Henry C. Rowland

“ That night, after dinner, as I was walking on deck, the steward came up to me and said that Captain Fairfax wished to see me. I found him in his bunk, and the first glance at his face made me wonder if he would last to reach Honolulu. It was plain enough that he was a dying man. ”

“ Last of all, I remembered a tale which my father had once told me which exactly coincided with Fairfax's story of how he had been coerced into marriage. My father had mentioned no names, but, according to the dim account, as I remembered it, he had met with a trader who had practically kipnapped a beautiful young French girl, scarcely more than a child, from a Catholic mission school in Tahiti. My father had urged that he be permitted to perform the marriage ceremony; the trader had ridiculed the idea, but, finally offered to consent if the missionary was able to thrash him in a fist fight. ”

“ I picked up the paper and held it to the light, slanting it back and forth in the effort to catch the greasy imprint. Connor, breathing hard, was staring over my shoulder. Suddenly, at a certain angle, the faint lines of a man's thumb appeared on the margin of the paper. I looked closer, and Connor, whose eyes were keen at close range with the aid of his spectacles, gave a grunt.
“I see it...” said he, in a hoarse whisper. “But where is the crescent? And look close, docthor ... the lines are not the same. D'ye mark that little whirlpool in the centre, where the scar shud be? ”

“ The little steamer came in two days later, and that same afternoon a handsome whaleboat, with an awning and a native crew, slipped alongside with no more commotion than a swimming shark. The bow man hooked on and tilted the awning, when up the side there came a portly Chinaman, who was dressed as if for a banquet. His silk blouse was crusted with brocade, the design picked out in gold thread, buttons of hand-carved mother-of-pearl. ”

“ He shook his head. “There ain't any obligation,” said he. “It's not as if you'd undertaken the job, knowingly. They took you as a child and brought you up without ever takin' the trouble to find out if your heart was in the work. And it ain't. Shucks! what a raisin' for a lad with arms and legs and a strong heart. You've been growin' like an acorn in a bottle. When other boys around you were cuttin' their teeth on bones, you've been fed with the hind teat of a missionary society. I'll bet you've never been drunk. I'll bet you never struck a man in anger. I'll bet you never kissed a woman...” ”

“ Captain Fairfax chuckled.
“He licked me into marrying her,” said he. His bloodshot eyes lighted with a sudden interest as they rested on me. “You are like your dad, boy, but a far better figure of a man. You've got the height and the width as well as the weight. Missionary, too?”
I nodded. “Medical,” I answered.
“Well, that's better than psalm-singin'; but, d—— it all, you're too good meat to feed to niggers. However, I reckon it's in the blood; bred in the bone like. I'm Captain Fairfax, retired island trader and philanthropist. Charity begins at home. ”

“ For a moment neither of us spoke, Then said Connor:
“Was the mark on the list plain? I did not see it. I am gettin' long-sighted. 'Tis a habit of advancing age.”
“It was the faintest smear,” I answered. “I would not have seen it myself but for the way the light struck on the shine of the paper. ”

“ The cook went back to his work, and Connor turned to me with another laugh.
“'Twas an intelligent answer,” said he. “There's nothing to tickle the palate of a seafaring man like good corned mate, and a bit of cabbage and a few biled spuds. But as for the original Silverside, the chances are he would pison the stomach of a cannibal when you come to consider that avin John Shark will have none of him.” ”

“ Two years ago I sent a schooner to the old place to look for them, but they had gone. Silverside had been there and taken them away.”
“Who is Silverside?” I asked.
“He was my cook; man or devil, I'm not sure which. Silverside has hid them somewhere. I want you to find Therese, my wife, and give her a last message from me, and make her claim my fortune for herself and the child. The message is that I'm sorry for the way I treated her, and beg her to forgive me. The fortune comes to a couple of million and odd dollars.”
I stared at him, too astonished to speak. Fairfax gave me a grim smile. ”

“ In my father's time the society had owned a small brig, which my father navigated himself, and I had been given to understand that if I fulfilled what was expected of me I might in time count on having a vessel for the work of the mission. My father's missionary brig, the Christian Faith, had been built for the society in San Francisco, and duly consecrated to her work, which apparently had not prevented her from being pillaged and either sunk or burned by a mob of cannibals, for she had never been seen or heard of after that fatal expedition to the Solomons ”

“ Our stores came aboard a little later, when we weighed anchor and put to sea. Our dinner that day was a wonder. I doubt if one could have got a better meal in the Pacific. Connor, who liked good eating, was tremendously pleased.
“The felly is a Cordong Bloo,” said he, as he tucked away his curried chicken and rice. “Niver have I tasted the like, unless it was years ago at the old Hotel de France in Tahiti. I mind there used to be a dish of just this flavour, and it made you glad you had not died when you were a baby. ”

“ Ye have a top-piece like a hammerhead shark, 'tis that long. I am old and none too sober. It is disgustin'.”
I measured out the dose and took it forward. Silverside took it with a toneless expression of thanks.
“Thank you, sir,” said he; “I hope that the captain is not angry.”
“Oh, no,” I answered. “I told him that a man suffering from neuralgia was scarcely to be blamed for seeking relief. Now go to sleep. That ought to quiet the pain.”
“I hope so, sir,” answered the cook.
When I went aft Connor, cigar in mouth, was pacing the quarter-deck. ”

“ I must say that it strikes me that you are rather more than settling your obligation. What you have received from the society is really no more than was your due, considering your father's faithful service and ultimate sacrifice. ”

“ There are some men like that, though rare, just as there are men that dogs will not bite, and that the meanest man-killin' stallion will carry as patient and gentle as a Valparaiso moke will pack a bale of hides. I mind a story of how a hand fell off the staging of Fairfax's schooner in Sydney Harbour, where sharks swarm. They was one of the zebra breed, and made a lunge for him, when here comes Silverside kerplunk twixt the two av thim, and the shark sheers off puggin' up his nose like a man who thinks to ate hare and finds the head of a cat on his dish. ”

