Henry C. Rowland

“ Delphine let herself over the rail, and slipped down into the water. I fol lowed her, and we pushed ourselves clear of the schooner's side.
“Swim straight in for the mangroves,” said Silverside. “Make for that dark spot; it's the opening of a little creek which we must follow to reach solid ground.”
We struck out together through the clear, warm water. Delphine swam like a strong, athletic boy. I must be remembered that she was island born, and from childhood had romped along the beach with Kanaka playmates. ”

“ Cullom had Delphine ... and before long he would take her back aboard the schooner, and she would be helpless in the hands of a man to whom one more evil act mattered about as much as the slapping of a mosquito.
The blacks, no doubt, were swarming over the swamp like otter hounds. For some time I scarcely gave them a thought, though I realised in a vague way that my destruction was necessary to Cullom's safety. The hand of the law reaches in a rather groping way even to the islands which skirt Melanesia, and I would be a dangerous man to leave alive. ”

“ Standing by the windlass, his back to me, was a native, who, from his manner of holding himself, looked to be an old man. At the foot of the foremast were four more of the crew, and further aft were several more. I saw Cullom's white figure in the stern. He was sighting the gun, and as I looked there came a report, and a shell went humming away to the beach. Before the echo had died I was up over the bulwarks and on the deck. The moon had risen, and its horizontal rays struck me full in the face, and as I straightened my body the old man by the windlass turned and looked at me. ”

“ I raised the glass, focussed carefully, and looked into the pale, kelp-encircled face of Silverside.
“What is it?” asked Delphine, in a low voice, as I turned to her and she saw my face.
“Silverside,” I answered.
“In that bunch of weed?”
“Yes. Don't look yet. The men forward might come aft to see what we were watching.”
I walked to the rail and hung over it as if idly. The mass of weed was moving faster now, and presently I could see through the clear water the gleam of a white body. The two natives up forward were busy on their sail and did not look aft. Nearer and nearer came the weed. ”

“ The natives were cutting out the rotten bivalves, and I did not envy them their malodorous task.
From watching Cullom and his gang I turned my glasses on different parts of the shore. Behind the bungalow the ground rose steeply in a tangled jungle, which farther back gave place to brown, naked rock, rising at first in ledges, and then mounting in masses of broken stone and lava to the rim of the crater. At the head of the lagoon was a valley, thickly wooded, and the land rising gradually as it receded. ”

“ Von Bulow has proof that you killed Daniel Fairfax, and do you think that he will spare you? Sooner or later he will ferret you out and send you to the gallows. Don't you think it better to die like a man than like a dog?”
He sighed deeply, and a shiver shook his gaunt frame Warm as the water was, I was chilled, myself, though I think that the cold struck from within rather than without.
“I would have done it once,” muttered Silverside, “but now I do not dare. As I told you once, my spirit has been broken. I know that if I saw a shark, or felt one near, I would scream and spoil it all. ”

“ Delphine went below, and I set about my work. The obsequies of Cullom and his blacks were short, and showed no partiality of race. These finished, I threw off the turns of the halliards and lowered the sails. I had no fear of attack from the shore, but I looked under bow and stern to see that nobody was hiding there. Then I drew a bucket of water and washed and went below. Delphine greeted me with a smile, then blushed and looked away, for I was still stripped to the belt; and to a person who is in the habit of seeing daily nude brown skins, the sight of a white one is always startling. ”

“ That night I had a long talk with Therese Fairfax, and when it was over she took my head in her hands and kissed me on either cheek.
“Le bon Dieu sent you to protect my little daughter,” she said. “She loves you very dearly, it seems; and, of course, you cannot help but love her, so you will marry and be radiantly happy. God bless you both and send you every joy.”
I tried to thank her in a fitting manner, but made rather a mess of it, whereat she laughed and kissed me again. Then I jumped up and ran below, where Delphine was talking to Connor. ”

“ From time immemorial the steaming blood of an enemy has gone to savour kisses of the purest and tenderest passion, and in surroundings such as ours we hark back quickly to the early instincts of our race. Then, too, Delphine was no nervous, cringing product of an over-civilisation. She was the daughter of Daniel Fairfax, and a mother who for years had found the strength and will to do a man's work. ”

“ The tide will turn at sunset, and the schooner swing head out. You work down toward the entrance, and when you see them hoisting the foresail take to the water and swim slowly down. I will get on the other side of the lagoon and open fire from the beach. The range is too long for me to do any damage, except by chance, but it will divert their attention and perhaps keep them under cover. If you manage to get aboard, try to grab a capstan brake; in arms like yours it ought to be a formidable weapon. ”

“ No, we have done all that is humanly possible. If there were time we might go around and attack them on the beach, but it would take three or four hours to get there, Cullom and they would have gone. Cullom will probably load the shell aboard.”
I gave a groan. Silverside's face softened.
“It is hard,” said he, “but what can we do? Fate is fate, and we are only mortal. Come, let us get out of this. We have no more than time enough before nightfall.” ”

“ I looked again at Delphine, and began to feel a murderous temptation.
“What could we do ashore?” I asked of Silverside.
“I know of a safe hiding place,” he answered, rapidly. “When this vessel came in I recognised her and took no chances. Cullom is a wolf, and Therese's worst enemy. The women knew of a hiding place, so we went there, taking food and the three rifles. I signalled to you from the beach, but you would not look. Oh, for the sake of all you hold dear, do as I ask. What are two old natives to a man of your strength?” ”

