"Haul away there, Goulven!"
It was a difficult boarding. I had come, in a cutter from the
_Primauguet_, to examine a suspicious-looking whaling ship, which showed
no flag.
In the southern ocean, still; near the Isle of Tonga, and to windward of
it. The _Primauguet_ itself was anchored in a bay of the island, within
the line of reefs, in the shelter of a coral bank. The whaler lay
off-shore almost in the open sea, as if in readiness for flight, and the
swell was heavy about her.
I had been sent with a party to reconnoitre her, to "speak" to her as we
say in the navy.
"Haul away there, Goulven! Haul!"
I looked up at the man who was called Goulven; he was the one, who, on
the deck of the equivocal craft, held the rope which had just been
thrown to me. And I was struck by his face, by his familiar look: he was
another Yves, not so young, more sunburnt and more athletic
perhaps--harsher in feature, as one who had suffered more--but he was so
like him in the eyes, in the expression, that he looked to me like his
double.
I had sometimes thought that we might come across this brother Goulven,
on one of these whaling boats which we found, now and then, in the
anchorages of the southern seas, and which we "spoke" to when we did not
like their look.
I went straight to him, without worrying about the captain, who was a
huge American, headed like a pirate, with a long, thick, seaweed-like
beard. I entered there as on conquered territory and etiquette mattered
little to me.
"So it's you, Goulven Kermadec?"
And I advanced towards him holding out my hand, so sure was I of his
identity.
But he, for his part, paled under his tan, and shrank back. He was
afraid.
And I saw him, in an instinct of uncivilized man, clenching his fists,
stiffening his muscles, as if prepared to resist to the utmost, in a
desperate struggle.
Poor Goulven! The surprise of hearing me call him by his name--and then
my uniform--and the sixteen armed sailors who accompanied me, had been
too much for him. He thought that I had come in the name of the law of
France, to seize him, and, like Yves, he became exasperated under the
threat of force.
It took a minute or two to reassure him; and then when he was persuaded
that his _little brother_ had become mine, and that he was hard by, on
the warship from which I had come, he asked my pardon for his fear with
the same frank smile I knew so well in Yves.
It was a singular looking crew. The boat itself had the movements and
the appearance of a pirate-ship. Licked and fretted by the sea, during
the three years in which it had wandered in the swell of the great ocean
without having once touched any civilized country, but solid still, and
built for the seas' highways. In its shrouds, from bottom to top, on
each ratline, hung whale's fins, looking like long dark fringes. One
would have said that it had passed under the water and become covered
with seaweed.
Within, it was laden with the fats and oils from the bodies of all the
great beasts which they had slain. There was enough there to make a
small fortune, and the captain was reckoning on returning shortly to
America, to California where his home was.
A mixed crew: two Frenchmen, two Americans, three Spaniards, a German,
an Indian "boy," and a Chinese cook. In addition a Peruvian
_chola_--half-naked like the men--who was the wife of the captain and
was suckling a baby two months old conceived and born at sea.
The living quarters of this family, in the stern, had oak walls as thick
as ramparts, and doors barred with iron. Within was a veritable arsenal
of revolvers, knuckle-dusters, and life-preservers. Precautions had been
taken; if occasion arose one would be able there to stand a siege by the
whole crew.
For the rest, her papers were in order. She had not hoisted a flag for
the simple reason that she had not got one; beetles had eaten the last,
of which they showed me the rags to substantiate their excuse; it had
the American colours right enough, red and white stripes, with the
starred Jack. There was nothing to be said; everything was, in fact,
correct.
. . . Goulven asked me if I knew Plouherzel; and I told him how I had
slept one night under his mother's roof.
"And you," I said, "are you never going to return."
I could see that he was much moved.
"It is too late now. I should have my punishment to do for the State,
and I am married in California. I have two children in Sacramento."
"Will you come with me to see Yves?"
"Come with you?" he repeated darkly, in a low voice. He seemed
astonished at what I proposed to him. "Come with you? But you know . . .
I am a deserter?"
At this moment he was so like Yves, he said this so exactly as Yves
might have said it, that I felt a pang.
After all, I understood his fears of a man free and jealous of his
liberty; I respected his terrors of French territory--for the deck of a
warship is French territory--on board the _Primauguet._ We should have
the right to arrest him; that was the law.
"At any rate you would like to see him?"
"Like to see him! . . . My poor little Yves!"
"Very well, then, I will bring him to you. When he comes, all I ask of
you is that you will advise him to be steady. You understand . . .
Goulven?"
It was he then who took my hand and pressed it in his.