre as coal and with lights that

outshone the topaz; an eye of unimpaired health and virility; an eye that bid you beware of the man's

devastating anger. A complexion, naturally dark, had been tanned in the island to a hue hardly distinguishable

from that of a Tahitian; only his manners and movements, and the living force that dwelt in him, like fire in

flint, betrayed the European. He was dressed in white drill, exquisitely made; his scarf and tie were of

'Is the doctor on board?' he cried as he came up. 'Dr Symonds, I mean? You never heard of him? Nor yet of

He did not look surprised, seemed rather to affect it in politeness; but his eye rested on each of the three white

men in succession with a sudden weight of curiosity that was almost savage. 'Ah, THEN!' said he, 'there is

some small mistake, no doubt, and I must ask you to what I am indebted for this pleasure?'

He was by this time on the deck, but he had the art to be quite unapproachable; the friendliest vulgarian, three

parts drunk, would have known better than take liberties; and not one of the adventurers so much as offered

'Well,' said Davis, 'I suppose you may call it an accident. We had heard of your island, and read that thing in

the Directory about the PRIVATE REASONS, you see; so when we saw the lagoon reflected in the sky, we

The stranger looked at Huish with an air of faint surprise, and looked pointedly away again. It was hard to be

'It may suit me, your coming here,' he said. 'My own schooner is overdue, and I may put something in your

'My name is Attwater,' continued the stranger. 'You, I presume, are the captain?'

'Well, see 'ere!' said Huish, 'better begin fair! 'E's skipper on deck right enough, but not below. Below, we're

all equal, all got a lay in the adventure; when it comes to business, I'm as good as 'e; and what I say is, let's go

into the 'ouse and have a lush, and talk it over among pals. We've some prime fizz,' he said, and winked.

The presence of the gentleman lighted up like a candle the vulgarity of the clerk; and Herrick instinctively, as

'My name is Hay,' said he, 'since introductions are going. We shall be very glad if you will step inside.'

'Yes, Merton,' said Herrick, and the next moment blushed scarlet at his indiscretion.

'I am of the other lot,' said Attwater: 'Trinity Hall, Cambridge. I called my schooner after the old shop. Well!

this is a queer place and company for us to meet in, Mr Hay,' he pursued, with easy incivility to the others.

'But do you bear out ... I beg this gentleman's pardon, I really did not catch his name.'

'Ah!' said Attwater. And then turning again to Herrick, 'Do you bear out Mr Whish's description of your

Herrick was embarrassed; the silken brutality of their visitor made him blush; that he should be accepted as

an equal, and the others thus pointedly ignored, pleased him in spite of himself, and then ran through his

Attwater seemed to make up his mind. 'Well then, I'll tell you what: you three gentlemen come ashore this

evening and bring a basket of wine with you; I'll try and find the food,' he said. 'And by the by, here is a

'Twentynine,' said Attwater. 'Twentynine deaths and thirtyone cases, out of thirtythree souls upon the

island.That's a strange way to calculate, Mr Hay, is it not? Souls! I never say it but it startles me.'

'That is why, Mr Whish,' said Attwater; 'that is why the house is empty and the graveyard full.'

'Twentynine out of thirtythree!' exclaimed Herrick, 'Why, when it came to buryingor did you bother

'Scarcely,' said Attwater; 'or there was one day at least when we gave up. There were five of the dead that

morning, and thirteen of the dying, and no one able to go about except the sexton and myself. We held a

council of war, took the. . . empty bottles ... into the lagoon, and buried them.' He looked over his shoulder,

back at the bright water. 'Well, so you'll come to dinner, then? Shall we say halfpast six. So good of you!'

His voice, in uttering these conventional phrases, fell at once into the false measure of society; and Herrick

'I am sure we shall be very glad,' he said. 'At halfpast six? Thank you so very much.'

quoted Attwater, with a smile, which instantly gave way to an air of funereal solemnity. 'I shall particularly

expect Mr Whish,' he continued. 'Mr Whish, I trust you understand the invitation?'

'That is right then; and quite understood, is it not?' said Attwater. 'Mr Whish and Captain Brown at sixthirty

During all this talk, a load of thought or anxiety had weighed upon the captain. There was no part for which

nature had so liberally endowed him as that of the genial ship captain. But today he was silent and abstracted.

Those who knew him could see that he hearkened close to every syllable, and seemed to ponder and try it in

balances. It would have been hard to say what look there was, cold, attentive, and sinister, as of a man

maturing plans, which still brooded over the unconscious guest; it was here, it was there, it was nowhere; it

was now so little that Herrick chid himself for an idle fancy; and anon it was so gross and palpable that you

'You understand perfectly, Captain Brown,' said Attwater; 'thirtythree days overdue at noon today.'

'How long, O Lord,' said Attwater with perfect, stern gravity. 'But it does not seem so,' he added, with a

'No, I dare say not,' said Davis. 'No, I suppose not. Not with all your gods about you, and in as snug a berth as

'The spot, as you are good enough to indicate, is not entirely intolerable,' was the reply.

'This is a considerable big beast of a lagoon, sir,' said the captain. 'Was there awas the fishingwould you

'I don't know that I would call it anyways anything,' said Attwater, 'if you put it to me direct.'

'Well, I give out!' laughed Davis, and his laughter rang cracked like a false piece. 'If you're not going to tell,

'There can be no reason why I should affect the least degree of secrecy about my island,' returned Attwater;

'that came wholly to an end with your arrival; and I am sure, at any rate, that gentlemen like you and Mr

Whish, I should have always been charmed to make perfectly at home. The point on which we are now

differingif you can call it a differenceis one of times and seasons. I have some information which you

think I might impart, and I think not. Well, we'll see tonight! Byby, Whish!' He stepped into his boat and

shoved off. 'All understood, then?' said he. 'The captain and Mr Whish at sixthirty, and you, Hay, at four

precise. You understand that, Hay? Mind, I take no denial. If you're not there by the time named, there will be

White birds whisked in the air above, a shoal of particoloured fishes in the scarce denser medium below;

between, like Mahomet's coffin, the boat drew away briskly on the surface, and its shadow followed it over

the glittering floor of the lagoon. Attwater looked steadily back over his shoulders as he sat; he did not once

remove his eyes from the Farallone and the group on her quarterdeck beside the house, till his boat ground

upon the pier. Thence, with an agile pace, he hurried ashore, and they saw his white clothes shining in the

The captain, with a gesture and a speaking countenance, called the adventurers into the cabin.

'Well,' he said to Herrick, when they were seated, 'there's one good job at least. He's taken to you in earnest.'

'Oh, you'll see how it pans out presently,' returned Davis. 'You go ashore and stand in with him, that's all!

You'll get lots of pointers; you can find out what he has, and what the charter is, and who's the fourth

'So I will, Robert Herrick,' said the captain. 'But first, let's see all clear. I guess you know,' he said with an

imperious solemnity, 'I guess you know the bottom is out of this Farallone speculation? I guess you know it's

RIGHT out? and if this old island hadn't been turned up right when it did, I guess you know where you and I

'Yes, I know that,' said Herrick. 'No matter who's to blame, I know it. And what next?'

'No matter who's to blame, you know it, right enough,' said the captain, 'and I'm obliged to you for the

'I do not know,' said Herrick. 'I am attracted and repelled. He was insufferably rude to you.'

Huish sat cleaning a favourite briar root; he scarce looked up from that engrossing task. 'Don't ast me what I

think of him!' he said. 'There's a day comin', I pray Gawd, when I can tell it him myself.'

'Huish means the same as what I do,' said Davis. 'When that man came stepping around, and saying "Look

here, I'm Attwater"and you knew it was so, by God!I sized him right straight up. Here's the real article, I

said, and I don't like it; here's the real, firstrate, copperbottomed aristocrat. 'AW' I DON'T KNOW YE, DO

I? GOD DAMN YE, DID GOD MAKE YE?' No, that couldn't be nothing but genuine; a man got to be born

to that, and notice! smart as champagne and hard as nails; no kind of a fool; no, SIR! not a pound of him!

Well, what's he here upon this beastly island for? I said. HE'S not here collecting eggs. He's a palace at home,

and powdered flunkies; and if he don't stay there, you bet he knows the reason why! Follow?'

'He's been doing good business here, then,' continued the captain. 'For ten years, he's been doing a great

business. It's pearl and shell, of course; there couldn't be nothing else in such a place, and no doubt the shell

goes off regularly by this Trinity Hall, and the money for it straight into the bank, so that's no use to us. But

what else is there? Is there nothing else he would be likely to keep here? Is there nothing else he would be

bound to keep here? Yes, sir; the pearls! First, because they're too valuable to trust out of his hands. Second,

because pearls want a lot of handling and matching; and the man who sells his pearls as they come in, one

here, one there, instead of hanging back and holding upwell, that man's a fool, and it's not Attwater.'

'Suppose it was?' said Herrick. 'Suppose that was all so, and he had these pearlsa ten years' collection of

The captain drummed with his thick hands on the board in front of him; he looked steadily in Herrick's face,

and Herrick as steadily looked upon the table and the pattering fingers; there was a gentle oscillation of the

anchored ship, and a big patch of sunlight travelled to and fro between the one and the other.

'No, you better hear me first,' said Davis. 'Hear me and understand me. WE'VE got no use for that fellow,

whatever you may have. He's your kind, he's not ours; he's took to you, and he's wiped his boots on me and

'Save him, if you're able!' reiterated Davis, with a blow of his clenched fist. 'Go ashore, and talk him smooth;

and if you get him and his pearls aboard, I'll spare him. If you don't, there's going to be a funeral. Is that so,

'I ain't a forgiving man,' said Huish, 'but I'm not the sort to spoil business neither. Bring the bloke on board

and bring his pearls along with him, and you can have it your own way; maroon him where you likeI'm

'Well, and if I can't?' cried Herrick, while the sweat streamed upon his face. 'You talk to me as if I was God

'My son,' said the captain, 'you better do your level best, or you'll see sights!'

'O yes,' said Huish. 'O crikey, yes!' He looked across at Herrick with a toothless smile that was shocking in its

savagery; and his ear caught apparently by the trivial expression he had used, broke into a piece of the chorus

of a comic song which he must have heard twenty years before in London: meaningless gibberish that, in that

hour and place, seemed hateful as a blasphemy: 'Hikey, pikey, crikey, fikey, chillingawallaba dory.'

'The way things are, there's many a man that wouldn't let you go ashore,' he resumed. 'But I'm not that kind. I

know you'd never go back on me, Herrick! Or if you choose togo, and do it, and be damned!' he cried, and

He walked out of the house; and as he reached the door, turned and called Huish, suddenly and violently, like

'Now, see here!' whispered Davis. 'I know that man. If you open your mouth to him again, you'll ruin all.'

