The houses which constitute the town of Picotee--in the Gambia region
a commendable liberality of spirit prevails as to the requisite elements
of a town--were glistening beneath the intolerable rays of the afternoon
sun. To the eyes of all aboard the mail steamer _Penguin_, which had
just run up a blue-peter in the anchorage, the town seemed of dazzling
whiteness. It was only the inhabitants of Picotee who knew that the
walls of the houses were not white, but of a sickly yellow tinge;
consequently, it was only the inhabitants who knew how inappropriate
it was to allude to their town as the “whited sepulchre”--a term of
reproach which was frequently levelled against it rather on account
of the appalling percentage of mortality among its inhabitants than
by reason of the spotlessness of the walls, though they did appear
spotless when viewed from the sea. In the saloon of the _Penguin_ the
thermometer registered 95°, and when the passengers complained to
the captain of the steamer respecting the temperature, holding him
personally responsible for every degree that it rose above 70°, he
pointed across the dazzling blue waters of the anchorage to where the
town was painfully glistening, and asked his complainants how they would
like to be there.
It was universally believed that when the captain had put this inquiry,
the last word had been said regarding the temperature: he, at any rate,
seemed to fancy that he had relieved himself from all responsibility in
the matter.
At Picotee things were going on pretty much as usual. But what is
progress at Picotee would be regarded as stagnation elsewhere.
There was a fine suggestion of repose about the Kroomen who were dozing
in unpicturesque attitudes in the shade of the palms on the ridge
nearest to the beach; and even Mr Caractacus Brown, who, being one of
the merchants of the place,--he sold parrots to the sailors, and would
accept a contract for green monkeys from the more ambitious collectors
of the fauna of the West Coast,--was not supposed to give way to such
weaknesses as were exhibited by the Kroomen--even Mr Caractacus Brown
wiped his woolly head and admitted to his neighbour, Mr Coriolanus
White, that the day was warm. Having seen Coriolanus selling liquid
lard by the spoonful, he could scarcely do otherwise than admit that the
temperature was high. Devonshire cream was solid in comparison with
the lard sold at Picotee. But, in spite of the heat, a pepper-bird was
warbling among the bananas, and its song broke the monotony of the roar
of the great rollers that broke upon the beach--a roar that varies but
that never ends in the ears of the people of Picotee.
Dr Claude Koomadhi, who occupied a villa built on the lovely green slope
above the town, opened the shutters of the room in which he sat, and
listened to the song of the pepper-bird. Upon his features, which seemed
as if they were carved out of black oak and delicately polished, a
sentimental expression appeared. His eyes showed a large proportion of
white as he sighed and remarked to his servant, who brought him a glass
of iced cocoanut milk, that the song of the pepper-bird reminded him of
home.
“Of ‘ome, sah?” said the old woman. “Lor’ bress yah, sah! dere ain’t no
peppah-buds at Ashantee.”
Dr Koomadhi’s eyes no longer wore a sentimental expression. They flashed
when the old woman had spoken, but she did not notice this circumstance.
She only laid down the tumbler on the table, hitched up her crimson
shawl, and roared with negress’ laughter.
“You don’t understand, Sally. I said home--England,” remarked the
doctor.
“Oh, beg pardung, sah; thought yah ‘looded to Ashantee,” said the old
woman as she rolled out of the room, still uttering that senseless
laugh.
Dr Koomadhi did not seem to be greatly put out by that reminder of the
fact that Ashantee was his birthplace. He threw himself back in his cane
chair and took a sip from the tumbler. He then resumed his perusal of
the ‘Saturday Review’ brought by the _Penguin_ in the morning.
He did not get through many pages. He shook his head gravely. He
could not approve of the tone of the political article. It suggested
compromise. It was not Conservative enough for Dr Koomadhi. He began
to fear that he must give up the ‘Saturday.’ It was clearly temporising
with the enemy. This would not do for Dr Koomadhi.
He took another sip of cocoanut milk, and then began pacing the room.
He was clearly restless in his mind; but, perhaps, it would be going too
far to suggest that he was perturbed owing to the spirit of compromise
displayed in the political article which he had just read. No; though a
staunch Conservative, he was still susceptible of a passion beyond the
patriotic desire to assist in maintaining the integrity of the Empire.
This was the origin of his uneasiness. He had been awake all the
previous night thinking over his past life, and trying to think out
his future. The conclusion to which he had come was that as he had
successfully overthrown all the obstacles which had been in his path, to
success in the past, there was no reason why he might not overthrow all
that might threaten to bar his progress in the future. But, in spite of
having come to this conclusion, he was very uneasy.
He did not become more settled when he had gone to a drawer in his
writing-desk and had taken out a cabinet portrait--the portrait of a
lady--and had gazed at it for several minutes. He laid it back with
something like a sigh, and then brought out of the same receptacle a
quantity of manuscript, every page of which consisted of a number of
lines, irregular as to their length, but each one beginning with a
capital letter. This is the least compromising way of referring to such
manuscripts. To say that they were poetry would, perhaps, be to place a
fictitious value upon them; but they certainly had one feature in common
with the noblest poems ever written in English: every line began with a
capital letter.
Dr Koomadhi’s lips--they constituted not the least prominent of his
features--moved as he read to himself the lines which he had written
during the past three months,--since his return to Picotee with
authority to spend some thousands of pounds in carrying out certain
experiments, the result of which would, it was generally hoped,
transform the region of the Gambia into one of the healthiest of her
Majesty’s possessions. Then he sighed again and laid the manuscripts
over the photograph, closing and locking the drawer of the desk.
He walked fitfully up and down the room for another hour. Then he opened
his shutters, and the first breath of the evening breeze from the sea
came upon his face.
“I’ll do it,” he said resolutely. “Why should I not do it? Surely that
old ridiculous prejudice is worn out. Surely she, at least, will be
superior to such prejudice. Yes, she must--she must. I have succeeded
hitherto in everything that I have attempted, and shall I fail in this?”
The roar of the rollers along the beach filled the room, at the open
window of which Dr Koomadhi remained standing for several minutes.