G. B. Lancaster

“ Macintosh searched for footprints on the drying weed and the caked mud by the naked mangrove roots,where great land-crabs backed away with snapping claws. But he found the footprints of men only, and the smell of decay and of over-ripe fruits followed him hack to that solemn service before the ranks of yellow-brown men whose stolid indifference hid a threat that the white men fully guessed at. If the "spirit-ape" was not content with this, then it was a white life that he had come for, and he should have it. ”

“ I said it wasn't human, but a man is hardly human when he's mad, is he?"
"Far from it," said Macintosh, glancing down at the letter which he was writing to young Cutts' mother.
"And, of course, he didn't look human with nothing but those monkey-skins tied round him. The coolies think the same now. It was only that old yarn about a spirit-ape that scared them. And, of course, nobody has seen anything since—since Cutts went."
"Of course not," agreed Macintosh. But his keen glance followed Tufnell out with something of curiosity in it. "Then it was only Cutts they saw," he said. ”

“ We're dead to everything every day, aren't we—the men we knew, and the women we loved, and the games we played? I'm younger than you, but I'd begun to learn what life was. Now I've learnt what death is. Tuffy was right when he said that the tree-men and the cave-men had the best of it. They lived and they fought and they died, but they didn't think. That hell is reserved for us civilised men. Oh, if only we needn't think! If only we could get back to their day and stop thinking!"
He stood up abruptly and went out. Macintosh stared after him. ”

“ It was long since he had prayed—until the last two days.
"They are fools," said Cutts sharply. "If prayers could do anything, my mother would have had me out of this long ago."
"Well, we'll probably all be out of it by this time to-morrow," answered Barrow, and Cutts laughed as he left the room. But that laugh haunted Barrow.
He spoke of it to Macintosh that night, when the two sat waiting in the silence for the coming of the Thing. Across the compound, noise had died out where the coolies had shut themselves into their huts. ”

“ The men retired at last, surly and unsatisfied, and Barrow called in Cutts and Tufnell, and shut both doors.
"It's come to this," he said. "If there's another death to-night, the coolies will fly off the handle. It will be a clean wipe-out, and I don't much blame them. Now, shall we get a scow and make a bolt for it—there's just the chance that we may get away—or shall we see the thing through? I have no right to endanger your lives, but I'm not keen on knuckling down. ”

“ I will be stayin' with you, Barrow, an' we have tu revolvers an' three rifles, tu say nothin' of an ould duck-gun. The others must do as they best will. An' though I cannot promise tu thim a long life, sure, it may be merry."
"Oh, of course, we'll have to stay," said Tufnell, shrugging. "We can't show funk before a set of beastly coolies."
"Remimber ye that tu-morrow mornin'," said Macintosh grimly. "Cutts, if ye take the bandage off again, ye'll be a dead man with tetanus within the week belike. Shall we sthroll along out an' see how lies the land, Barrow?" ”

“ An' me tu busy wi' the coolies to be takin' up notions, glory be. Bhut those tu—we must rouse thim, Barrow, if we have to marry Cutts tu a coolie girl tu du it."
"You wouldn't think of such a thing." Barrow sat up in alarm. "They are not bad-looking, and if you put the idea into his head——"
"Blathers! He a white man, an' a gintleman! Howly smoke, an' is this all the ice ye have? It's gone hot on me. No, there is no marriage nor giving in marriage for the white man who chooses tu make his livin' beyont the coast, an' five hundred miles tu the back of that. ”

“ But something seemed to have broken down the dam of Cutts' long silence at last.
"I tell her about all the people I meet—the jolly girls I play tennis with, and the fellows who lend me polo ponies. And I tell her about the dances I go to, and the swimming matches we have. Oh, lots of things!" ”

“ He knew how the loneliness and the great threat of the forest jungles told on them. He knew how the harsh screaming of the birds jarred untried nerves, and what ghastly shapes the mangroves took in the changing lights. ”

“ Tufnell pushed his chair back. "I suppose you'll want us to atend that funeral, will you? You don't do things by halves."
Macintosh's laugh followed him out, but the Irishman's face was grave as he bent over to Barrow.
"What would ye be lettin' on that the second thing was?" he asked. "One was a man an' it was a man did the stranglin'. Bhut the other? An' is it the other that froightens Tufnell an' the coolies? An' whoy du they see bhut the one?"
"The devil knows!" said Barrow, and went away troubled, to prepare for the funeral of the coolie boy and for the after pacification of the camp. ”

“ Then he turned into his hut and sat down to write his fifteenth letter to the syndicate of the Shallack Mine.
Barrow was the eldest of this little colony of white men which lay five hundred miles by open scow up the Pe-ang River, and he was feeling his responsibilities heavily to-night. He had felt them before when Derrett died of fever in this very hut, and when Hendon, once a lieutenant in a dragoon regiment, had gone mad and disappeared. As he told Macintosh, he himself had "got through it." But he never grew accustomed to the breaking-in of the young ones. ”

“ They will not have anny thricks played on them, these coolies."
He looked round the table, where the four white men were breakfasting off muddy fish and sodden bread. Barrow nodded brief assent. Tufnell shuddered and pushed his plate aside. The constant fever attacks had sapped his nerve.
"Well, let us get through and be done with it," he said. "We can only die once, thanks be."
Young Cutts laughed, tipping his chair back. He had torn the bandage from his hand, and it showed swelled and blackened.
"Only once?" he said. "Up here we die every day. ”

“ Tufnell said a great deal, and Macintosh looked at him.
"Begorra, it's amazin' the amount of wit ye haven't got!" he said. "There is not one of your plans could hould up longer than your breath is blowin' it. A pleasint lot of good ye are, an' wuth Cutts tu the back of ye yet! Let me see that hand of yours, Cutts. ”

“ Barrow refilled his pipe. "Mac, I've been thinking that you had better shift camp again. We could keep an eye on the mine machinery from here, and I think it is wise for us all to be together."
Macintosh twisted his big, thin body to face the other man squarely.
"Four white men tu two hundred coolies is not over-big odds if it comes tu bein' ugly," he said. "Bhut I du not think it is there that the danger lies. It's himsilf a man has tu foight out here, an', bedad, it's precious few on 'em understhand it in toime. ”