The boat was gone again, and already halfway to the Farallone, before Herrick turned and went unwillingly

up the pier. From the crown of the beach, the figurehead confronted him with what seemed irony, her

helmeted head tossed back, her formidable arm apparently hurling something, whether shell or missile, in the

direction of the anchored schooner. She seemed a defiant deity from the island, coming forth to its threshold

with a rush as of one about to fly, and perpetuated in that dashing attitude. Herrick looked up at her, where

she towered above him head and shoulders, with singular feelings of curiosity and romance, and suffered his

mind to travel to and fro in her lifehistory. So long she had been the blind conductress of a ship among the

waves; so long she had stood here idle in the violent sun, that yet did not avail to blister her; and was even

this the end of so many adventures? he wondered, or was more behind? And he could have found in his heart

to regret that she was not a goddess, nor yet he a pagan, that he might have bowed down before her in that

When he now went forward, it was cool with the shadow of many wellgrown palms; draughts of the dying

breeze swung them together overhead; and on all sides, with a swiftness beyond dragonflies or swallows,

the spots of sunshine flitted, and hovered, and returned. Underfoot, the sand was fairly solid and quite level,

and Herrick's steps fell there noiseless as in newfallen snow. It bore the marks of having been once weeded

like a garden alley at home; but the pestilence had done its work, and the weeds were returning. The buildings

of the settlement showed here and there through the stems of the colonnade, fresh painted, trim and dandy,

and all silent as the grave. Only, here and there in the crypt, there was a rustle and scurry and some crowing

of poultry; and from behind the house with the verandahs, he saw smoke arise and heard the crackling of a

The stone houses were nearest him upon his right. The first was locked; in the second, he could dimly

perceive, through a window, a certain accumulation of pearlshell piled in the far end; the third, which stood

gaping open on the afternoon, seized on the mind of Herrick with its multiplicity and disorder of romantic

things. Therein were cables, windlasses and blocks of every size and capacity; cabin windows and ladders;

rusty tanks, a companion hutch; a binnacle with its brass mountings and its compass idly pointing, in the

confusion and dusk of that shed, to a forgotten pole; ropes, anchors, harpoons, a blubber dipper of copper,

green with years, a steering wheel, a tool chest with the vessel's name upon the top, the Asia: a whole

curiosityshop of sea curios, gross and solid, heavy to lift, ill to break, bound with brass and shod with iron.

Two wrecks at the least must have contributed to this random heap of lumber; and as Herrick looked upon it,

it seemed to him as if the two ships' companies were there on guard, and he heard the tread of feet and

whisperings, and saw with the tail of his eye the commonplace ghosts of sailor men.

This was not merely the work of an aroused imagination, but had something sensible to go upon; sounds of a

stealthy approach were no doubt audible; and while he still stood staring at the lumber, the voice of his host

sounded suddenly, and with even more than the customary softness of enunciation, from behind.

'I find at least a strong impression,' replied Herrick, turning quickly, lest he might be able to catch, on the face

Attwater stood in the doorway, which he almost wholly filled; his hands stretched above his head and

grasping the architrave. He smiled when their eyes Met, but the expression was inscrutable.

'Yes, a powerful impression. You are like me; nothing so affecting as ships!' said he. 'The ruins of an empire

would leave me frigid, when a bit of an old rail that an old shellback leaned on in the middle watch, would

bring me up all standing. But come, let's see some more of the island. It's all sand and coral and palm trees;

'I find it heavenly,' said Herrick, breathing deep, with head bared in the shadow.

'Ah, that's because you're new from sea,' said Attwater. 'I dare say, too, you can appreciate what one calls it.

It's a lovely name. It has a flavour, it has a colour, it has a ring and fall to it; it's like its authorit's half

Christian! Remember your first view of the island, and how it's only woods and water; and suppose you had

'If it gets upon the chart, the skippers will make nice work of it,' said Attwater. 'But here, come and see the

He opened a door, and Herrick saw a large display of apparatus neatly ordered: pumps and pipes, and the

leaded boots, and the huge snouted helmets shining in rows along the wall; ten complete outfits.

'The whole eastern half of my lagoon is shallow, you must understand,' said Attwater; 'so we were able to get

in the dress to great advantage. It paid beyond belief, and was a queer sight when they were at it, and these

marine monsters'tapping the nearest of the helmets'kept appearing and reappearing in the midst of the

'Well, I saw these machines come up dripping and go down again, and come up dripping and go down again,

and all the while the fellow inside as dry as toast!' said Attwater; 'and I thought we all wanted a dress to go

down into the world in, and come up scatheless. What do you think the name was?' he inquired.

'And why not Grace? Why not God's Grace, Hay?' asked Attwater. 'Why not the grace of your Maker and

Redeemer, He who died for you, He who upholds you, He whom you daily crucify afresh? There is nothing

stamping'nothing but God's Grace! We walk upon it, we breathe it; we live and die by it; it makes the nails

and axles of the universe; and a puppy in pyjamas prefers selfconceit!' The huge dark man stood over

against Herrick by the line of the divers' helmets, and seemed to swell and glow; and the next moment the life

had gone from him. 'I beg your pardon,' said he; 'I see you don't believe in God?'

'I never argue with young atheists or habitual drunkards,' said Attwater flippantly. 'Let us go across the island

It was but a little way, the greatest width of that island scarce exceeding a furlong, and they walked gently.

Herrick was like one in a dream. He had come there with a mind divided; come prepared to study that

ambiguous and sneering mask, drag out the essential man from underneath, and act accordingly; decision

being till then postponed. Iron cruelty, an iron insensibility to the suffering of others, the uncompromising

pursuit of his own interests, cold culture, manners without humanity; these he had looked for, these he still

thought he saw. But to find the whole machine thus glow with the reverberation of religious zeal, surprised

him beyond words; and he laboured in vain, as he walked, to piece together into any kind of whole his odds

and qnds of knowledgeto adjust again into any kind of focus with itself, his picture of the man beside him.

'Many things,' said Attwater. 'Youth, curiosity, romance, the love of the sea, and (it will surprise you to hear)

an interest in missions. That has a good deal declined, which will surprise you less. They go the wrong way

to work; they are too parsonish, too much of the old wife, and even the old apple wife. CLOTHES,

CLOTHES, are their idea; but clothes are not Christianity, any more than they are the sun in heaven, or could

take the place of it! They think a parsonage with roses, and church bells, and nice old women bobbing in the

lanes, are part and parcel of religion. But religion is a savage thing, like the universe it illuminates; savage,

'As you did!' said Attwater. 'And since then I have had a business, and a colony, and a mission of my own. I

was a man of the world before I was a Christian; I'm a man of the world still, and I made my mission pay. No

good ever came of coddling. A man has to stand up in God's sight and work up to his weight avoirdupois;

then I'll talk to him, but not before. I gave these beggars what they wanted: a judge in Israel, the bearer of the

sword and scourge; I was making a new people here; and behold, the angel of the Lord smote them and they.

With the very uttering of the words, which were accompanied by a gesture, they came forth out of the porch

of the palm wood by the margin of the sea and full in front of the sun which was near setting. Before them the

surf broke slowly. All around, with an air of imperfect wooden things inspired with wicked activity, the crabs

trundled and scuttled into holes. On the right, whither Attwater pointed and abruptly turned, was the cemetery

of the island, a field of broken stones from the bigness of a child's hand to that of his head, diversified by

many mounds of the same material, and walled by a rude rectangular enclosure. Nothing grew there but a

shrub or two with some white flowers; nothing but the number of the mounds, and their disquieting shape,

quoted Attwater as he entered by the open gateway into that unholy close. 'Coral to coral, pebbles to pebbles,'

he said, 'this has been the main scene of my activity in the South Pacific. Some were good, and some bad, and

the majority (of course and always) null. Here was a fellow, now, that used to frisk like a dog; if you had

called him he came like an arrow from a bow; if you had not, and he came unbidden, you should have seen

the deprecating eye and the little intricate dancing step. Well, his trouble is over now, he has lain down with

kings and councillors; the rest of his acts, are they not written in the book of the chronicles? That fellow was

from Penrhyn; like all the Penrhyn islanders he was ill to manage; heady, jealous, violent: the man with the

He stood, in the strong glow of the sunset, with bowed head; his voice sounded now sweet and now bitter

'I?' said Attwater. 'Dear no! Don't think me a philanthropist. I dislike men, and hate women. If I like the

islands at all, it is because you see them here plucked of their lendings, their dead birds and cocked hats, their

petticoats and coloured hose. Here was one I liked though,' and he set his foot upon a mound. 'He was a fine

savage fellow; he had a dark soul; yes, I liked this one. I am fanciful,' he added, looking hard at Herrick, 'and

Herrick turned swiftly and looked far away to where the clouds were beginning to troop together and amass

'You are wrong there,' said the other, 'as a man usually is about himself. You are attractive, very attractive.'

'It is not me,' said Herrick; 'no one can like me. If you knew how I despised myselfand why!' His voice

'I knew that you despised yourself,' said Attwater. 'I saw the blood come into your face today when you

remembered Oxford. And I could have blushed for you myself, to see a man, a gentleman, with these two

'I said wolves and vulgar wolves,' said Attwater. 'Do you know that today, when I came on board, I

'A habit of mine,' said Attwater. 'But I was afraid, for all that: I was afraid of the two wolves.' He raised his

hand slowly. 'And now, Hay, you poor lost puppy, what do you do with the two wolves?'

'What do I do? I don't do anything,' said Herrick. 'There is nothing wrong; all is above board; Captain Brown

is a good soul; he is a ... he is . . .' The phantom voice of Davis called in his ear: 'There's going to be a funeral'

and the sweat burst forth and streamed on his brow. 'He is a family man,' he resumed again, swallowing; 'he

'I won't go so far as that,' said Herrick. 'I do not like Huish. And yet ... he has his merits too.'

'And, in short, take them for all in all, as good a ship's company as one would ask?' said Attwater.

'So then we approach the other point of why you despise yourself?' said Attwater.

'Oh, I say I do. But do I?' said Attwater. 'One thing I know at least: I never gave a cry like yours. Hay! it came

from a bad conscience! Ah, man, that poor diving dress of selfconceit is sadly tattered! Today, now, while

the sun sets, and here in this burying place of brown innocents, fall on your knees and cast your sins and

'Not Hay!' interrupted the other, strangling. 'Don't call me that! I mean. . . For God's sake, can't you see I'm on

'I see it, I know it, I put and keep you there, my fingers are on the screws!' said Attwater. 'Please God, I will

bring a penitent this night before His throne. Come, come to the mercyseat! He waits to be gracious,

He spread out his arms like a crucifix, his face shone with the brightness of a seraph's; in his voice, as it rose

Herrick made a vigorous call upon himself. 'Attwater,' he said, 'you push me beyond bearing. What am I to

do? I do not believe. It is living truth to you; to me, upon my conscience, only folklore. I do not believe

there is any form of words under heaven by which I can lift the burthen from my shoulders. I must stagger on

to the end with the pack of my responsibility; I cannot shift it; do you suppose I would not, if I thought I

The rapture was all gone from Artwater's countenance; the dark apostle had disappeared; and in his place

there stood an easy, sneering gentleman, who took off his hat and bowed. It was pertly done, and the blood

'Well, shall we go back to the house?' said Attwater. 'Our guests will soon be due.'