“ Silverside's long jaw fell. “Try to take the schooner?” he gasped.
“Yes,” I answered, “and do it, too.”
“Are you mad, Dr. Ames?”
“Perhaps so,” I answered, “but madness sometimes succeeds, and we're not going to soak here and watch Cullom sail off with Delphine, are we?”
“But it is impossible,” said he.
“No, it's not,” I answered, doggedly. “Cullom will wait for the night breeze, which doesn't spring up until after dark. The moon is late, too, and he will want that. As soon as it gets dark we must swim out, get up over the bow, and rush the deck.” ”

“ Silverside must have realised it too, for suddenly he splashed out through the water until chest deep, when he flung himself forward and began to swim. The three foremost blacks followed him. Silverside struck out at right angles from the beach, and for the moment my relief was intense, for I did not believe that any man, white or black, could outswim that amphibian. Connor slightly altered the boat's course, and as we watched it was plain that the three dark heads were rapidly overhauling the first one. ”

“ Another man who had felt as I did might have known how to express himself—what to say in words edged about with poetry or romance, leading her gently to appreciate the fires that had been lighted in his heart and soul, careful not to shock her absolute innocence or to picture himself to her as a tongue-tied fool who could only stare devouringly like some caveman glaring from ambush at the mate he purposed to drag off to his lair. ”

“ Through a glass which I found below I saw a swarm of black figures squatting about the shell heap, while Cullom himself was walking back and forth with a rifle on his shoulder. He had apparently decided to abandon the stalk of Silverside for the present and cut out the rotting bivalves.
“He has probably got pickets back in the bush,” I said to Delphine. “He's not quite sure when Gaston Berdou may come in, and wants to make sure of the pearls that are rotting out. There is nothing that Silverside can do. Cullom means to starve him out.” ”

“ XVIII. Connor and I, acting on one impulse, rushed for the boat. Cullom's revolver was lying on the companionway hatch, and I snatched it up as I went. We tumbled into the boat, to the startled astonishment of the crew, for as the boat was hidden from the beach by the schooner they had seen nothing.
Connor was bellowing orders as he went over the side, and in a jiffy we had shoved clear and were heading in for the beach. Standing in the stern we could see that the blacks were gaining rapidly on Silverside, who presently cut across down the beach for the hard sand at the water's edge. ”

“ Fairfax interrupted curtly.
“Then Silverside and the women are on the island ... with the blacks?” She turned to Connor. “We must arm and go ashore at once,” said she. 'I think that I know where the women are hiding. Keowa Harry took me once to a cave which he had found on the other side of the crater while hunting goats. He said at the time that if we should ever need a refuge it would be a perfect place, as there is a sort of labyrinth inside. The women knew of the place.” She looked at me. “Did Silverside tell you why Cullom was so anxious to destroy him?” ”

“ To the person hedged about by civilisation and its artificialities, it may seem strange that after the blood and violence of the last hour we two should have sat there in the cabin with glowing hearts, exchanging vows of love and tenderness for all the world as though we had been hundreds of leagues away from savagery and strife. ”

“ I cried, a new and awful fear striking into me like a knife.
“'e has been working fast at the shell-heap,” said Silverside. “Gaston Berdou ... Daniel Fairfax's widow may come in here any day. Her crew would eat up these mangy cannibals of Cullom's ... as many as are left ... without asking for salt. Dog brothers, the whole brood. Cullom is afraid. He is only a mangy cur, himself, and the only thing that keeps him here is his avarice. But now that he has the child, he knows that he can make terms. When it comes to that, the beds are as much his as theirs. ”

“ I asked Therese (she had told me to call her by this name, and I could guess why) about the peculiar aversion with which Silverside appeared to affect everybody with whom he came in contact.
"Yes,” she admitted, “that is quite true. I have never heard a single person say a good word for the poor man. He has often spoken to me about it. Perhaps it is the haunting horror in his face which inspires antipathy, or perhaps it is because he is a man of single ideas, with no place for outside affections. ”

“ No doubt I had loomed gigantic with the newly-risen moon glowing pallidly on my white skin. My likeness to my father was striking, I was afterwards told. Fairfax had known me from it after an interval of many years, and perhaps the old savage had always been uneasy about the crime, as a missionary holds a certain spiritual fear for even the cannibals. ”

“ Delphine's straight brows came lower, and her eyes grew hard.
“I don't remember Daniel Fairfax,” she answered, “but from what mother has told me I don't think that he deserves, living or dead, the satisfaction of the least atonement. We don't need Daniel Fairfax's money, and we don't want it. We are rich now. We have taken thousands of dollars' worth of pearls from this lagoon, and mother thinks that there is a fortune in that heap over there on the beach. ”

“ There was a decided masculine note to the firm mouth and the darkness of the upper lip.
“Mother,” said Delphine, “this is Douglas Ames, who saved me from being kidnapped by Cullom. We are going to be married as soon as ever we can.” And the rich colour flooded her face.
Followed a perfect chaos of questions and counter-questions and interrupted answers, until we all became so confused that Mrs. Fairfax quietly suggested that we sit down and get at the tale with some sort of coherence. I was elected narrator, so I began from the time when I had parted with Connor on the beach. ”