Gordon Young

“ I stuck a bottle of ale under each arm and went across, some hundred yards (for we didn't want the noisy barbecue too closely associated with our house) to the shack.
It was dark inside. Though I knew my way about as well as a rat knows a buttertub, I had my hands full and did stumble a bit just as I was saying, “Here, old Raikes, crawl out from—” and having stumbled, I swore a little.
A woman's voice, scornfully, bitterly—“Drunken beast!”
Holding a candle above my head I peered at the two dark, cloaked figures: the Englishman, Davenant, and his daughter, so-called. ”

“ At low tide the green-gray and blackened bulk of the larger boulders was exposed, cluttered with shell and weed-growth, and making the scene even more somber than when the tide had thrust itself up and around the sand, nosing between rocks and overspreading like a sentient invader. ”

“ There was nothing to buoy the spirit in that drear, forlorn place, as for instance in warmer seas where sky and water and rocks wear colors, and flower-studded foliage thrusts out with prodigal eagerness to give radiance to the eyes; where the huge-topped coconuts droop their feathery leaves, and a soft warm purple haze lies like a misty mantle over the distant islands.
Here we lay at the foot of a bleak, wet cliff; over the brow shrubs and trees bent, many with roots adangle and groping as if frantically trying to save themselves from being crowded off and over. ”

“ Women were about as common as coconuts; one found them every place. All kinds, except such as she. Stockmen's wives and daughters; squatters' wives, daughters and aunts; in towns there were always the disdainful, corseted wives and daughters of officials; and not counting natives—who were often ugly as the white ladies—there were plenty of women besides those mentioned. “Unmentionables,” I believe they are sometimes called.
She differed from all of them.
She and Davenant in uneasy impatience had chosen to sit in the dark that they might the better be unnoticed until Williams returned. ”

“ The water ran around over the deck as if looking for a low coaming to climb over.
With my bare toes gripping the grating I reflected that the law-abider has all the best of it. He has too. He may not have so much that is interesting to remember in his old age—but he stands a better chance of reaching old age.
Still, after a fashion we went on. Raulson, the cook, his long mustache adroop pathetically, brought me a can of coffee. I was touched by this attention—prematurely; for he whispered to know if I did not have a bit of bottle stowed some place. ”

“ It happened that plenty of provisions had been placed on the Lady Betty, but after she got into litigation the perishables were removed. And Williams had scant chance of provisioning a ship, especially in that part of the world. If he put into port he would likely be nabbed. All of us would be nabbed.
There are some things even worse than starving. I have my doubts, however, about a more distressing condition than thirst, my kind of a thirst.
Miss Davenant came on deck. She must have been having a time of it, for she was very pale. Seasickness makes a woman look her worst ”

“ I had read some place—Williams contrived always to have books about, though most of them were worthless technical things—as I was saying, I had read some place that wicked women look best in artificial light. ”

“ South of Tasmania the great waves roll on, always toward the east. And Williams was supposed to want to beat his way westward. He would never have gone down in those seas to do it.
There is no use in telling what I thought. Williams did find a beach, exposed it is true, and very different from the long, gentle, hard slopes of the Samoans. It served his purpose. With men in boats casting leads and leading the way, he went up through a narrow channel of giants' bones at high tide ”

“ They were carefully packed in a small barrel, and that barrel, I thought, was going aboard the Lady Betty just as surely as I did.
So were our guests going aboard. They did not know it. Had the secret been whispered to them some if not many would have slipped away and babbled. They would learn in time. Now they were being pampered. Salt horse and biscuits were to follow.
Well fed and inwardly warmed, men are always easier to handle. They fall in with suggestions. Precious little good it would have done them to fall out. Williams had need of them. ”

“ Williams called at me.
I gave the steering-oar a swirl and brought our boat gunwale to gunwale alongside of Hawkins, who laid by the overgrown sampan. Williams leaped up the low free-board of the Lady Betty and called four of the men. They went slowly.
“With a will there,” He warned them. “Man that windlass.”
He had not wasted his time when on the Lady Betty early in the evening. The gear was set, block and tackle bent to yard, and in no time at all the heavier boxes were jerked up to the deck. All was clear, and all of us were on deck. ”

“ After all, the man must have been more human than he appeared. Or else he was mad, mad.
There was no wharf. Boats landed on the beach. Williams “borrowed” the three in sight, including a large flat-bottom punt-like thing owned by some Chinamen. The wagon that had brought Davenant and the woman was just above the sand, where the driver camped. The wagon was filled with boxes and bundles, some of them taken on at our shack; and the men, herded by Williams, Hawkins and me, carried them to the beach and filled the boats. ”

“ Williams lined the crew aft and talked to them for about forty seconds. In that time he told them he had nothing to offer but good wages and plenty of work, with the chance of their necks getting pulled by hemp if they stayed with him; but he would put down in the log that they were pressed men—which might do them some good. All who were willing to chance it, one step to the front.
One man stepped out. Raikes.
“I want at least eight men. Four pounds a month and five pounds bonus,” he said. ”

“ Face to back they were placed, hands on the shoulders in front, and Williams by the side of the line and I at the rear. Raikes was front man. It seemed that Raikes was going on the Lady Betty.
Down to the beach at midnight we marched, silent except for heavy steps.
Experience had taught Williams how easily men could be cowed if one got the “jump” on them. Though I doubt if he gave a thought to what constituted the jump. When he wanted something done it had to be done.
He had already been on board the Lady Betty. The three watchmen—one, I believe, placed there by the court ”

“ Williams put men at the oars of the first boat and made off, towing the others. Hawkins was in the second. I was in the last with Davenant and the woman.
”Is that man really Hurricane Williams?” she asked in a way that conveyed strong personal interest.
”Can't say for sure. But I never heard him deny it.”
”What sort of man is he really?” asked Davenant.
”Asleep he's just like anybody else. Only he don't sleep much.”
”And awake?” she asked feverishly.
”He don't let nobody else sleep. Easy man to get acquainted with. Very. ”