Herrick stood his ground a moment with clenched fists and teeth; and as he so stood, the fact of his errand

there slowly swung clear in front of him, like the moon out of clouds. He had come to lure that man on board;

he was failing, even if it could be said that he had tried; he was sure to fail now, and knew it, and knew it was

With a groan he turned to follow his host, who was standing with polite smile, and instantly and somewhat

obsequiously led the way in the now darkened colonnade of palms. There they went in silence, the earth gave

up richly of her perfume, the air tasted warm and aromatic in the nostrils; and from a great way forward in the

Herrick meanwhile resolved and resisted an immense temptation to go up, to touch him on the arm and

breathe a word in his ear: 'Beware, they are going to murder you.' There would be one life saved; but what of

the two others? The three lives went up and down before him like buckets in a well, or like the scales of

balances. It had come to a choice, and one that must be speedy. For certain invaluable minutes, the wheels of

life ran before him, and he could still divert them with a touch to the one side or the other, still choose who

was to live and who was to die. He considered the men. Attwater intrigued, puzzled, dazzled, enchanted and

revolted him; alive, he seemed but a doubtful good; and the thought of him lying dead was so unwelcome that

it pursued him, like a vision, with every circumstance of colour and sound. Incessantly, he had before him the

image of that great mass of man stricken down in varying attitudes and with varying wounds; fallen prone,

fallen supine, fallen on his side; or clinging to a doorpost with the changing face and the relaxing fingers of

the deathagony. He heard the click of the trigger, the thud of the, ball, the cry of the victim; he saw the

blood flow. And this building up of circumstance was like a consecration of the man, till he seemed to walk

in sacrificial fillets. Next he considered Davis, with his thickfingered, coarsegrained, oatbread

commonness of nature, his indomitable valour and mirth in the old days of their starvation, the endearing

blend of his faults and virtues, the sudden shining forth of a tenderness that lay too deep for tears; his

children, Adar and her bowel complaint, and Adar's doll. No, death could not be suffered to approach that

head even in fancy; with a general heat and a bracing of his muscles, it was borne in on Herrick that Adar's

father would find in him a son to the death. And even Huish showed a little in that sacredness; by the tacit

adoption of daily life they were become brothers; there was an implied bond of loyalty in their cohabitation

of the ship and their passed miseries, to which Herrick must be a little true or wholly dishonoured. Horror of

sudden death for horror of sudden death, there was here no hesitation possible: it must be Attwater. And no

sooner was the thought formed (which was a sentence) than his whole mind of man ran in a panic to the other

side: and when he looked within himself, he was aware only of turbulence and inarticulate outcry.

In all this there was no thought of Robert Herrick. He had complied with the ebbtide in man's affairs, and

the tide had carried him away; he heard already the roaring of the maelstrom that must hurry him under. And

For how long he walked silent by his companion Herrick had no guess. The clouds rolled suddenly away; the

orgasm was over; he found himself placid with the placidity of despair; there returned to him the power of

commonplace speech; and he heard with surprise his own voice say: 'What a lovely evening!'

'Is it not?' said Attwater. 'Yes, the evenings here would be very pleasant if one had anything to do. By day, of

'Yes, I am what you would call a fine shot,' said Attwater. 'It is faith; I believe my balls will go true; if I were

'Not unless I mean to,' said Attwater. 'But to miss nicely is the art. There was an old king one knew in the

western islands, who used to empty a Winchester all round a man, and stir his hair or nick a rag out of his

clothes with every ball except the last; and that went plump between the eyes. It was pretty practice.'

'Oh, I can do anything,' returned the other. 'You do not understand: what must be, must.'

They were now come near to the back part of the house. One of the men was engaged about the cooking fire,

which burned with the clear, fierce, essential radiance of cocoanut shells. A fragrance of strange meats was in

the air. All round in the verandahs lamps were lighted, so that the place shone abroad in the dusk of the trees

'Come and wash your hands,' said Attwater, and led the way into a clean, matted room with a cot bed, a safe,

or shelf or two of books in a glazed case, and an iron washingstand. Presently he cried in the native, and

there appeared for a moment in the doorway a plump and pretty young woman with a clean towel.

'Hullo!' cried Herrick, who now saw for the first time the fourth survivor of the pestilence, and was startled

'Yes,' said Attwater, 'the whole colony lives about the house, what's left of it. We are all afraid of devils, if

you please! and Taniera and she sleep in the front parlour, and the other boy on the verandah.'

'Too pretty,' said Attwater. 'That was why I had her married. A man never knows when he may be inclined to

be a fool about women; so when we were left alone, I had the pair of them to the chapel and performed the

ceremony. She made a lot of fuss. I do not take at all the romantic view of marriage,' he explained.

'Certainly. I am a plain man and very literal. WHOM GOD HATH JOINED TOGETHER, are the words, I

'You see, I may look to make an excellent marriage when I go home,' began Attwater, confidentially. 'I am

rich. This safe alone'laying his hand upon it'will be a moderate fortune, when I have the time to place

the pearls upon the market. Here are ten years' accumulation from a lagoon, where I have had as many as ten

divers going all day long; and I went further than people usually do in these waters, for I rotted a lot of shell,

This confirmation of the captain's guess hit Herrick hard, and he contained himself with difficulty. 'No, thank

you, I think not,' said he. 'I do not care for pearls. I am very indifferent to all these . . .'

'Gewgaws?' suggested Attwater. 'And yet I believe you ought to cast an eye on my collection, which is really

unique, and whichoh! it is the case with all of us and everything about us!hangs. by a hair. Today it

groweth up and flourisheth; tomorrow it is cut down and cast into the oven. Today it is here and together in

this safe; tomorrowtonight!it may be scattered. Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.'

'You seem to speak in riddles,' said Herrick, unsteadily. 'I do not understand what manner of man you are, nor

Attwater stood with his hands upon his hips, and his head bent forward. 'I am a fatalist,' he replied, 'and just

now (if you insist on it) an experimentalist. Talking of which, by the bye, who painted out the schooner's

name?' he said, with mocking softness, 'because, do you know? one thinks it should be done again. It can still

be partly read; and whatever is worth doing, is surely worth doing well. You think with me? That is so nice!

Well, shall we step on the verandah? I have a dry sherry that I would like your opinion of.'

Herrick followed him forth to where, under the light of the hanging lamps, the table shone with napery and

crystal; followed him as the criminal goes with the hangman, or the sheep with the butcher; took the sherry

mechanically, drank it, and spoke mechanical words of praise. The object of his terror had become suddenly

inverted; till then he had seen Attwater trussed and gagged, a helpless victim, and had longed to run in and

save him; he saw him now tower up mysterious and menacing, the angel of the Lord's wrath, armed with

knowledge and threatening judgment. He set down his glass again, and was surprised to see it empty.

'You go always armed?' he said, and the next moment could have plucked his tongue out.

'Always,' said Attwater. 'I have been through a mutiny here; that was one of my incidents of missionary life.'

And just then the sound of voices reached them, and looking forth from the verandah they saw Huish and the

They sat down to an island dinner, remarkable for its variety and excellence; turtle soup and steak, fish,

fowls, a sucking pig, a cocoanut salad, and sprouting cocoanut roasted for dessert. Not a tin had been opened;

and save for the oil and vinegar in the salad, and some green spears of onion which Attwater cultivated and

plucked with his own hand, not even the condiments were European. Sherry, hock, and claret succeeded each

It was plain that, like so many of the extremely religious in the days before teetotalism, Attwater had a dash

of the epicure. For such characters it is softening to eat well; doubly so to have designed and had prepared an

excellent meal for others; and the manners of their host were agreeably mollified in consequence.

A cat of huge growth sat on his shoulders purring, and occasionally, with a deft paw, capturing a morsel in

the air. To a cat he might be likened himself, as he lolled at the head of his table, dealing out attentions and

innuendoes, and using the velvet and the claw indifferently. And both Huish and the captain fell

Over the third guest, the incidents of the dinner may be said to have passed for long unheeded. Herrick

accepted all that was offered him, ate and drank without tasting, and heard without comprehension. His mind

was singly occupied in contemplating the horror of the circumstances in which he sat. What Attwater knew,

what the captain designed, from which side treachery was to be first expected, these were the ground of his

thoughts. There were times when he longed to throw down the table and flee into the night. And even that

was debarred him; to do anything, to say anything, to move at all, were only to precipitate the barbarous

tragedy; and he sat spellbound, eating with white lips. Two of his companions observed him narrowly,

Attwater with raking, sidelong glances that did not interrupt his talk, the captain with a heavy and anxious

'Well, I must say this sherry is a really prime article,' said Huish. "Ow much does it stand you in, if it's a fair

'A hundred and twelve shillings in London, and the freight to Valparaiso, and on again,' said Attwater. 'It

'A 'undred and twelve!' murmured the clerk, relishing the wine and the figures in a common ecstasy: 'O my!'

'So glad you like it,' said Attwater. 'Help yourself, Mr Whish, and keep the bottle by you.'

'I beg your pardon, I am sure. Huish and not Whish, certainly,' said Attwater. 'I was about to say that I have

'Sherry,' was the reply. 'Eight dozen excellent sherry. Why, it seems almost worth it in itself; to a man fond of

The ambiguous words struck home to guilty consciences, and Huish and the captain sat up in their places and

The captain breathed hard for a moment. He reached out far and wide to find any coherency in these remarks;

Attwater followed him at once, and with entire gravity, to the new ground. 'Myself and Dr Symonds

excepted, I should say the only ones,' he returned. 'And yet who can tell? In the course of the ages someone

may have lived here, and we sometimes think that someone must. The cocoa palms grow all round the island,

which is scarce like nature's planting. We found besides, when we landed, an unmistakable cairn upon the

beach; use unknown; but probably erected in the hope of gratifying some mumbo jumbo whose very name is

forgotten, by some thickwitted gentry whose very bones are lost. Then the island (witness the Directory) has

been twice reported; and since my tenancy, we have had two wrecks, both derelict. The rest is conjecture.'

'A dear fellow, Symonds! How he would regret it, if he knew you had been here!' said Attwater.

'And if you could tell me where the Trinity 'All was, you would confer a favour, Mr Whish!' was the reply.

'Since the secret has been kept ten years, one would suppose she had,' replied Attwater.

