The Ebb-Tide: A Trio And Quartette, Page 2

  Chapter 2. MORNING ON THE BEACH--THE THREE LETTERS

  The clouds were all fled, the beauty of the tropic day was spread uponPapeete; and the wall of breaking seas upon the reef, and the palms uponthe islet, already trembled in the heat. A French man-of-war was goingout, homeward bound; she lay in the middle distance of the port, an antheap for activity. In the night a schooner had come in, and now lay farout, hard by the passage; and the yellow flag, the emblem of pestilence,flew on her. From up the coast, a long procession of canoes headedround the point and towards the market, bright as a scarf with themany-coloured clothing of the natives and the piles of fruit. But noteven the beauty and the welcome warmth of the morning, not even thesenaval movements, so interesting to sailors and to idlers, could engagethe attention of the outcasts. They were still cold at heart, theirmouths sour from the want of steep, their steps rambling from thelack of food; and they strung like lame geese along the beach in adisheartened silence. It was towards the town they moved; towards thetown whence smoke arose, where happier folk were breakfasting; and asthey went, their hungry eyes were upon all sides, but they were onlyscouting for a meal.

  A small and dingy schooner lay snug against the quay, with which it wasconnected by a plank. On the forward deck, under a spot of awning, fiveKanakas who made up the crew, were squatted round a basin of fried feis,and drinking coffee from tin mugs.

  'Eight bells: knock off for breakfast!' cried the captain with amiserable heartiness. 'Never tried this craft before; positively myfirst appearance; guess I'll draw a bumper house.'

  He came close up to where the plank rested on the grassy quay; turnedhis back upon the schooner, and began to whistle that lively air, 'TheIrish Washerwoman.' It caught the ears of the Kanaka seamen like apreconcerted signal; with one accord they looked up from their meal andcrowded 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 Englishtowns under his master's baton; even so, but with how much moreof spirit and precision, the captain footed it in time to his ownwhistling, and his long morning shadow capered beyond him on the grass.The Kanakas smiled on the performance; Herrick looked on heavy-eyed,hunger for the moment conquering all sense of shame; and a littlefarther off, but still hard by, the clerk was torn by the seven devilsof the influenza.

  The captain stopped suddenly, appeared to perceive his audience for thefirst time, and represented the part of a man surprised in his privatehour of pleasure.

  'Hello!' said he.

  The Kanakas clapped hands and called upon him to go on.

  'No, SIR!' said the captain. 'No eat, no dance. Savvy?'

  'Poor old man!' returned one of the crew. 'Him no eat?'

  'Lord, no!' said the captain. 'Like-um too much eat. No got.'

  '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 hiscompanions hastened up the plank. They were welcomed on board with theshaking of hands; place was made for them about the basin; a stickydemijohn of molasses was added to the feast in honour of company, andan accordion brought from the forecastle and significantly laid by theperformer's side.

  'Ariana,' said he lightly, touching the instrument as he spoke; andhe fell to on a long savoury fei, made an end of it, raised his mug ofcoffee, and nodded across at the spokesman of the crew. 'Here's yourhealth, old man; you're a credit to the South Pacific,' said he.

  With the unsightly greed of hounds they glutted themselves with the hotfood and coffee; and even the clerk revived and the colour deepened inhis eyes. The kettle was drained, the basin cleaned; their entertainers,who had waited on their wants throughout with the pleased hospitality ofPolynesians, made haste to bring forward a dessert of island tobacco androlls of pandanus leaf to serve as paper; and presently all sat aboutthe dishes puffing like Indian Sachems.

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

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

  'There's one thing sure,' said the captain. 'I'm about desperate, I'drather hang than rot here much longer.' And with the word he took theaccordion and struck up. 'Home, sweet home.'

  'O, drop that!' cried Herrick, 'I can't stand that.'

  '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' ina fine sweet baritone: 'Dandy Jim of Carolina,' came next; 'Rorin theBold,' 'Swing low, Sweet Chariot,' and 'The Beautiful Land' followed.The captain was paying his shot with usury, as he had done many atime before; many a meal had he bought with the same currency from themelodious-minded natives, always, as now, to their delight.

  He was in the middle of 'Fifteen Dollars in the Inside Pocket,' singingwith dogged energy, for the task went sore against the grain, when asensation was suddenly to be observed among the crew.

