Mark laughed. "Well, that was a very funny thing," he said. "You see, the
other two men, they were busy, astern, with their own concerns. And when
I had comforted the little brown girl, and sat down on the deck to laugh
at the folly of it all, she slipped away from me, and went aft, and got
all their rifles. She brought them to me. She seemed to expect things of
me. So I, still laughing, for the fever was on me; I took the rifles and
threw them, all but one, over the side. And I went down into the cabin,
with the little brown girl, and went to bed; and she sat beside me, with
the rifle, and a lamp hanging above the door....
"And that was all that happened, until I woke one morning and saw her
there, and wondered where I was. And my head was clear again. She made me
understand that the men had sought to come at me, but had feared the
rifle in her hands....
"And we were in the open sea, as I could feel by the labor of the
schooner underfoot. So I took the rifle in the crook of my arm, and with
the little brown girl at my heel, I went up on deck. And we made a
treaty."
He fell silent for a moment, and Joel watched him, and waited. And at
last, Mark went on.
"I had been more than a month on the island," he said. "The _Nathan Ross_
had gone. This schooner was a pearler, and they had the location of a bed
of shell. They had been waiting till another schooner should leave the
place, to leave their own way clear. And when that time came, they went
ashore to get the brown women for companions on that cruise. And they
made the mistake of picking up my little brown girl, when she ran out of
the hut. And so brought me down upon them.
"There were two of them left; two whites, and three black men forward,
who were of no account. And the other two women. These other two were
chattering together, on the deck astern, when I appeared. They seemed
content enough....
"The men were not happy. There was a large man with slanting eyes. There
was Oriental blood in him. You could see that. He called himself Quint.
But his eyes were Jap, or Chinese; and he had their calm, blank screen
across his countenance, to hide what may have been his thoughts. Quint,
he called himself. And he was a big man, and very much of a man in his
own way, Joel.
"The other was little, and he walked with a slink and a grin. His name
was Fetcher. And he was oily in his speech.
"When they saw me, they studied me for a considerable time without
speech. And I stood there, with the rifle in my arm, and laughed at them.
And at last, Quint said calmly:
"'You took Farrell.'
"'The fat man?' I asked him. He nodded. 'Yes,' I said. 'He took my girl,
and so I dropped him into the water, and a friend met him there and
hurried him away.'
"'Your girl?' he echoed, in a nasty way. 'You're that, then?'
"'Am I?' I asked, and shifted the rifle a thought to the fore. And his
eyes held mine for a space, and then he shook his head.
"'I see that I was mistaken,' he said.
"'Your sight is good,' I told him. 'Now--what is this? Tell me.'
"He told me, evenly and without malice. They had a line on the pearls;
there were enough for three. I was welcome. And at the end, I nodded my
consent. The _Nathan Ross_ was gone. Furthermore, there were nine pagans
in me now; and the prospect of looting some still lagoon, in company with
these two rats, had a wild flavor about it that caught me. My blood was
burning; and the sun was hot. Also, they had liquor aboard her. Liquor,
and loot, and the three women. Pagan, Joel. Pagan! But wild and red and
raw. There's a glory about such things.... Songs are made of them....
There was no handshaking; but we made alliance, and crowded on sail, and
went on our way."
He stopped short, laughed, filled his pipe again, watched Joel. "You're
shocked with me, boy. I can see it," he taunted mockingly. Joel shook his
head. "Will you hear the rest?" Mark asked; and Joel nodded. Mark lighted
his pipe, laughed.... His fingers thrummed on the desk beside him.
"We were a week on the way," he said. "And all pagan, every minute of the
week. Days when we fought a storm--as bad as I've ever seen, Joel. We
fought it, holding to the ropes with our teeth, bare to the waist, with
the wind scourging us. It tore at us, and lashed at us.... And we drove
the three black men with knives to their work. And the three women stayed
below, except my little brown girl. She came up, now and then, with dry
clothes for me.... And I had to drive her to shelter....
"And when there was not the storm, there was liquor; and they had cards.
We staked our shares in the catch that was to come.... Hour on hour,
dealing, and playing with few words; and our eyes burned hollow in their
sockets, and Quint's thin mouth twisted and writhed all the time like a
worm on a pin. He was a nervous man, for all his calm. A very nervous
man....
"The fifth day, one of the blacks stumbled in Quint's path, on deck.
Quint had been losing, at the cards. He slid a knife from his sleeve into
the man's ribs, and tipped the black over the rail without a word. I was
twenty feet away, and it was done before I could catch breath. I shouted;
and Quint turned and looked at me, and he smiled.
"'What is it?' he asked. 'Have you objections to present?' And the
smeared blade in his hand, and the bubbles still rising, overside. I was
afraid of the man, Joel. I tell you I was afraid. The only time. Fear's a
pagan joy, boy. It was like a new drink to me. I nursed it, eating it.
And I shook my head, humble.
"'No objections,' I said, to Quint. ''Tis your affair.'
"'That was my thought,' he agreed, and passed me, and went astern. I
stood aside to let him pass, and trembled, and laughed for the joy of my
fear.
"And then we came to the lagoon, and the blacks began to dive. Only the
two we had; and there was no sign of Islanders, ashore. But the water was
shallow, and we worked the men with knives, and they got pearls.
Sometimes one or two in a day; sometimes a dozen. Do you know pearls,
Joel? They're sweet as a woman's skin. I had never seen them, before. And
we all went a little mad over them....
"They made Fetcher hysterical. He laughed too much. They made Quint
morose. They made me tremble...."