'Well, now, see 'ere!' said Huish. 'You have everything about you in no end style, and no mistake, but I tell

you it wouldn't do for me. Too much of "the old rustic bridge by the mill"; too retired, by 'alf. Give me the

'You must not think it was always so,' replied Attwater, 'This was once a busy shore, although now, hark! you

can hear the solitude. I find it stimulating. And talking of the sound of bells, kindly follow a little experiment

of mine in silence.' There was a silver bell at his right hand to call the servants; he made them a sign to stand

still, struck the bell with force, and leaned eagerly forward. The note rose clear and strong; it rang out clear

and far into the night and over the deserted island; it died into the distance until there only lingered in the

porches of the ear a vibration that was sound no longer. 'Empty houses, empty sea, solitary beaches!' said

Attwater. 'And yet God hears the bell! And yet we sit in this verandah on a lighted stage with all heaven for

Then Attwater laughed softly. 'These are the diversions of a lonely, man,' he resumed, 'and possibly not in

good taste. One tells oneself these little fairy tales for company. If there SHOULD happen to be anything in

folklore, Mr Hay? But here comes the claret. One does not offer you Lafitte, captain, because I believe it is

all sold to the railroad dining cars in your great country; but this BrineMouton is of a good year, and Mr

'That's a queer idea of yours!' cried the captain, bursting with a sigh from the spell that had bound him. 'So

you mean to tell me now, that you sit here evenings and ring up . . . well, ring on the angels . . . by yourself?'

'As a matter of historic fact, and since you put it directly, one does not,' said Attwater. 'Why ring a bell, when

there flows out from oneself and everything about one a far more momentous silence? the least beat of my

heart and the least thought in my mind echoing into eternity for ever and for ever and for ever.'

'O look 'ere,' said Huish, 'turn down the lights at once, and the Band of 'Ope will oblige! This ain't a spiritual

'No folklore about Mr WhishI beg your pardon, captain: Huish not Whish, of course,' said Attwater.

As the boy was filling Huish's glass, the bottle escaped from his hand and was shattered, and the wine spilt on

the verandah floor. Instant grimness as of death appeared on the face of Attwater; he smote the bell

imperiously, and the two brown natives fell into the attitude of attention and stood mute and trembling. There

was just a moment of silence and hard looks; then followed a few savage words in the native; and, upon a

None of the party had as yet observed upon the excellent bearing of the two men. They were dark,

undersized, and well set up; stepped softly, waited deftly, brought on the wines and dishes at a look, and their

'If you will tell me where getting labour is!' said Attwater with a shrug. 'And of course, in our case, as we

could name no destination, we had to go far and wide and do the best we could. We have gone as far west as

the Kingsmills and as far south as Rapaiti. Pity Symonds isn't here! He is full of yarns. That was his part, to

'Wait a bit,' said Davis, 'I'm out of my depth. How was this? Do you mean to say you did it singlehanded?'

'One did it singlehanded,' said Attwater, 'because there was nobody to help one.'

'By God, but you must be a holy terror!' cried the captain, in a glow of admiration.

'Well, now!' said Davis, 'I have seen a lot of driving in my time and been counted a good driver myself; I

fought my way, third mate, round the Cape Horn with a push of packet rats that would have turned the devil

out of hell and shut the door on him; and I tell you, this racket of Mr Attwater's takes the cake. In a ship, why,

there ain't nothing to it! You've got the law with you, that's what does it. But put me down on this blame'

beach alone, with nothing but a whip and a mouthful of bad words, and ask me to ... no, SIR! it's not good

enough! I haven't got the sand for that!' cried Davis. 'It's the law behind,' he added; 'it's the law does it, every

'Well, one got the law after a fashion,' said Attwater. 'One had to be a number of things. It was sometimes

'I dare say we mean the same thing,' said Attwater. 'However, one way or another, one got it knocked into

'You bet you did,' cried the captain. He was a good deal flushed, but not so much with wine as admiration;

and his eyes drank in the huge proportions of the other with delight. 'You bet you did, and you bet that I can

'Did youdid you ever have crime here?' asked Herrick, breaking his silence with a pungent voice.

'Well, you see, it was a queer case,' replied Attwater. 'it was a case that would have puzzled Solomon. Shall I

'Well,' drawled Attwater, 'here is what it was. I dare say you know two types of natives, which may be called

the obsequious and the sullen? Well, one had them, the types themselves, detected in the fact; and one had

them together. Obsequiousness ran out of the first like wine out of a bottle, sullenness congested in the

second. Obsequiousness was all smiles; he ran to catch your eye, he loved to gabble; and he had about a

dozen words of beach English, and an eighthofaninch veneer of Christianity. Sullens was industrious; a

big downlooking bee. When he was spoken to, he answered with a black look and a shrug of one shoulder,

but the thing would be done. I don't give him to you for a model of manners; there was nothing showy about

Sullens; but he was strong and steady, and ungraciously obedient. Now Sullens got into trouble; no matter

how; the regulations of the place were broken, and he was punished accordinglywithout effect. So, the

next day, and the next, and the day after, till I began to be weary of the business, and Sullens (I am afraid)

particularly so. There came a day when he was in fault again, for theoh, perhaps the thirtieth time; and he

rolled a dull eye upon me, with a spark in it, and appeared to speak. Now the regulations of the place are

formal upon one point: we allow no explanations; none are received, none allowed to be offered. So one

stopped him instantly; but made a note of the circumstance. The next day, he was gone from the settlement.

There could be nothing more annoying; if the labour took to running away, the fishery was wrecked. There

are sixty miles of this island, you see, all in length like the Queen's Highway; the idea of pursuit in such a

place was a piece of singleminded childishness, which one did not entertain. Two days later, I made a

discovery; it came in upon me with a flash that Sullens had been unjustly punished from beginning to end,

and the real culprit throughout had been Obsequiousness. The native who talks, like the woman who

hesitates, is lost. You set him talking and lying; and he talks, and lies, and watches your face to see if he has

pleased you; till at last, out comes the truth! It came out of Obsequiousness in the regular course. I said

nothing to him; I dismissed him; and late as it was, for it was already night, set off to look for Sullens. I had

not far to go: about two hundred yards up the island, the moon showed him to me. He was hanging in a cocoa

palmI'm not botanist enough to tell you howbut it's the way, in nine cases out of ten, these natives

commit suicide. His tongue was out, poor devil, and the birds had got at him; I spare you details, he was an

ugly sight! I gave the business six good hours of thinking in this verandah. My justice had been made a fool

of; I don't suppose that I was ever angrier. Next day, I had the conch sounded and all hands out before

sunrise. One took one's gun, and led the way, with Obsequiousness. He was very talkative; the beggar

supposed that all was right now he had confessed; in the old schoolboy phrase, he was plainly 'sucking up' to

me; full of protestations of goodwill and good behaviour; to which one answered one really can't remember

what. Presently the tree came in sight, and the hanged man. They all burst out lamenting for their comrade in

the island way, and Obsequiousness was the loudest of the mourners. He was quite genuine; a noxious

creature, without any consciousness of guilt. Well, presentlyto make a long story shortone told him to

go up the tree. He stared a bit, looked at one with a trouble in his eye, and had rather a sickly smile; but went.

He was obedient to the last; he had all the pretty virtues, but the truth was not in him. So soon as he was up,

he looked down, and there was the rifle covering him; and at that he gave a whimper like a dog. You could

bear a pin drop; no more keening now. There they all crouched upon the ground, with bulging eyes; there was

he in the tree top, the colour of the lead; and between was the dead man, dancing a bit in the air. He was

obedient to the last, recited his crime, recommended his soul to God. And then. . .'

Attwater paused, and Herrick, who had been listening attentively, made a convulsive movement which upset

'It was a murder,' he screamed. 'A coldhearted, bloodyminded murder! You monstrous being! Murderer

and hypocritemurderer and hypocritemurderer and hypocrite' he repeated, and his tongue stumbled

The captain was by him in a moment. 'Herrick!' he cried, 'behave yourself! Here, don't be a blame' fool!'

Herrick struggled in his embrace like a frantic child, and suddenly bowing his face in his hands, choked into a

sob, the first of many, which now convulsed his body silently, and now jerked from him indescribable and

'Your friend appears overexcited,' remarked Attwater, sitting unmoved but all alert at table.

'It must be the wine,' replied the captain. 'He ain't no drinking man, you see. II think I'll take him away. A

He led him without resistance out of the verandah and into the night, in which they soon melted; but still for

some time, as they drew away, his comfortable voice was to be heard soothing and remonstrating, and

"E's like a bloomin' poultry yard!' observed Huish, helping himself to wine (of which he spilled a good deal)

'Rather bad form, is it not?' said Attwater. 'Well, well, we are left teteatete. A glass of wine with you, Mr

The captain and Herrick meanwhile turned their back upon the lights in Attwater's verandah, and took a

The isle, at this hour, with its smooth floor of sand, the pillared roof overhead, and the prevalent illumination

of the lamps, wore an air of unreality like a deserted theatre or a public garden at midnight. A man looked

about him for the statues and tables. Not the least air of wind was stirring among the palms, and the silence

was emphasised by the continuous clamour of the surf from the seashore, as it might be of traffic in the next

Still talking, still soothing him, the captain hurried his patient on, brought him at last to the lagoon side, and

leading him down the beach, laved his head and face with the tepid water. The paroxysm gradually subsided,

the sobs became less convulsive and then ceased; by an odd but not quite unnatural conjunction, the captain's

soothing current of talk died away at the same time and by proportional steps, and the pair remained sunk in

silence. The lagoon broke at their feet in petty wavelets, and with a sound as delicate as a whisper; stars of all

degrees looked down on their own images in that vast mirror; and the more angry colour of the Farallone's

riding lamp burned in the middle distance. For long they continued to gaze on the scene before them, and

hearken anxiously to the rustle and tinkle of that miniature surf, or the more distant and loud reverberations

from the outer coast. For long speech was denied them; and when the words came at last, they came to both

But Herrick, turning swiftly towards his companion, bent him down with the eager cry: 'Let's up anchor,

'To sea,' responded Herrick. 'The sea's big enough! To seaaway from this dreadful island and that, oh! that

'Oh, we'll see about that,' said Davis. 'You brace up, and we'll see about that. You're all run down, that's

what's wrong with you; you're all nerves, like Jemimar; you've got to brace up good and be yourself again,

'It can't be, my son,' replied the captain firmly. 'No ship of mine puts to sea without provisions, you can take

'You don't seem to understand,' said Herrick. 'The whole thing is over, I tell you. There is nothing to do here,

when he knows all. That man there with the cat knows all; can't you take it in?'

'All what?' asked the captain, visibly discomposed. 'Why, he received us like a perfect gentleman and treated

us real handsome, until you began with your fooleryand I must say I seen men shot for less, and nobody

'Guying us,' he said, 'he was guying usonly guying us; it's all we're good for.'