  'Tapena Tom harry my,' said the spokesman, pointing.

  And the three beachcombers, following his indication, saw the figure ofa man in pyjama trousers and a white jumper approaching briskly from thetown.

  'Captain Tom is coming.'

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

  'We'd better cut,' said the clerk. ''E's no good.'

  'Well,' said the musician deliberately, 'one can't most generally alwaystell. I'll try it on, I guess. Music has charms to soothe the savageTapena, boys. We might strike it rich; it might amount to iced punch inthe cabin.'

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

  '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 business-like alacrity;no change was to be perceived in his bearded face as he came swinging upthe plank: he did not even turn his eyes on the performer.

  'We twa hae paidled in the burn Frae morning tide till dine,'

  went the song.

  Captain Tom had a parcel under his arm, which he laid on the house roof,and then turning suddenly to the strangers: 'Here, you!' he bellowed,'be off out of that!'

  The clerk and Herrick stood not on the order of their going, but fledincontinently by the plank. The performer, on the other hand, flung downthe instrument and rose to his full height slowly.

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

  'You set up any more of your gab to me,' returned the Scotsman, 'andI'll show ye the wrong side of a jyle. I've heard tell of the threeof ye. Ye're not long for here, I can tell ye that. The Government hastheir eyes upon ye. They make short work of damned beachcombers, I'llsay that for the French.'

  'You wait till I catch you off your ship!' cried the captain: andthen, turning to the crew, 'Good-bye, you fellows!' he said. 'You'regentlemen, anyway! The worst nigger among you would look better upon aquarter-deck than that filthy Scotchman.'

  Captain Tom scorned to reply; he watched with a hard smile the departureof his guests; and as soon as the last foot was off the plank; turned tothe hands to work cargo.

  The beachcombers beat their inglorious retreat along the shore; Herrickfirst, his face dark with blood, his knees trembling under him withthe hysteria of rage. Presently, under the same purao where they hadshivered the night before, he cast himself down, and groaned aloud, andground his face into the sand.

  'Don't speak to me, don't speak to me. I can't stand it,' broke fromhim.

  The other two stood over him perplexed.

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

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

  'This thing's got to come to an end,' said the captain with an intake ofthe breath.
/>   'Looks like signs of an end, don't it?' sneered the clerk.

  'He's not so far from it, and don't you deceive yourself,' replied thecaptain. 'Well,' he added in a livelier voice, 'you fellows hang onhere, and I'll go and interview my representative.'

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

  It was some half hour later when he returned. The clerk was dozing withhis back against the tree: Herrick still lay where he had flung himself;nothing showed whether he slept or waked.

  'See, boys!' cried the captain, with that artificial heartiness of hiswhich was at times so painful, 'here's a new idea.' And he produced notepaper, stamped envelopes, and pencils, three of each. 'We can all writehome by the mail brigantine; the consul says I can come over to hisplace and ink up the addresses.'

  'Well, that's a start, too,' said the clerk. 'I never thought of that.'

  '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 alittle 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 andstaring seaward; now their eyes would rest on the clerk, where he satpropped on the canoe, leering and coughing, his pencil racing glibly onthe paper.

  'I can't do it,' said Herrick suddenly. 'I haven't got the heart.'

  'See here,' said the captain, speaking with unwonted gravity; 'it may behard to write, and to write lies at that; and God knows it is; but it'sthe 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'lltell you what I think it is--I think it's about the high-water mark ofbeing a brute beast.'

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

  'What do you bring in me for?' broke from the captain. His voice wasindeed scarce raised above a whisper, but emotion clanged in it. 'Whatdo you know about me? If you had commanded the finest barque that eversailed from Portland; if you had been drunk in your berth when shestruck the breakers in Fourteen Island Group, and hadn't had the wit tostay there and drown, but came on deck, and given drunken orders, andlost six lives--I could understand your talking then! There,' he saidmore quietly, 'that's my yarn, and now you know it. It's a pretty onefor the father of a family. Five men and a woman murdered. Yes, therewas a woman on board, and hadn't no business to be either. Guess I senther to Hell, if there is such a place. I never dared go home again; andthe wife and the little ones went to England to her father's place. Idon't know what's come to them,' he added, with a bitter shrug.

  'Thank you, captain,' said Herrick. 'I never liked you better.'

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

  'Now, boys! to work again at lying!' said the captain.

