The Ebb Tide
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Robert Louis Stevenson in collaboration with Lloyde Osbourne >> The Ebb Tide
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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
which--oh! 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; tomorrow--tonight!--it may be
scattered. Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee.'
'I do not understand you,' said Herrick.
'Not?' said Attwater.
'You seem to speak in riddles,' said Herrick, unsteadily. 'I do
not understand what manner of man you are, nor what you are
driving at.'
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 captain
drawing near.
Chapter 9. THE DINNER PARTY
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
other, and the Farallone champagne brought up the rear with the
dessert.
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 progressively under the charm of his hospitable freedom.
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 consideration.
'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 question?'
'A hundred and twelve shillings in London, and the freight to
Valparaiso, and on again,' said Attwater. 'It strikes one as
really not a bad fluid.'
'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.'
'My friend's name is Huish and not Whish, sit,' said the
captain with a flush.
'I beg your pardon, I am sure. Huish and not Whish,
certainly,' said Attwater. 'I was about to say that I have still
eight dozen,' he added, fixing the captain with his eye.
'Eight dozen what?' said Davis.
'Sherry,' was the reply. 'Eight dozen excellent sherry. Why, it
seems almost worth it in itself; to a man fond of wine.'
The ambiguous words struck home to guilty consciences, and
Huish and the captain sat up in their places and regarded him
with a scare.
'Worth what?' said Davis.
'A hundred and twelve shillings,' replied Attwater.
The captain breathed hard for a moment. He reached out far
and wide to find any coherency in these remarks; then, with a
great effort, changed the subject.
'I allow we are about the first white men upon this island, sir,'
said he.
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 thick-witted
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.'
'Dr Symonds is your partner, I guess?' said Davis.
'A dear fellow, Symonds! How he would regret it, if he knew
you had been here!' said Attwater.
"E's on the Trinity 'All, ain't he?' asked Huish.
'And if you could tell me where the Trinity 'All was, you
would confer a favour, Mr Whish!' was the reply.
'I suppose she has a native crew?' said Davis.
'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 sound of Bow Bells!'
'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 spectators! And you call that
solitude?'
There followed a bar of silence, during which the captain sat
mesmerised.
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 folk-lore, 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 Brine-Mouton is of a good year, and Mr Whish
will give me news of it.'
'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 seance.'
'No folk-lore about Mr Whish--I 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
gesture of dismissal, the service proceeded as before.
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 eyes attended studiously on their
master.
'Where do you get your labour from anyway?' asked Davis.
'Ah, where not?' answered Attwater.
'Not much of a soft job, I suppose?' said the captain.
'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
Rapa-iti. Pity Symonds isn't here! He is full of yarns. That was
his part, to collect them. Then began mine, which was the
educational.'
'You mean to run them?' said Davis.
'Ay! to run them,' said Attwater.
'Wait a bit,' said Davis, 'I'm out of my depth. How was this?
Do you mean to say you did it single-handed?'
'One did it single-handed,' 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.
'One does one's best,' said Attwater.
'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 time!'
'The beak ain't as black as he's sometimes pynted,' observed
Huish, humorously.
'Well, one got the law after a fashion,' said Attwater. 'One
had to be a number of things. It was sometimes rather a bore.'
'I should smile!' said Davis. 'Rather lively, I should think!'
'I dare say we mean the same thing,' said Attwater. 'However,
one way or another, one got it knocked into their heads that
they MUST work, and they DID. . . until the Lord took them!'
''Ope you made 'em jump,' said Huish.
'When it was necessary, Mr Whish, I made them jump,' said
Attwater.
'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 see you doing it! By God,
you're a man, and you can say I said so.'
'Too good of you, I'm sure,' said Attwater.
'Did you--did you ever have crime here?' asked Herrick,
breaking his silence with a pungent voice.
'Yes,' said Attwater, 'we did.'
'And how did you handle that, sir?' cried the eager captain.