'There was one queer thing, to be sure,' admitted the captain, with a misgiving of the voice; 'that about the

'Oh! give you away!' repeated Herrick with weary, querulous scorn. 'What was there to give away? We're

transparent; we've got rascal branded on us: detected rascaldetected rascal! Why, before he came on board,

there was the name painted out, and he saw the whole thing. He made sure we would kill him there and then,

and stood guying you and Huish on the chance. He calls that being frightened! Next he had me ashore; a fine

time I had! THE TWO WOLVES, he calls you and Huish.WHAT IS THE PUPPY DOING WITH THE

TWO WOLVES? he asked. He showed me his pearls; he said they might be dispersed before morning, and

ALL HUNG BY A HAIrand smiled as he said it, such a smile! O, it's no use, I tell you! He knows all, he

sees through all; we only make him laugh with our pretenceshe looks at us and laughs like God!'

'No, he didn't show them; I forgot: only the safe they were in,' said Herrick. 'But you'll never get them!'

'Do you think he would have been so easy at table, unless he was prepared?' cried Herrick. 'The servants were

both armed. He was armed himself; he always is; he told me. You will never deceive his vigilance. Davis, I

know it! It's all up; all up. There's nothing for it, there's nothing to be done: all gone: life, honour, love. Oh,

'Another thing!' he broke out. 'Why did he tell you all this? Seems like madness to me!'

Herrick shook his head with gloomy iteration. 'You wouldn't understand if I were to tell you,' said he.

'I guess I can understand any blame' thing that you can tell me,' said the captain.

'Oh, it's a fellow that believes a lot of things,' said Herrick, 'believes that his bullets go true; believes that all

Herrick shrugged his shoulders. 'Well, you must be a fool,' said he, and he leaned his head upon his knees.

'There's one thing sure,' he said at last. 'I must get Huish out of that. HE'S not fit to hold his end up with a

And he turned to go away. The words had been quite simple; not so the tone; and the other was quick to catch

'Davis!' he cried, 'no! Don't do it. Spare ME, and don't do it spare yourself, and leave it alonefor God's

His voice rose to a passionate shrillness; another moment, and he might be overheard by their not distant

victim. But Davis turned on him with a savage oath and gesture; and the miserable young man rolled over on

The captain meanwhile set out rapidly for Attwater's house. As he went, he considered with himself eagerly,

his thoughts racing. The man had understood, he had mocked them from the beginning; he would teach him

to make a mockery of John Davis! Herrick thought him a god; give him a second to aim in, and the god was

overthrown. He chuckled as he felt the butt of his revolver. It should be done now, as he went in. From

behind? It was difficult to get there. From across the table? No, the captain preferred to shoot standing, so as

you could be sure to get your hand upon your gun. The best would be to summon Huish, and when Attwater

stood up and turnedah, then would be the moment. Wrapped in his ardent prefiguration of events, the

And the captain, before he knew what he was doing, had obeyed. The surprise was complete and

irremediable. Coming on the top crest of his murderous intentions, he had walked straight into an ambuscade,

The party was now broken up. Attwater leaned on a post, and kept Davis covered with a Winchester. One of

the servants was hard by with a second at the port arms, leaning a little forward, roundeyed with eager

expectancy. In the open space at the head of the stair, Huish was partly supported by the other native; his face

wreathed in meaningless smiles, his mind seemingly sunk in the contemplation of an unlighted cigar.

The captain uttered a sound in his throat for which we have no name; rage choked him.

'I am going to give you Mr Whishor the winesop that remains of him,' continued Attwater. 'He talks a

great deal when he drinks, Captain Davis of the Sea Ranger. But I have quite done with himand return the

article with thanks. Now,' he cried sharply. 'Another false movement like that, and your family will have to

Attwater said a word in the native, his eye still undeviatingly fixed on the captain; and the servant thrust

Huish smartly forward from the brink of the stair. With an extraordinary simultaneous dispersion of his

members, that gentleman bounded forth into space, struck the earth, ricocheted, and brought up with his arms

about a palm. His mind was quite a stranger to these events; the expression of anguish that deformed his

countenance at the moment of the leap was probably mechanical; and he suffered these convulsions in

silence; clung to the tree like an infant; and seemed, by his dips, to suppose himself engaged in the pastime of

bobbing for apples. A more finely sympathetic mind or a more observant eye might havc remarked, a little in

'There is your Whitechapel carrion!' said Attwater. 'And now you might very well ask me why I do not put a

period to you at once, as you deserve. I will tell you why, Davis. It is because I have nothing to do with the

Sea Ranger and the people you drowned, or the Farallone and the champagne that you stole. That is your

account with God, He keeps it, and He will settle it when the clock strikes. In my own case, I have nothing to

go on but suspicion, and I do not kill on suspicion, not even vermin like you. But understand! if ever I see

any of you again, it is another matter, and you shall eat a bullet. And now take yourself off. March! and as

The captain remained as he was, his hands up, his mouth open: mesmerised with fury.

And Davis turned and passed slowly away. But even as he went, he was meditating a prompt, offensive

return. In the twinkling of an eye, he had leaped behind a tree; and was crouching there, pistol in hand,

peering from either side of his place of ambush with bared teeth; a serpent already poised to strike. And

already he was too late. Attwater and his servants had disappeared; and only the lamps shone on the deserted

table and the bright sand about the house, and threw into the night in all directions the strong and tall

Davis ground his teeth. Where were they gone, the cowards? to what hole had they retreated beyond reach? It

was in vain he should try anything, he, single and with a secondhand revolver, against three persons, armed

with Winchesters, and who did not show an ear out of any of the apertures of that lighted and silent house?

Some of them might have already ducked below it from the rear, and be drawing a bead upon him at that

moment from the lowbrowed crypt, the receptacle of empty bottles and broken crockery. No, there was

nothing to be done but to bring away (if it were still possible) his shattered and demorallsed forces.

''S all righ'. Sleep here 'th AttyAttwa. Go boar' t'morr',' replied the festive one.

'If you don't come, and come now, by the living God, I'll shoot you!' cried the captain.

It is not to be supposed that the sense of these words in any way penetrated to the mind of Hulsh; rather that,

in a fresh attempt upon the cigar, he overbalanced himself and came flying erratically forward: a course

'Now you walk straight,' said the captain, clutching him, 'or I'll know why not!'

The captain's contained fury blazed up for a moment. He twisted Huish round, grasped him by the neck of the

coat, ran him in front of him to the pier end, and flung him savagely forward on his face.

'Look for your cigar then, you swine!' said he, and blew his boat call till the pea in it ceased to rattle.

An immediate activity responded on board the Farallone; far away voices, and soon the sound of oars, floated

along the surface of the lagoon; and at the same time, from nearer hand, Herrick aroused himself and strolled

languidly up. He bent over the insignificant figure of Huish, where it grovelled, apparently insensible, at the

'Now you just shut your head!' replied Davis. 'You can do that, I fancy, and by God, I'll show you how! I'll

They waited accordingly in silence till the boat bumped on the furthest piers; then raised Huish, head and

heels, carried him down the gangway, and flung him summarily in the bottom. On the way out he was heard

murmuring of the loss of his cigar; and after he had been handed up the side like baggage, and cast down in

the alleyway to slumber, his last audible expression was: 'Splen'l fl' Attwa'!' This the expert construed into

'Splendid fellow, Attwater'; with so much innocence had this great spirit issued from the adventures of the

The captain went and walked in the waist with brief, irate turns; Herrick leaned his arms on the taffrail; the

crew had all turned in. The ship had a gentle, cradling motion; at times a block piped like a bird. On shore,

through the colonnade of palm stems, Attwater's house was to be seen shining steadily with many lamps. And

there was nothing else visible, whether in the heaven above or in the lagoon below, but the stars and their

reflections. It might have been minutes or it might have been hours, that Herrick leaned there, looking in the

glorified water and drinking peace. 'A bath of stars,' he was thinking; when a hand was laid at last on his

A sharp jar passed through the young man, but he neither answered nor so much as turned his head.

'I guess I spoke a little rough to you on shore,' pursued the captain; 'the fact is, I was real mad; but now it's

'Here, old man!' said Davis, kindly; 'this won't fight, you know! You've got to brace up and help me get

things straight. You're not going back on a friend? That's not like you, Herrick!'

'Come, come!' said the captain, and paused as if quite at a loss. 'Look here,' he cried, 'you have a glass of

champagne. I won't touch it, so that'll show you if I'm in earnest. But it's just the pickmeup for you; it'll put

The captain caught him by the sleeve; and he shook him off and turned on him, for the moment, like a

And he turned away again, this time unchecked, and stepped forward to where the boat rocked alongside and

ground occasionally against the schooner. He looked about him. A corner of the house was interposed

between the captain and himself; all was well; no eye must see him in that last act. He slid silently into the

The shock of the immersion brightened his mind immediately. The events of the ignoble day passed before

him in a frieze of pictures, and he thanked 'whatever Gods there be' for that open door of suicide. In such a

little while he would be done with it, the random business at an end, the prodigal son come home. A very

bright planet shone before him and drew a trenchant wake along the water. He took that for his line and

followed it. That was the last earthly thing that he should look upon; that radiant speck, which he had soon

magnified into a City of Laputa, along whose terraces there walked men and women of awful and benignant

features, who viewed him with distant commiseration. These imaginary spectators consoled him; he told

From such flights of fancy, he was aroused by the growing coldness of the water. Why should he delay?

Here, where he was now, let him drop the curtain, let him seek the ineffable refuge, let him lie down with all

races and generations of men in the house of sleep. It was easy to say, easy to do. To stop swimming: there

was no mystery in that, if he could do it. Could he? And he could not. He knew it instantly. He was aware

instantly of an opposition in his members, unanimous and invincible, clinging to life with a single and fixed

resolve, finger by finger, sinew by sinew; something that was at once he and not heat once within and

without him;the shutting of some miniature valve in his brain, which a single manly thought should suffice

to openand the grasp of an external fate ineluctable as gravity. To any man there may come at times a

consciousness that there blows, through all the articulations of his body, the wind of a spirit not wholly his;

that his mind rebels; that another girds him and carries him whither he would not. It came now to Herrick,

with the authority of a revelation. There was no escape possible. The open door was closed in his recreant

face. He must go back into the world and amongst men without illusion. He must stagger on to the end with

the pack of his responsibility and his disgrace, until a cold, a blow, a merciful chance ball, or the more

merciful hangman, should dismiss him from his infamy. There were men who could commit suicide; there

For perhaps a minute, there raged in his mind the coil of this discovery; then cheerless certitude followed;

and, with an incredible simplicity of submission to ascertained fact, he turned round and struck out for shore.