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

  And here is what he wrote:

  'Emma, I have scratched out the beginning to my father, for I think Ican write more easily to you. This is my last farewell to all, the lastyou will ever hear or see of an unworthy friend and son. I have failedin life; I am quite broken down and disgraced. I pass under a falsename; you will have to tell my father that with all your kindness. It ismy own fault. I know, had I chosen, that I might have done well; and yetI swear to you I tried to choose. I could not bear that you should thinkI 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 loveworth? 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 Icould be glad of it. When you first came to my father's house--do youremember those days? I want you to--you saw the best of me then, allthat was good in me. Do you remember the day I took your hand and wouldnot let it go--and the day on Battersea Bridge, when we were looking ata barge, and I began to tell you one of my silly stories, and broke offto 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 allgood-bye, my father and mother, and the children, one by one, and pooruncle; And tell them all to forget me, and forget me yourself. Turnthe key in the door; let no thought of me return; be done with the poorghost that pretended he was a man and stole your love. Scorn of myselfgrinds in me as I write. I should tell you I am well and happy, and wantfor 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 andclimate, such as we have dreamed of together, and no pity need be wastedon me. In such places, you understand, it is easy to live, and livewell, but often hard to make sixpence in money. Explain this to myfather, he will understand. I have no more to say; only linger, goingout, like an unwilling guest. God in heaven bless you. Think of me tothe last, here, on a bright beach, the sky and sea immoderately blue,and the great breakers roaring outside on a barrier reef, where a littleisle sits green with palms. I am well and strong. It is a more pleasantway to die than if you were crowding about me on a sick-bed. And yet Iam dying. This is my last kiss. Forgive, forget the unworthy.'

  So far he had written, his paper was all filled, when there returned amemory 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 hislove's heart the context would spring up, escorted with fair images andharmony; of how all through life her name should tremble in his ears,her name be everywhere repeated in the sounds of nature; and when deathcame, and he lay dissolved, her memory lingered and thrilled among hiselements.

  'Once, O wonder! once from the ashes of my heart Arose a blossom--'

  Herrick and the captain finished their letters about the same time; eachwas breathing deep, and their eyes met and were averted as they closedthe envelopes.

  '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 gotstarted; but it's long enough for all the good I had to say.'

  They were still at the addresses when the clerk strolled up, smirkingand twirling his envelope, like a man well pleased. He looked overHerrick's shoulder.

  'Hullo,' he said, 'you ain't writing 'ome.'

  'I am, though,' said Herrick; 'she lives with my father. Oh, I see whatyou mean,' he added. 'My real name is Herrick. No more Hay'--they hadboth used the same alias--'no more Hay than yours, I dare say.'

  'Clean bowled in the middle stump!' laughed the clerk. 'My name's 'Uishif you want to know. Everybody has a false nyme in the Pacific. Lay youfive to three the captain 'as.'

  'So I have too,' replied the captain; 'and I've never told my own sincethe day I tore the title page out of my Bowditch and flung the damnedthing into the sea. But I'll tell it to you, boys. John Davis is myname. I'm Davis of the Sea Ranger.'

  'Dooce you are!' said Hush. 'And what was she? a pirate or a slyver?'

  'She was the fastest barque out of Portland, Maine,' replied thecaptain; 'and for the way I lost her, I might as well have bored a holein her side with an auger.'

  'Oh, you lost her, did you?' said the clerk. ''Ope she was insured?'

  No answer being returned to this sally, Huish, still brimming over withvanity and conversation, struck into another subject.

  'I've a good mind to read you my letter,' said he. 'I've a good fistwith a pen when I choose, and this is a prime lark. She was a barmaidI ran across in Northampton; she was a spanking fine piece, no endof style; and we cottoned at first sight like parties in the play. Isuppose I spent the chynge of a fiver on that girl. Well, I 'appened toremember 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 opening thenigger parliament in a cocked 'at. It's really prime.'

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

  It was perhaps lucky for Huish--it was surely in the end unfortunate forall--that he was seized just then by one of his prostrating accesses ofcough; his comrades would have else deserted him, so bitter was theirresentment. When the fit had passed, the clerk reached out his hand,picked up the letter, which had fallen to the earth, and tore it intofragments, stamp and all.

  'Does that satisfy you?' he asked sullenly.

  'We'll say no more about it,' replied Davis.