John Masefield

“ His ear-rings glittered at each bite upon the sprig. There was a glittering about the man’s person, apart from ear-rings and teeth, because his waistcoat was buttoned up to the throat with some thirty small globular silver buttons.
“All is not gold that glitters,” Hi thought. “Mr. Bright Tooth, you look like a wolf who would scratch up a grave.”
“Well, how much, do you think, would be fair for a horse for two days?” Hi asked.
The woman fanned herself for a moment, then she said:
“You see, we not know you. You may be very fine gentleman, but we not know you. My horse, all the horse I got. ”

“ To one who slumbered breathing deep; it made
An image of Time’s going and man’s trade.
He looked: Old Mother Occleve lay asleep,
Hands crossed upon her knitting, rosy, breathing deep.
He tiptoed up the stairs which creaked and cracked.
The landing creaked; the shut doors, painted gray,
Loomed, as if shutting in some dreadful act.
The nodding frames seemed ready to betray.
The east room had been closed in Michael’s day,
Being the best; but now he guessed it hers;
The fields of daffodils lay next it, past the firs. ”

“ Anselmo . . . sabe? Anselmo, est il bien loin? La ville d’Anselmo, est il far?”
The man nodded his head and grinned, as though to reassure him. Something in the man’s face, the pouchy look under the eyes, reminded Hi of one of the portraits of Henry VIII: it looked evil from evil done and evil planning. The man turned to his path and seemed about to lead the horse off the trail. “I daresay,” Hi thought, “the woman is the shot: she has the revolver. He’ll lead me round to her and she’ll pot me from behind a bush. Yet he’s as strong as an ox. ”

“ The poetry that springs from emotion, not the intellectual exercise. In that conception of his art John Masefield has been unswerving: the beauty of ships that has moved him, the sea's power, the soul of man fighting in the last ditch—his emotional response to such as these has been finely tempered, of ringing honesty, and fired with the spark that brings a glow to the minds of other men. ”

“ With the sunlight behind him Charles saw how they went;
No nearer, but further, and only one spent.
Only Kubbadar dwelling, the rest going strong,
Taking jump after jump as a bird takes a song,
Their thirty lengths' lead seemed a weary way long,
It seemed to grow longer, it seemed to increase:
"This is bitter," he said. "May it be for my peace.
My dream was a glimpse of the world beyond sense,
All beauty and wisdom are messages thence.
There the difference of bodies and the strain of control
Are removed; beast with man speaks, and spirit with soul. ”

“ He passed the Red Ember, he came to the flank
Of Peterkinooks, whom he reached and then sank.
There were only two others, going level alone,
First the spotted cream jacket, then the blue, white and roan.
Up the street of green race-course they strained for the prize,
While the stands blurred with waving and the air shook with cries:
"Now, Sir Lopez!" "Come, Soyland!" "Now, Sir Lopez! Now, now!"
Then Charles judged his second, but he could not tell how.
But a glory of sureness leaped from horse into man,
And the man said, "Now, beauty," and the horse said, "I can." ”

“ After the shots, listening intently as he was, he thought that he heard the sound of many horses going together at a fast trot. Some such noise there was, it rang out, died down, clopped and clinked and then clattered. “Of course, it can’t be Don Manuel,” he said, coming to himself. “But it may be the Whites driving away the Reds. Anyhow, people are there: the forest ends. It may even be Anselmo. Come on, horse, here’s the world again. ”

“ It is the smell of some stuff that kills, it has to do with death. This is a deadly place; we’ll be gone from it.”
Having groomed and fed his horse and himself, he set out from that clearing. “I have got my bearings now,” he said. “I am facing north, probably straight towards Anselmo. Any going to the right will bring me out towards La Boca; any going to the left will put me too far to the west. As I am headed now, I ought to be clear of the forest by noon. I don’t know what Rosa will think of me, losing all this time, but I’ll get there somehow, so that she shan’t be too much ashamed of me.” ”

“ Hi asked.
“If you meet a tiger.”
“If a pig, he kick; so you know,” the girl said.
“Right. Thanks. Good-bye.”
“Con Dios.”
The horse was as eager to be gone as Hi to go. He sailed sideways down the avenue. Just as he turned into the thicket, Hi looked back to wave to his friends; they waved back to him. In two seconds more they were out of sight; he was riding through forest that was all dropping dew and trailing mist.
“I am really off at last,” he thought. “Twenty-four hours late in starting and twice as far from Anselmo as I was.” ”