There was a courage in this which he could not appreciate; the ignobility of his cowardice wholly occupying

him. A strong current set against him like a wind in his face; he contended with it heavily, wearily, without

enthusiasm, but with substantial advantage; marking his progress the while, without pleasure, by the outline

of the trees. Once he had a moment of hope. He heard to the southward of him, towards the centre of the

lagoon, the wallowing of some great fish, doubtless a shark, and paused for a little, treading water. Might not

this be the hangman? he thought. But the wallowing died away; mere silence succeeded; and Herrick pushed

on again for the shore, raging as he went at his own nature. Ay, he would wait for the shark; but if he had

About three in the morning, chance, and the set of the current, and the bias of his own righthanded body, so

decided it between them that he came to shore upon the beach in front of Attwater's. There he sat down, and

looked forth into a world without any of the lights of hope. The poor diving dress of selfconceit was sadly

tattered! With the fairy tale of suicide, of a refuge always open to him, he had hitherto beguiled and supported

himself in the trials of life; and behold! that also was only a fairy tale, that also was folklore. With the

consequences of his acts he saw himself implacably confronted for the duration of life: stretched upon a

cross, and nailed there with the iron bolts of his own cowardice. He had no tears; he told himself no stories.

His disgust with himself was so complete that even the process of apologetic mythology had ceased. He was

like a man cast down from a pillar, and every bone broken. He lay there, and admitted the facts, and did not

Dawn began to break over the far side of the atoll, the sky brightened, the clouds became dyed with gorgeous

colours, the shadows of the night lifted. And, suddenly, Herrick was aware that the lagoon and the trees wore

again their daylight livery; and he saw, on board the Farallone, Davis extinguishing the lantern, and smoke

Davis, without doubt, remarked and recognised the figure on the beach; or perhaps hesitated to recognise it;

for after he had gazed a long while from under his hand, he went into the house and fetched a glass. It was

very powerful; Herrick had often used it. With an instinct of shame, he hid his face in his hands.

'And what brings you here, Mr HerrickHay, or Mr HayHerrick?' asked the voice of Attwater. 'Your back

view from my present position is remarkably fine, and I would continue to present it. We can get on very

nicely as we are, and if you were to turn round, do you know? I think it would be awkward.'

Herrick slowly rose to his feet; his heart throbbed hard, a hideous excitement shook him, but he was master of

himself. Slowly he turned, and faced Attwater and the muzzle of a pointed rifle. 'Why could I not do that last

'I don't know' ' said Herrick; and then, with a cry: 'Can you do anything with me?'

'Armed? No!' said Herrick. 'O yes, I am, too!' And he flung upon the beach a dripping pistol.

'There is very little to be done with that,' said Attwater. 'And yet the description hardly strikes one as

'Oh, what does it matter?' cried Herrick. 'Here I am. I am broken crockery; I am a burst drum; the whole of

my life is gone to water; I have nothing left that I believe in, except my living horror of myself. Why do I

come to you? I don't know; you are cold, cruel, hateful; and I hate you, or I think I hate you. But you are an

honest man, an honest gentleman. I put myself, helpless, in your hands. What must I do? If I can't do

anything, be merciful and put a bullet through me; it's only a puppy with a broken leg!'

'If I were you, I would pick up that pistol, come up to the house, and put on some dry clothes,' said Attwater.

'If you really mean it?' said Herrick. 'You know theywethey . . . But you know all.'

And the captain, from the deck of the Farallone, saw the two men pass together under the shadow of the

Huish had bundled himself up from the glare of the dayhis face to the house, his knees retracted. The frail

bones in the thin tropical raiment seemed scarce more considerable than a fowl's; and Davis, sitting on the

rail with his arm about a stay, contemplated him with gloom, wondering what manner of counsel that

insignificant figure should contain. For since Herrick had thrown him off and deserted to the enemy, Huish,

He considered their position with a sinking heart. The ship was a stolen ship; the stores, either from initial

carelessness or ill administration during the voyage, were insufficient to carry them to any port except back to

Papeete; and there retribution waited in the shape of a gendarme, a judge with a queershaped hat, and the

horror of distant Noumea. Upon that side, there was no glimmer of hope. Here, at the island, the dragon was

roused; Attwater with his men and his Winchesters watched and patrolled the house; let him who dare

approach it. What else was then left but to sit there, inactive, pacing the decksuntil the Trinity Hall arrived

and they were cast into irons, or until the food came to an end, and the pangs of famine succeeded? For the

Trinity Hall Davis was prepared; he would barricade the house, and die there defending it, like a rat in a

crevice. But for the other? The cruise of the Farallone, into which he had plunged only a fortnight before,

with such golden expectations, could this be the nightmare end of it? The ship rotting at anchor, the crew

stumbling and dying in the scuppers? It seemed as if any extreme of hazard were to be preferred to so grisly a

certainty; as if it would be better to upanchor after all, put to sea at a venture, and, perhaps, perish at the

hands of cannibals on one of the more obscure Paumotus. His eye roved swiftly over sea and sky in quest of

any promise of wind, but the fountains of the Trade were empty. Where it had run yesterday and for weeks

before, a roaring blue river charioting clouds, silence now reigned; and the whole height of the atmosphere

stood balanced. On the endless ribbon of island that stretched out to either hand of him its array of golden and

green and silvery palms, not the most volatile frond was to be seen stirring; they drooped to their stable

images in the lagoon like things carved of metal, and already their long line began to reverberate heat. There

was no escape possible that day, none probable on the morrow. And still the stores were running out!

Then came over Davis, from deep down in the roots of his being, or at least from far back among his

memories of childhood and innocence, a wave of superstition. This run of ill luck was something beyond

natural; the chances of the game were in themselves more various; it seemed as if the devil must serve the

pieces. The devil? He heard again the clear note of Attwater's bell ringing abroad into the night, and dying

Briskly, he averted his mind. Attwater: that was the point. Attwater had food and a treasure of pearls; escape

made possible in the present, riches in the future. They must come to grips, with Attwater; the man must die.

A smoky heat went over his face, as he recalled the impotent figure he had made last night and the

contemptuous speeches he must bear in silence. Rage, shame, and the love of life, all pointed the one way;

and only invention halted: how to reach him? had he strength enough? was there any help in that misbegotten

His eyes dwelled upon him with a strange avidity, as though he would read into his soul; and presently the

sleeper moved, stirred uneasily, turned suddenly round, and threw him a blinking look. Davis maintained the

'Lord, I've an 'eadache on me!' said he. 'I believe I was a bit swipey last night. W'ere's that crybyby 'Errick?'

'Yes, I would,' replied Huish. 'I like Attwater. 'E's all right; we got on like one o'clock when you were gone.

And ain't his sherry in it, rather? It's like Spiers and Ponds' Amontillado! I wish I 'ad a drain of it now.' He

"Ere! wot's wrong with you, Dyvis? Coppers 'ot? Well, look at me! I ain't grumpy,' said Huish; 'I'm as plyful

'Yes,' said Davis, 'you're playful; I own that; and you were playful last night, I believe, and a damned fine

And he did: at full length, with every wounding epithet and absurd detail repeated and emphasised; he had his

own vanity and Huish's upon the grill, and roasted them; and as he spoke, he inflicted and endured agonies of

'What do you think of it?' said he, when he had done, and looked down at Huish, flushed and serious, and yet

'I'll tell you wot it is,' was the reply, 'you and me cut a pretty dicky figure.'

'That's so,' said Davis, 'a pretty measly figure, by God! And, by God, I want to see that man at my knees.'

'That's it!' cried Davis. 'How to get hold of him! They're four to two; though there's only one man among

them to count, and that's Attwater. Get a bead on Attwater, and the others would cut and run and sing out like

frightened poultryand old man Herrick would come round with his hat for a share of the pearls. No, SIR!

it's how to get hold of Attwater! And we daren't even go ashore; he would shoot us in the boat like dogs.'

'Oh, you let me alone, will you?' said Huish, opening a bottle of champagne. 'You'll 'ear my idea soon

enough. Wyte till I pour some chain on my 'ot coppers.' He drank a glass off, and affected to listen. ''Ark!'

said he, ''ear it fizz. Like 'am fryin', I declyre. 'Ave a glass, do, and look sociable.'

'You p'ys your money and you tykes your choice, my little man,' returned Huish. 'Seems rather a shyme to me

He finished three parts of a bottle of champagne, and nibbled a corner of biscuit, with extreme deliberation;

the captain sitting opposite and champing the bit like an impatient horse. Then Huish leaned his arms on the

'The trouble is that I've got none,' replied Davis; and wandered for some time in aimless discussion of the

'Well, then,' said Huish, 'you give me your 'and across the table, and say, "Gawd strike me dead if I don't back

His voice was hardly raised, yet it thrilled the hearer. His face seemed the epitome of cunning, and the

'I do, though,' returned Huish. 'Gimme your 'and and say the words; then you'll 'ear my view of it. Don't, and

The captain went through the required form, breathing short, and gazing on the clerk with anguish. What to

'Now, if you'll excuse me 'alf a second,' said Huish, 'I'll go and fetch the byby.'

'Fragile. With care. This side up,' replied the clerk with a wink, as he disappeared.

He returned, smiling to himself, and carrying in his hand a silk handkerchief. The long stupid wrinkles ran up

Davis's brow, as he saw it. What should it contain? He could think of nothing more recondite than a revolver.

'Now,' said he, 'are you man enough to take charge of 'Errick and the niggers? Because I'll take care of

'Tut, tut!' said the clerk. 'You gimme time. Wot's the first point? The first point is that we can't get ashore, and

I'll make you a present of that for a 'ard one. But 'ow about a flag of truce? Would that do the trick, d'ye

think? or would Attwater simply blyze aw'y at us in the bloomin' boat like dawgs?'

'No more do I,' said Huish; 'I don't believe he would either; and I'm sure I 'ope he won't! So then you can call

us ashore. Next point is to get near the managin' direction. And for that I'm going to 'ave you write a letter, in

w'ich you s'y you're ashamed to meet his eye, and that the bearer, Mr J. L. 'Uish, is empowered to represent

you. Armed with w'ich seemin'ly simple expedient, Mr J. L. 'Uish will proceed to business.'

'Well, you see, you're big,' returned Huish; ''e knows you 'ave a gun in your pocket, and anybody can see with

'alf an eye that you ain't the man to 'esitate about usin' it. So it's no go with you, and never was; you're out of

the runnin', Dyvis. But he won't be afryde of me, I'm such a little un! I'm unarmedno kid about thatand

I'll hold my 'ands up right enough.' He paused. 'If I can manage to sneak up nearer to him as we talk,' he

resumed, 'you look out and back me up smart. If I don't, we go aw'y again, and nothink to 'urt. See?'

'I mean to do for the Beast!' cried Huish, in a burst of venomous triumph. 'I'll bring the 'ulkin' bully to grass.

He's 'ad his larks out of me; I'm goin' to 'ave my lark out of 'im, and a good lark too!'

'We'n you're back's at the wall, you do the best you can, don't you?' began the clerk. 'I s'y that, because I

'appen to know there's a prejudice against it; it's considered vulgar, awf'ly vulgar.' He unrolled the

handkerchief and showed a fourounce jar. 'This 'ere's vitriol, this is,' said he.

'This is the stuff!' he pursued, holding it up. 'This'll burn to the bone; you'll see it smoke upon 'im like 'ell fire!