“ He was talking with the chief engineer, who appeared to be much irritated because one of his stokers had managed to slip off for a ramble ashore. It appeared that the man was the most efficient in his watch, and the others being rather a poor lot, the chief was all the more vexed, as he would otherwise have left the man on the beach and signed on another.
The doctor informed me that we were not to sail until daylight, and being interested in the case of Captain Fairfax, who had, he told me, given him a handsome fee, he suggested that we call at the hotel and see how he was getting on. ”

“ Attacks come oftener, and each one is apt to finish me. Besides, there's all the expert testimony. Come now, what d'ye say? Is it a go?”
But I had still a question, and asked:
“What if your wife claims the fortune of her own accord ... without my finding her?”
“You get your hundred thou' just the same. But it has got to be within three years. If my heirs don't claim it in that time it goes differently. We'll draw up the papers in Honolulu. You've got the whole day there. Then you will go on to Apia and wait there for Captain Billy Connor, of the schooner Favorite. I'll send him a cable. ”

“ Looking over my shoulder I saw the captain stooping over us. He seemed friendly enough; so I asked him where we were going and why he had taken me.
“S'ppose I leave you asha' (ashore) ,” said he. “Make plenty fuss, w'at? You plenty fool; no fight, no get shanghai. You fight plenty good. Knock um coolie galley west. Oh gawd...” And he gave a chuckle. After the blow I had landed on his chest he had himself taken no part in the scuffle, or my treatment might have been different. “We go find 'im piecey pearl. He know...” And he gave Silverside a prod with his sandalled foot. Him plenty bad man. ”

“ But they were mine ... not his. I had worked for them, and although ten years passed without my seeing Therese, I could not endure that 'Tiapolo Fairfax' should return to claim her. Besides, I hated him.'
Silverside's head sunk between his shoulders, and he was silent for awhile. I did not speak. He seemed to drowse, but presently roused himself.
“Berdou took the schooner and what money was left and set out, first to hide them, then to work the pearl island should there be anything there. I worked my way to San Francisco, and there I found my enemy. ”

“ A big, gaunt man, with the shoulders of a smith and the hands of a pianist. I mind his hair was straight and long and a silvery white, though whether he got the name of 'Silverside' from that or the white scar on his side or from his manner of cooking corned mate, I could not say. No better cook ever set fut in a ship's galley I've been told. Speakin' of cooks, I must ship a new one before we sail. The Kanaka lad now presidin' in our galley has a talent for spoilin' good food that amounts to a positive janius. ”

“ Then,” he gave me a grin, “you can buy your freedom from your missionary society, and so settle that little account of yours in the Solomons. Do you get me, lad?”
“Not quite,” I answered. “Why should you make me an offer like this when the chances are that all you would need to do is to advertise or offer a small reward to find your wife and child?”
He shook his shaggy head. “Therese hates me as the devil hates holy water,” said he. “She'll need some persuadin'. Then, there's a man that hates me worse, if that's possible, and will do his best to keep her from takin' a cent of my money. ”

“ The boat shoved clear, and as she came out of the shadow I noticed that she was of a peculiar design, with a long, overhanging bow and almost flat-bottomed. The men at the oars looked like Chinese coolies. They shoved clear without a word, and headed in for the shore.
“You were right, docthor,” said Connor, under his breath. “That is a sampan from this chunk of a pearlin' yawl belongin' to Von Bulow which is lyin' outside of us a bit. To-morrow morning early we will put to sea, and Silverside can have his choice of takin' us to the widdy Fairfax, or we takin' him to gaol.” ”

“ Divils have no love for them that sarves thim. And Fairfax was sure the Tiapolo. 'Tiapolo Fairfax' the natives christened him, which, as you probably know, means 'big devil Fairfax.” Silverside was his Aitu, or under-divil.”
I sat for some minutes thinking of what he had told me, finally to ask:
“Then you think that probably this Gaston Berdou has run across them, and is in a measure their protector?”
“That is my idee,” said Connor. “Belike he is in love with the young gurrul, or the mother, or both. Bein' young and Frinch his heart is, no doubt, large enough to shelther the pair. ”

“ Belike they will find one when it is too late.”
“We dined ashore that night, returning aboard rather late. The following morning, as we were getting ready to go in again to renew the search for a cook, we saw a shore boat putting out for the schooner. It came alongside, and we looked down to see in the stern sheets a big-framed man in white drill which was clean but unpretentious. As he looked up something in his face struck me as familiar, and the next instant I recognised him as the stoker, the sight of whom had given Captain Fairfax such a turn.
“Well?” said Connor interrogatively. ”

“ Connor stepped below and brought up his list of measurements, which Von Bulow copied in his tablets, promising to figure the matter out and send over his estimate.
“Perhaps you might also be in need of a few stores,” suggested the comprador.
“Ah, yes,” said Connor. “I was near forgetting.” He raised his voice and called to one of the Kanakas to tell the cook to bring his store list. “Speakin' of cooks,” said he, “we are blessed with a wonder,” and he told of how we had secured Jones at Apia. ”

“ Now think of a man that can cook like that stokin' the fires of a liner. I will double his pay. I will triple it; quadruple it....” He stirred a little chutney into his rice. “Instid of five dollars a month he shall have twenty.”
When we reached Auckland we found that nothing had been seen of Gaston Berdou. Connor wired to different ports of New Zealand, but without success.
Aboard the Favourite everything had run as smooth as oil. Connor's native crew were cheerful and willing, and Jones continued to fatten us on such fare as Connor swore could not be had at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama. ”