He wiped his hand across his eyes, as though the memory wearied him; and
he moved his great shoulders, and looked at Joel, and laughed. "But it
could not last, in that fashion," he said. "It might have been anything.
It turned out to be the women. I said they seemed content. They did. But
that may be the way of the blacks. They have a happy habit of life; they
laugh easily....
"At any rate, we found one morning that Quint's girl was gone. She was
not on the schooner; and ashore, we found her tracks in the sand. She had
gone into the trees. And we beat the island, and we did not find her. And
Quint sweated. All that day.
"That night, he looked at my little brown girl, and touched her shoulder.
I was across the deck, the girl coming to me with food. I said to him:
'No. She's mine, Quint.' And he looked at me, and I beat him with my
eyes. And as his turned from mine, Fetcher and his woman came on deck,
and Quint tapped Fetcher, and said to him: 'What will you take for her?'
"Fetcher laughed at him; and Quint scowled. And I--for I was minded to
see sport, came across to them and said: 'Play for her. Play for her!'
"Fetcher was willing; because he had the blood that gambles anything.
Quint was willing, because he was the better player. They sat down to the
game, in the cabin, after supper. Poker. Cold hands. Nine of them. Winner
of five to win....
"Fetcher got two, lost four, got two more. I was dealing. Card by card,
face upward. I remember those hands. And my little brown girl, and the
other, watching from the corner.
"The hands on the table grew, card by card. Fetcher got an ace, Quint a
deuce. Fetcher a queen, Quint a seven. Fetcher a jack, Quint a six.
Fetcher a ten, Quint a ten. Only the last card to come to each. If
Fetcher paired any card, he would win. His card came first. It was a
seven. He was ace, queen high. Quint had deuce, six, seven, ten. He had
to get a pair to win....
"I saw Quint's hand stir, beneath the table; and I glimpsed a knife in
it. But before I could speak, or stir, Fetcher dropped his own hand to
his trouser leg, and I knew he kept a blade there.... So I laughed, and
dealt Quint's last card....
"A deuce. He had a pair, enough to win....
"He leaned back, laughing grimly; and Fetcher's knife went in beneath the
left side of his jaw, where the jugular lies. Quint looked surprised, and
got up out of his chair and lay down quietly across the table. I heard
the bubbling of his last breath.... Then Fetcher laughed, and called his
woman, and they took Quint on deck and tipped him overside. The knife had
been well thrown. Fetcher had barely moved his wrist.... I was much
impressed with the little man, and told my brown girl so. But she was
frightened, and I comforted her."
He was silent again for a time, pressing the hot ashes in his pipe with
his thumb. The water slapped the broad stern of the ship beneath them,
and Joel's pipe was gurgling. There was no other sound. Little Priss,
nails biting her palms, thought she would stream if the silence held an
instant more....
But Mark laughed softly, and went on.
"Fetcher and I worked smoothly together," he said. "The little man was
very pleasant and affable; and I met him half way. The blacks brought up
the shells, and we idled through the days, and played cards at night. We
divided the take, each day; so our stakes ran fairly high. But luck has a
way of balancing. On the day when we saw the end in sight, we were fairly
even....
"Fetcher, and the blacks and I went ashore to get fruit from the trees
there. Plenty of it everywhere; and we were running short. We went into
the brush together, very pleasantly; and he fell a little behind. I
looked back, and his knife brushed my neck and quivered in a tree a yard
beyond me. So I went back and took him in my hands. He had another
knife--the little man fairly bristled with them. But it struck a rib, and
before he could use it again, his neck snapped.
"So that I was alone on the schooner, with the two blacks, and Fetcher's
woman, and the little brown girl.
"Fetcher's woman went ashore to find him and never came back. And I
decided it was time for me to go away from that place. The pagans were
dying in me. I did not like that quiet little island any more.
"But the next morning, when I looked out beyond the lagoon, another
schooner was coming in. So I was uncomfortable with Fetcher's pearls, as
well as mine, in my pocket. There are some hard men in these seas, Joel;
and I knew none of them would treasure me above my pearls. So I planned a
story of misfortune, and I went ashore to hide my pearls under a rock.
"The blacks had brought me ashore. I went out of their sight to do what I
had to do; and when I came back, after hiding the pearls, I saw them
rowing very swiftly toward the schooner. And they looked back at me in a
fearful way. I wondered why; and then four black men came down on me from
behind, with knives and clubs.
"I had a very hard day, that day. They hunted me back and forth through
the island--I had not even a knife with me--and I met them here and
there, and suffered certain contusions and bruises and minor cuts. Also,
I grew very tired of killing them. They were wiry, but they were small,
and died easily. So I was glad, when from a point where they had cornered
me I saw the little brown girl rowing the big boat toward me.
"She was alone. The blacks were afraid to come, I thought. But I found
afterward that this was not true. They could not come; for they had tried
to seize the schooner and go quickly away from that place, and the little
brown girl had drilled them both. She had a knack with the rifle....
"I waded to meet the boat, and she tossed me the gun. I held them off for
a little, while we drew away from the shore. But when we were thirty or
forty yards off, I heard rifles from the other schooner, firing past us
at the blacks in the bush; and the girl stopped rowing. So I turned
around and saw that one of the balls from the other schooner had struck
her in the back. So I sat there, in the sun, drifting with the wind, and
held her in my arms till she coughed and died.
"Then I went out to the other schooner and told them they were bad
marksmen. They had only been passing by, for copra; and the story I told
them was a shocking one. They were much impressed, and they seemed glad
to get away. But the blacks were still on shore, so that I could not go
back for the pearls; and I worked the schooner out by myself, and shaped
a course....
"I came to Tubuai, alone thus, a day before you, Joel."