“ If that fellow told the truth, if this is the Melchior forest, I must be near the San Jacinto, or its eastern tributaries. I must speak to that fellow and beg him to help me. After all, he is an Englishman, though he is as ross as a mule.”
As it was dark and cold, he turned back to his hammock to try for warmth and sleep. He slept a little, by starts, always broken by nightmares. The cold struck him from underneath: it got into all his bones. “Aha, you English boy,” voices said to him in his dreams. “Now you’ve come into our power you shall be searched. ”

“ When he turned into the street in front of the city hall, he saw some of the lancers, followed by a mob, riding uphill towards him. He turned uphill away from them, till he was out of the town, in a rocky path near a pine wood. The lancers paused at the city hall, as though to bivouac. Hi felt a deadly weariness overcoming the need of reaching Anselmo.
“I am done,” he thought. “I have done nothing, but I have been through a good deal to-day. I must rest for a bit before I go on.” He was cold as well as weary, for the cold sea breeze was blowing. “It must be midnight,” he thought. ”

“ He came to his hut and again had the sensation that someone was there: this time so strongly that he called out. “Yes, who is it, there?” before he saw that there was no one. “It is odd,” he said, “I keep thinking that there’s a man here. I’ve got to be all jumpy from being in the forest; and then, this hammock-post is like a man, and gives me the illusion every time. I wish there were a man here, Dudley Wigmore or another; then I might not be so dependent on this sneering devil.”
Still raging against the man, he turned into his hammock to think of things which did not bear thought ”

“ I should just be an English tourist. That settles it. I’ll go off and get a horse and start at once and find him and tell him.”
“No, no,” she said. “It is impossible.”
“Because I’m a boy and don’t know Spanish?”
“No, no, indeed,” she said, “but because we want you to settle here. Become a citizen later, if you wish, but, until then, you must avoid our troubles. Now here is my note to Rosa, if you will deliver it.”
It was very dim in the hall away from the tapers on the writing table. There were amphoræ full of sweet-smelling shrubs. ”

“ But mother hasn’t been well for some time. She thinks that something terrible is happening; or soon going to happen. Any allusion to the Reds just now upsets her.”
“Right,” Hi said, “I’ll be silent. But I say, Rosa; I wish you’d tell me why you didn’t bow or smile or anything when those market people cheered you.”
“Did it seem very bad manners?”
“It struck me as a little odd.”
“We’re Whites,” she answered. “We’re watched pretty closely. What is to stop the Reds from sending agents to cheer the Whites in our presence, and watching whether we applaud? ”

“ We’ll save her.”
“This devil, Lopez, is going to wipe out the Whites,” she said.
“Not he,” Hi said. “Don’t you think it, Rosa.”
“What is to stop him? We’re all in his power.”
“Not you,” Hi said. “He’s done something wicked and stupid, which won’t prosper; you’ll see it won’t. Now about getting to Manuel. I don’t know a word of Spanish, except Dios and si and the oaths those sailors told me. Where can I get a horse, to begin with? I suppose all the livery stables will be closed?”
“You’ll get no horse here.” ”

“ Full of small snow the mighty wester blew.
"More fun for little fish-hooks," sighed the crew.
They eyed the taut topgallants stiff like steel;
A second hand was ordered to the wheel.
The Captain eyed her aft, sucking his lip,
Feeling the sail too much, but yet refraining
From putting hobbles on the leaping ship,
The glad sea-shattering stallion, halter-straining,
Wind-musical, uproarious, and complaining;
But, in a gust, he cocked his finger, so:
"You'd better take them off, before they go."
All saw. They ran at once without the word
"Leeay! Leeay!" Loud rang the clew-line cries ”

“ I kept praying that my horse would come down, or that the preventives would catch us; and at the same time the hurry of our rush through the night set my blood leaping, made me cry aloud as we galloped, made me call to the horses to gallop faster. There was nothing on the road; no one was travelling; we had the highway to ourselves. Near the farm at the bend we saw men by the roadside, and an owl called to us from among them, with that little flourish at the end of the call which I had heard once before that evening. We dashed past them; but as Marah passed, he cried out, "Yes. Be quick." ”