'Now, see 'ere, ducky,' said Huish, 'this is my bean feast, I believe? I'm goin' up to that man single'anded, I

am. 'E's about seven foot high, and I'm five foot one. 'E's a rifle in his 'and, 'e's on the lookout, 'e wasn't born

yesterday. This is Dyvid and Goliar, I tell you! If I'd ast you to walk up and face the music I could

understand. But I don't. I on'y ast you to stand by and spifflicate the niggers. It'll all come in quite natural;

you'll see, else! Fust thing, you know, you'll see him running round and owling like a good un . . .'

'Well, you ARE a juggins!' exclaimed Huish. 'What did you want? You wanted to kill him, and tried to last

night. You wanted to kill the 'ole lot of them and tried to, and 'ere I show you 'ow; and because there's some

'I suppose that's so,' said Davis. 'It don't seem someways reasonable, only there it is.'

'I don't know what it is,' cried Davis, pacing the floor; 'it's there! I draw the line at it. I can't put a finger to no

'And I suppose it's all your fancy pynted it,' said Huish, 'w'en you take a pistol and a bit o' lead, and copse a

'I'm not denying it,' said Davis, 'It's something here, inside of me. It's foolishness; I dare say it's dam

'Look for yourself,' said Huish. 'I ain't wedded to this, if you think I am; I ain't ambitious; I don't make a point

of playin' the lead; I offer to, that's all, and if you can't show me better, by Gawd, I'm goin' to!'

'If you ast me straight, I should say it was a case of seven to one and no takers,' said Huish. 'But that's my

The captain looked at him. Huish sat there, preening his sinister vanity, glorying in his precedency in evil;

and the villainous courage and readiness of the creature shone out of him like a candle from a lantern.

Dismay and a kind of respect seized hold on Davis in his own despite. Until that moment, he had seen the

clerk always hanging back, always listless, uninterested, and openly grumbling at a word of anything to do;

and now, by the touch of an enchanter's wand, he beheld him sitting girt and resolved, and his face radiant.

He had raised the devil, he thought; and asked who was to control him? and his spirits quailed.

'Look as long as you like,' Huish was going on. 'You don't see any green in my eye! I ain't afryde of Attwater,

I ain't afryde of you, and I ain't afryde of words. You want to kill people, that's wot YOU want; but you want

to do it in kid gloves, and it can't be done that w'y. Murder ain't genteel, it ain't easy, it ain't safe, and it tykes

'Huish!' began the captain with energy; and then stopped, and remained staring at him with corrugated brows.

'Well, hout with it!' said Huish. "Ave you anythink else to put up? Is there any other chanst to try?'

'Oh, you may do sentrygo till you're blue in the mug, you won't find anythink else,' said Huish.

There was a little silence; the captain, like a man launched on a swing, flying dizzily among extremes of

'But see,' he said, suddenly pausing. 'Can you? Can the thing be done? Itit can't be easy.'

'If I get within twenty foot of 'im it'll be done; so you look out,' said Huish, and his tone of certainty was

'How can you know that?' broke from the captain in a choked cry. 'You beast, I believe you've done it before!'

A shock of repulsion struck and shook the captain; a scream rose almost to his lips; had he uttered it, he

might have cast himself at the same moment on the body of Huish, might have picked him up, and flung him

down, and wiped the cabin with him, in a frenzy of cruelty that seemed half moral. But the moment passed;

and the abortive crisis left the man weaker. The stakes were so highthe pearls on the one handstarvation

and shame on the other. Ten years of pearls! The imagination of Davis translated them into a new, glorified

existence for himself and his family. The seat of this new life must be in London; there were deadly reasons

against Portland, Maine; and the pictures that came to him were of English manners. He saw his boys

marching in the procession of a school, with gowns on, an usher marshalling them and reading as he walked

in a great book. He was installed in a villa, semidetached; the name, Rosemore, on the gateposts. In a chair

on the gravel walk, he seemed to sit smoking a cigar, a blue ribbon in his buttonhole, victor over himself and

circumstances, and the malignity of bankers. He saw the parlour with red curtains and shells on the

mantelpieceand with the fine inconsistency of visions, mixed a grog at the mahogany table ere he turned

in. With that the Farallone gave one of the aimless and nameless movements which (even in an anchored ship

and even in the most profound calm) remind one of the mobility of fluids; and he was back again under the

cover of the house, the fierce daylight besieging it all round and glaring in the chinks, and the clerk in a rather

He began to walk again. He aspired after the realisation of these dreams, like a horse nickering for water; the

lust of them burned in his inside. And the only obstacle was Attwater, who had insulted him from the first.

He gave Herrick a full share of the pearls, he insisted on it; Huish opposed him, and he trod the opposition

down; and praised himself exceedingly. He was not going to use vitriol himself; was he Huish's keeper? It

was a pity he had asked, but after all! . . . he saw the boys again in the school procession, with the gowns he

had thought to be so 'tony' long since . . . And at the same time the incomparable shame of the last evening

'Oh, I knew you would walk up,' said Huish. 'Now for the letter. There's paper, pens and ink. Sit down and I'll

The captain took a seat and the pen, looked a while helplessly at the paper, then at Huish. The swing had

gone the other way; there was a blur upon his eyes. 'It's a dreadful business,' he said, with a strong twitch of

'It's rather a start, no doubt,' said Huish. 'Tyke a dip of ink. That's it. William John Hattwater, Esq., Sir': he

'O my golly!' cried the exasperated Huish. 'Wot kind of man do YOU call yourself? I'M goin' to tell you wot

to write; that's my pitch; if you'll just be so bloomin' condescendin' as to write it down! WILLIAM JOHN

ATTWATER, ESQ., SIR': he reiterated. And the captain at last beginning half mechanically to move his pen,

It is with feelings of shyme and 'artfelt contrition that I approach you after the yumiliatin' events of last night.

Our Mr 'Errick has left the ship, and will have doubtless communicated to you the nature of our 'opes.

Needless to s'y, these are no longer possible: Fate 'as declyred against us, and we bow the 'ead. Well awyre as

I am of the just suspicions with w'ich I am regarded, I do not venture to solicit the fyvour of an interview for

myself, but in order to put an end to a situytion w'ich must be equally pyneful to all, I 'ave deputed my friend

and partner, Mr J. L. Huish, to l'y before you my proposals, and w'ich by their moderytion, Will, I trust, be

found to merit your attention. Mr J. L. Huish is entirely unarmed, I swear to Gawd! and will 'old 'is 'ands over

'is 'ead from the moment he begins to approach you. I am your fytheful servant, John Davis.

Huish read the letter with the innocent joy of amateurs, chuckled gustfully to himself, and reopened it more

than once after it was folded, to repeat the pleasure; Davis meanwhile sitting inert and heavily frowning.

Of a sudden he rose; he seemed all abroad. 'No!' he cried. 'No! it can't be! It's too much; it's damnation. God

'Well, and 'oo wants Him to?' returned Huish, shrill with fury. 'You were damned years ago for the Sea

Rynger, and said so yourself. Well then, be damned for something else, and 'old your tongue.'

The captain looked at him mistily. 'No,' he pleaded, 'no, old man! don't do it.'

"Ere now,' said Huish, 'I'll give you my ultimytum. Go or st'y w'ere you are; I don't mind; I'm goin' to see that

man and chuck this vitriol in his eyes. If you st'y I'll go alone; the niggers will likely knock me on the 'ead,

and a fat lot you'll be the better! But there's one thing sure: I'll 'ear no more of your moonin', mullygrubbin'

The captain took it with a blink and a gulp. Memory, with phantom voices, repeated in his cars something

'Now, gimme over your pistol,' said Huish. 'I 'ave to see all clear. Six shots, and mind you don't wyste them.'

The captain, like a man in a nightmare, laid down his revolver on the table, and Huish wiped the cartridges

It was close on noon, there was no breath of wind, and the heat was scarce bearable, when the two men came

on deck, had the boat manned, and passed down, one after another, into the sternsheets. A white shirt at the

end of an oar served as a flag of truce; and the men, by direction, and to give it the better chance to be

observed, pulled with extreme slowness. The isle shook before them like a place incandescent; on the face of

the lagoon blinding copper suns, no bigger than sixpences, danced and stabbed them in the eyeballs; there

went up from sand and sea, and even from the boat, a glare of scathing brightness; and as they could only

peer abroad from between closed lashes, the excess of light seemed to be changed into a sinister darkness,

The captain had come upon this errand for any one of a dozen reasons, the last of which was desire for its

success. Superstition rules all men; semiignorant and gross natures, like that of Davis, it rules utterly. For

murder he had been prepared; but this horror of the medicine in the bottle went beyond him, and he seemed to

himself to be parting the last strands that united him to God. The boat carried him on to reprobation, to

damnation; and he suffered himself to be carried passively consenting, silently bidding farewell to his better

self and his hopes. Huish sat by his side in towering spirits that were not wholly genuine. Perhaps as brave a

man as ever lived, brave as a weasel, he must still reassure himself with the tones of his own voice; he must

play his part to exaggeration, he must outHerod Herod, insult all that was respectable, and brave all that was

'Golly, but it's 'ot!' said he. 'Cruel 'ot, I call it. Nice d'y to get your gruel in! I s'y, you know, it must feel awf'ly

peculiar to get bowled over on a d'y like this. I'd rather 'ave it on a cowld and frosty morning, wouldn't you?

(Singing) "'Ere we go round the mulberry bush on a cowld and frosty mornin'." (Spoken) Give you my word,

I 'aven't thought o' that in ten year; used to sing it at a hinfant school in 'Ackney, 'Ackney Wick it was.

(Singing) "This is the way the tyler does, the tyler does.' (Spoken) Bloomin' 'umbug. 'Ow are you off now, for

the notion of a future styte? Do you cotton to the teafight views, or the old red 'ot boguey business?'

'No, but I want to know,' said Huish. 'It's within the sp'ere of practical politics for you and me, my boy; we

may both be bowled over, one up, t'other down, within the next ten minutes. It would be rather a lark, now, if

you only skipped across, came up smilin' t'other side, and a hangel met you with a B. and S. under his wing.

The captain groaned. While Huish was thus airing and exercising his bravado, the man at his side was

actually engaged in prayer. Prayer, what for? God knows. But out of his inconsistent, illogical, and agitated

spirit, a stream of supplication was poured forth, inarticulate as himself, earnest as death and judgment.

'Thou Gawd seest me!' continued Huish. 'I remember I had that written in my Bible. I remember the Bible

too, all about Abinadab and parties. Well, Gawd!' apostrophising the meridian, 'you're goin' to see a rum start

'All right, cap,' said Huish. 'Anythink to oblige. Any other topic you would like to sudgest, the rynegyge, the

lightnin' rod, Shykespeare, or the musical glasses? 'Ere's conversation on a tap. Put a penny in the slot, and . .

And the little man straightened himself into an alert and dashing attitude, and looked steadily at the enemy.