'Well, you see, it was a queer case,' replied Attwater. 'it was
a case that would have puzzled Solomon. Shall I tell it you?
yes?'
The captain rapturously accepted.
'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 eighth-of-an-inch veneer of
Christianity. Sullens was industrious; a big down-looking 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 accordingly--without
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 the--oh, 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 single-minded
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 palm--I'm not botanist enough to tell you
how--but 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, presently--to make a
long story short--one 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 his glass.
'And then?' said the breathless captain.
'Shot,' said Attwater. 'They came to ground together.'
Herrick sprang to his feet with a shriek and an insensate
gesture.
'It was a murder,' he screamed. 'A cold-hearted, bloody-minded
murder! You monstrous being! Murderer and hypocrite--murderer and
hypocrite--murderer and hypocrite--' he repeated, and his tongue
stumbled among the words.
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 meaningless sounds.
'Your friend appears over-excited,' 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. I--I think I'll take him away. A walk'll sober him
up, I guess.'
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 Herrick answering, at intervals, with the
mechanical noises of hysteria.
"E's like a bloomin' poultry yard!' observed Huish, helping
himself to wine (of which he spilled a good deal) with
gentlemanly ease. 'A man should learn to beyave at table,' he
added.
'Rather bad form, is it not?' said Attwater. 'Well, well, we are
left tete-a-tete. A glass of wine with you, Mr Whish!'
Chapter 10. THE OPEN DOOR
The captain and Herrick meanwhile turned their back upon the
lights in Attwater's verandah, and took a direction towards the
pier and the beach of the lagoon.
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 street.
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 simultaneously.
'Say, Herrick . . .'the captain was beginning.
But Herrick, turning swiftly towards his companion, bent him
down with the eager cry: 'Let's up anchor, captain, and to sea!'
'Where to, my son?' said the captain. 'Up anchor's easy saying.
But where to?'
'To sea,' responded Herrick. 'The sea's big enough! To sea--away
from this dreadful island and that, oh! that sinister man!'
'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, and then we'll talk.'
'To sea,' reiterated Herrick, 'to sea tonight--now--this
moment!'
'It can't be, my son,' replied the captain firmly. 'No ship of
mine puts to sea without provisions, you can take that for
settled.'
'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 foolery--and I must say I
seen men shot for less, and nobody sorry! What more do you expect
anyway?'
Herrick rocked to and fro upon the sand, shaking his head.
'Guying us,' he said, 'he was guying us--only 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 sherry. Damned if
I caught on to that. Say, Herrick, you didn't give me away?'
'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 rascal--detected 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 HAIr--and 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 pretences--he looks at us and laughs
like God!'
There was a silence. Davis stood with contorted brows, gazing
into the night.
'The pearls?' he said suddenly. 'He showed them to you? he
has them?'
'No, he didn't show them; I forgot: only the safe
they were in,' said Herrick. 'But you'll never get them!'
'I've two words to say to that,' said the captain.
'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, my God, my God, why was I born?'
Another pause followed upon this outburst.
The captain put his hands to his brow,
'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.
'Well, then, he's a fatalist,' said Herrick.
'What's that, a fatalist?' said Davis.
'Oh, it's a fellow that believes a lot of things,' said Herrick,
'believes that his bullets go true; believes that all falls out
as God chooses, do as you like to prevent it; and all that.'
'Why, I guess I believe right so myself,' said Davis.
'You do?' said Herrick.
'You bet I do!' says Davis.
Herrick shrugged his shoulders. 'Well, you must be a fool,'
said he, and he leaned his head upon his knees.
The captain stood biting his hands.
'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 man like you
describe.'
And he turned to go away. The words had been quite simple;
not so the tone; and the other was quick to catch it.
'Davis!' he cried, 'no! Don't do it. Spare ME, and don't do it--
spare yourself, and leave it alone--for God's sake, for your
children's sake!'
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 his face on the sand, and lay
speechless and helpless.
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