“ And is that all I’m to say to the Misters Elenas and to Mr. Manuel, just Dorothea, and he’s to come at once?”
“Yes, that’s all. How soon could you reach Anselmo?”
“Three hours and that. But I’ll get a horse out along the road, maybe.”
“It’s a long way to Encarnacion,” Hi said.
“I like a bit of sport, when I get a horse like these country ones that’s got meat on the ribs.”
“You’ll hurry all you can, won’t you? People’s lives depend on it.”
“Dammy, Mr. Highworth, I’ll go like your old grandfather, and like what the old gentleman, old Mr. Ridden done.” ”

“ Regard the mud: see also the thorn-marks and the bitings of bichos.”
“Always some are lost in the forest: they go blind, then they go mad. They will drink fire, thinking it water.”
“Remember that man of Matoche: he who had nothing but a book.”
“Also that other: the Americano: for whom some Americana must still mourn. He had her locket, the poor man.”
“And this is but a boy and a caballero.”
“Yes, and very gentle,” the girl said. “His manners are so modest.”
She turned to Hi, and spoke again in English. “You go San Marco?” she asked. “We take you to San Marco?”
“Is that near Anselmo?” ”

“ It was like a Roman camp, like military virtue, order, calm, courage, dignity. He needed some such message. He was in command of a shipload of suffering. He was wandering on into the unknown, in charge of dying men. Smoke was rising from below the hill, a single spire of smoke. He hailed the singer.
"Merrylegs," he cried, "what is the smoke there?"
"Jualapa," said the man, standing up to look. "Jualapa."
"It can't be Jualapa," said Lionel petulantly, struggling to lift his blankets. "Oh, stop that noise, Roger. It shakes my head to pieces."
"Jualapa," cried the rowers excitedly. ”

“ Bill in his corner bathed his thumb,
Buttoned his shirt and glowered glum.
"I'll never shake your hand" he said.
"I'd rather see my children dead.
I've been about and had some fun with you,
But you're a liar and I've done with you.
You've knocked me out, you didn't beat me;
Look out the next time that you meet me,
There'll be no friend to watch the clock for you
And no convenient thumb to crock for you,
And I'll take care, with much delight,
You'll get what you'd a got to-night;
That puts my meaning clear, I guess,
Now get to hell; I want to dress." ”

“ Are you Reds?”
“We have the work to do: it is the people in cities who have these quarrels.”
“But in this quarrel,” he said, “surely everyone must join.”
“The work has to be done. If these city people worked, they would not have the time to quarrel.”
“Oh, wouldn’t they,” he said, “that’s all you know of men. But, look here, how can I get to Anselmo?”
“You are not going to fight?”
“I’ve been trusted with a message to Don Manuel. If he is to be at Anselmo, I must try to get there to meet him. You’re sure it is Anselmo?” ”

“ Hi said.
“You pay more money. Another sovereign, see?”
“I won’t pay a red cent more.”
Bright Tooth shot forward, stooped and made a clutch at Hi’s rein. The yellow horse shied away from him, so that he missed his clutch and nearly fell. Hi, too, was nearly off. He recovered first. He dropped his right hand to the pocket where he kept his knife. He poked the end of the knife from within the pocket towards Bright Tooth, as though it were a revolver muzzle. He had read somewhere of men shooting through the pocket. He called out, “All right, old sport, I’ve got you covered. Cuidado.” ”

“ I can’t see across this hut. I shan’t be able to reach Anselmo even to-day. Now I am bound to be too late, and Carlotta may be killed because of me.” He turned out of his hammock to prove himself: it was only too true, he was nearly blind: he could not hope to go on without a guide. “Horses,” he thought. “These people have no horses. My only hope is a river. I may be near some tributary of the San Jacinto. If I could take a canoe down that, or if some Indian would take me, I might even find Don Manuel during to-day. There must be rivers which run into the San Jacinto. ”

“ When one walks a new road, one finds it much longer than it really is. I sat down by the roadside now and then to think of plans. I felt that my best plan would be to go to London, and see the Lord Mayor, who, I felt sure, would help me to get home. But I had not much notion of where London was, and I knew that if I went into a house to ask the road to London, people would suspect that I was running away, and so, perhaps, find out that I had been with the smugglers. I knew that many people there must be smugglers themselves ”