And indeed it was something strange. Herrick and Attwater, both armed with Winchesters, had appeared out

of the grove behind the figurehead; and to either hand of them, the sun glistened upon two metallic objects,

locomotory like men, and occupying in the economy of these creatures the places of heads only the heads

were faceless. To Davis between wind and water, his mythology appeared to have come alive, and Tophet to

The two natives (for they it was that were equipped in this unusual panoply of war) spread out to right and

left, and at last lay down in the shade, on the extreme flank of the position. Even now that the mystery was

explained, Davis was hatefully preoccupied, stared at the flame on their crests, and forgot, and then

Attwater withdrew again into the grove, and Herrick, with his gun under his arm, came down the pier alone.

'I'll tell that to Mr Attwater,' replied Huish, stepping briskly on the ladder. 'I don't tell it to you, because you

played the trucklin' sneak. Here's a letter for him: tyke it, and give it, and be 'anged to you!'

Davis raised his chin, glanced swiftly at Herrick and away again, and held his peace. The glance was charged

with some deep emotion, but whether of hatred or of fear, it was beyond Herrick to divine.

'Well,' he said, 'I'll give the letter.' He drew a score with his foot on the boards of the gangway. 'Till I bring

And he returned to where Attwater leaned against a tree, and gave him the letter. Attwater glanced it through.

'Well, tell him to come on,' said Attwater. 'One isn't a fatalist for nothing. Tell him to come on and to look

Herrick returned to the figurehead. Halfway down the pier the clerk was waiting, with Davis by his side.

'You are to come along, Huish,' said Herrick. 'He bids you look out, no tricks.'

'W'ere is 'e?' said he, and to Herrick's surprise, the lowbred, insignificant face before him flushed suddenly

The clerk turned away from him and towards the figurehead, as though he were about to address to it his

devotions; he was seen to heave a deep breath; and raised his arms. In common with many men of his

unhappy physical endowments, Huish's hands were disproportionately long and broad, and the palms in

particular enormous; a fourounce jar was nothing in that capacious fist. The next moment he was plodding

Herrick at first followed. Then a noise in his rear startled him, and he turned about to find Davis already

advanced as far as the figurehead. He came, crouching and openmouthed, as the mesmerised may follow

the mesmeriser; all human considerations, and even the care of his own life, swallowed up in one abominable

'Halt!' cried Herrick, covering him with his rifle. 'Davis, what are you doing, man? YOU are not to come.'

'Put your back to that figurehead, do you hear me? and stand fast!' said Herrick.

The captain fetched a breath, stepped back against the figurehead, and instantly redirected his glances after

There was a hollow place of the sand in that part, and, as it were, a glade among the cocoa palms in which the

direct noonday sun blazed intolerably. At the far end, in the shadow, the tall figure of Attwater was to be seen

leaning on a tree; towards him, with his hands over his head, and his steps smothered in the sand, the clerk

painfully waded. The surrounding glare threw out and exaggerated the man's smallness; it seemed no less

perilous an enterprise, this that he was gone upon, than for a whelp to besiege a citadel.

'There, Mr Whish. That will do,' cried Attwater. 'From that distance, and keeping your hands up, like a good

The interval betwixt them was perhaps forty feet; and Huish measured it with his eye, and breathed a curse.

He was already distressed with labouring in the loose sand, and his arms ached bitterly from their unnatural

position. In the palm of his right hand, the jar was ready; and his heart thrilled, and his voice choked,as he

'I can set your mind at rest: I had,' returned Attwater; 'and henceforth, if I might venture to suggest it, her

name need not recur in our communications. I should perhaps tell you that I am not amenable to the pathetic.'

'I am sorry, sir, if I 'ave seemed to tresparse on your private feelin's,' said the clerk, cringing and stealing a

step. 'At least, sir, you will never pe'suade me that you are not a perfec' gentleman; I know a gentleman when

I see him; and as such, I 'ave no 'esitation in throwin' myself on your merciful consideration. It IS 'ard lines,

no doubt; it's 'ard lines to have to hown yourself beat; it's 'ard lines to 'ave to come and beg to you for charity.'

'When, if things had only gone right, the whole place was as good as your own?' suggested Attwater. 'I can

'You are judging me, Mr Attwater,' said the clerk, 'and God knows how unjustly! THOU GAWD SEEST ME,

was the tex' I 'ad in my Bible, w'ich my father wrote it in with 'is own 'and upon the fly leaft.'

'I am sorry I have to beg your pardon once more,' said Attwater; 'but, do you know, you seem to me to be a

trifle nearer, which is entirely outside of our bargain. And I would venture to suggest that you take

The devil, at this staggering disappointment, looked out of Huish's face, and Attwater was swift to suspect.

He frowned, he stared on the little man, and considered. Why should he be creeping nearer? The next

'Kindly oblige me by opening your hands. Open your hands widelet me see the fingers spread, you

dogthrow down that thing you're holding!' he roared, his rage and certitude increasing together.

And then, at almost the same moment, the indomitable Huish decided to throw, and Attwater pulled the

trigger. There was scarce the difference of a second between the two resolves, but it was in favour of the man

with the rifle; and the jar had not yet left the clerk's hand, before the ball shattered both. For the twinkling of

an eye the wretch was in hell's agonies, bathed in liquid flames, a screaming bedlamite; and then a second

The whole thing was come and gone in a breath. Before Herrick could turn about, before Davis could

Attwater ran to the body; he stooped and viewed it; he put his finger in the vitriol, and his face whitened and

Davis had not yet moved; he stood astonished, with his back to the figurehead, his hands clutching it behind

'Davis,' he cried, in a voice like a trumpet, 'I give you sixty seconds to make your peace with God!'

Davis looked, and his mind awoke. He did not dream of selfdefence, he did not reach for his pistol. He drew

'I guess I'll not trouble the Old Man,' he said; 'considering the job I was on, I guess it's better business to just

Attwater fired; there came a spasmodic movement of the victim, and immediately above the middle of his

forehead, a black hole marred the whiteness of the figurehead. A dreadful pause; then again the report, and

the solid sound and jar of the bullet in the wood; and this time the captain had felt the wind of it along his

cheek. A third shot, and he was bleeding from one ear; and along the levelled rifle Attwater smiled like a Red

The cruel game of which he was the puppet was now clear to Davis; three times he had drunk of death, and

he must look to drink of it seven times more before he was despatched. He held up his hand.

The captain shut his eyes tight like a child: he held his hands up at last with a tragic and ridiculous gesture.

'My God, for Christ's sake, look after my two kids,' he said; and then, after a pause and a falter, 'for Christ's

So?' said Attwater, resting the butt of his rifle on the ground, 'is that done? Is your peace made with Heaven?

Because it is with me. Go, and sin no more, sinful father. And remember that whatever you do to others, God

The wretched Davis came staggering forward from his place against the figurehead, fell upon his knees, and

When he came to himself again, his head was on Attwater's arm, and close by stood one of the men in divers'

helmets, holding a bucket of water, from which his late executioner now laved his face. The memory of that

dreadful passage returned upon him in a clap; again he saw Huish lying dead, again he seemed to himself to

totter on the brink of an unplumbed eternity. With trembling hands he seized hold of the man whom he had

come to slay; and his voice broke from him like that of a child among the nightmares of fever: 'O! isn't there

On a very bright, hot, lusty, strongly blowing noon, a fortnight after the events recorded, and a month since

the curtain rose upon this episode, a man might have been spied, praying on the sand by the lagoon beach. A

point of palm trees isolated him from the settlement; and from the place where he knelt, the only work of

man's hand that interrupted the expanse, was the schooner Farallone, her berth quite changed, and rocking at

anchor some two miles to windward in the midst of the lagoon. The noise of the Trade ran very boisterous in

all parts of the island; the nearer palm trees crashed and whistled in the gusts, those farther off contributed a

humming bass like the roar of cities; and yet, to any man less absorbed, there must have risen at times over

this turmoil of the winds, the sharper note of the human voice from the settlement. There all was activity.

Attwater, stripped to his trousers and lending a strong hand of help, was directing and encouraging five

Kanakas; from his lively voice, and their more lively efforts, it was to be gathered that some sudden and

joyful emergency had set them in this bustle; and the Union Jack floated once more on its staff. But the

suppliant on the beach, unconscious of their voices, prayed on with instancy and fervour, and the sound of his

voice rose and fell again, and his countenance brightened and was deformed with changing moods of piety

Before his closed eyes, the skiff had been for some time tacking towards the distant and deserted Farallone;

and presently the figure of Herrick might have been observed to board her, to pass for a while into the house,

thence forward to the forecastle, and at last to plunge into the main hatch. In all these quarters, his visit was

followed by a coil of smoke; and he had scarce entered his boat again and shoved off, before flames broke

forth upon the schooner. They burned gaily; kerosene had not been spared, and the bellows of the Trade

incited the conflagration. About half way on the return voyage, when Herrick looked back, he beheld the

Farallone wrapped to the topmasts in leaping arms of fire, and the voluminous smoke pursuing him along the

face of the lagoon. In one hour's time, he computed, the waters would have closed over the stolen ship.

It so chanced that, as his boat flew before the wind with much vivacity, and his eyes were continually busy in

the wake, measuring the progress of the flames, he found himself embayed to the northward of the point of

palms, and here became aware at the same time of the figure of Davis immersed in his devotion. An

exclamation, part of annoyance, part of amusement, broke from him: and he touched the helm and ran the

prow upon the beach not twenty feet from the unconscious devotee. Taking the painter in his hand, he landed,

and drew near, and stood over him. And still the voluble and incoherent stream of prayer continued unabated.

It was not possible for him to overhear the suppliant's petitions, which he listened to some while in a very

mingled mood of humour and pity: and it was only when his own name began to occur and to be conjoined

'Sorry to interrupt the exercise,' said he; 'but I want you to look at the Farallone.'

The captain scrambled to his feet, and stood gasping and staring. 'Mr Herrick, don't startle a man like that!' he

said. 'I don't seem someways rightly myself since . . .' he broke off. 'What did you say anyway? O, the

'Yes,' said Herrick. 'There she burns! and you may guess from that what the news is.'

'The same,' said Herrick; 'sighted half an hour ago, and coming up hand over fist.'

'Well,' replied the captain, meditatively, 'you mayn't just see the way that I view it in, but I'd 'most rather stay

here upon this island. I found peace here, peace in believing. Yes, I guess this island is about good enough for

'I never heard such nonsense!' cried Herrick. 'What! with all turning out in your favour the way it does, the

Farallone wiped out, the crew disposed of, a sure thing for your wife and family, and you, yourself,

'Now, Mr Herrick, don't say that,' said the captain gently; 'when you know he don't make no difference

between us. But, O! why not be one of us? why not come to Jesus right away, and let's meet in yon beautiful

land? That's just the one thing wanted; just say, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief! And He'll fold you