horrible to Schomberg's ears, and all mere innocent exclamations of
wonder at the shifts and changes of human fortune. Schomberg moved
slightly in his chair. But the admirer and partner of “plain Mr. Jones”
seemed to have forgotten Schomberg's existence for the moment. The
stream of ingenuous blasphemy--some of it in bad Spanish--had run dry,
and Martin Ricardo, connoisseur in gentlemen, sat dumb with a stony gaze
as if still marvelling inwardly at the amazing elections, conjunctions,
and associations of events which influence man's pilgrimage on this
earth.
At last Schomberg spoke tentatively:
“And so the--the gentleman, up there, talked you over into leaving a
good berth?”
Ricardo started.
“Talked me over! Didn't need to talk me over. Just beckoned to me, and
that was enough. By that time we were in the Gulf of Mexico. One night
we were lying at anchor, close to a dry sandbank--to this day I am not
sure where it was--off the Colombian coast or thereabouts. We were
to start digging the next morning, and all hands had turned in early,
expecting a hard day with the shovels. Up he comes, and in his quiet,
tired way of speaking--you can tell a gentleman by that as much as by
anything else almost--up he comes behind me and says, just like that
into my ear, in a manner: 'Well, what do you think of our treasure hunt
now?'
“I didn't even turn my head; 'xactly as I stood, I remained, and I spoke
no louder than himself:
“'If you want to know, sir, it's nothing but just damned tom-foolery.'
“We had, of course, been having short talks together at one time or
another during the passage. I dare say he had read me like a book. There
ain't much to me, except that I have never been tame, even when walking
the pavement and cracking jokes and standing drinks to chums--ay, and to
strangers, too. I would watch them lifting their elbows at my expense,
or splitting their side at my fun--I can be funny when I like, you bet!”
A pause for self-complacent contemplation of his own fun and generosity
checked the flow of Ricardo's speech. Schomberg was concerned to keep
within bounds the enlargement of his eyes, which he seemed to feel
growing bigger in his head.
“Yes, yes,” he whispered hastily.
“I would watch them and think: 'You boys don't know who I am. If you
did--!' With girls, too. Once I was courting a girl. I used to kiss her
behind the ear and say to myself: 'If you only knew who's kissing you,
my dear, you would scream and bolt!' Ha! ha! Not that I wanted to
do them any harm; but I felt the power in myself. Now, here we sit,
friendly like, and that's all right. You aren't in my way. But I am not
friendly to you. I just don't care. Some men do say that; but I really
don't. You are no more to me one way or another than that fly there.
Just so. I'd squash you or leave you alone. I don't care what I do.”
If real force of character consists in overcoming our sudden weaknesses,
Schomberg displayed plenty of that quality. At the mention of the fly,
he re-enforced the severe dignity of his attitude as one inflates a
collapsing toy balloon with a great effort of breath. The easy-going,
relaxed attitude of Ricardo was really appalling.
“That's so,” he went on. “I am that sort of fellow. You wouldn't think
it, would you? No. You have to be told. So I am telling you, and I dare
say you only half believe it. But you can't say to yourself that I am
drunk, stare at me as you may. I haven't had anything stronger than a
glass of iced water all day. Takes a real gentleman to see through a
fellow. Oh, yes--he spotted me. I told you we had a few talks at sea
about one thing or another. And I used to watch him down the skylight,
playing cards in the cuddy with the others. They had to pass the time
away somehow. By the same token he caught me at it once, and it was then
that I told him I was fond of cards--and generally lucky in gambling,
too. Yes, he had sized me up. Why not? A gentleman's just like any other
man--and something more.”
It flashed through Schomberg's mind: that these two were indeed well
matched in their enormous dissimilarity, identical souls in different
disguises.
“Says he to me”--Ricardo started again in a gossiping manner--'I'm
packed up. It's about time to go, Martin.'
“It was the first time he called me Martin. Says I:
“'Is that it, sir?'
“'You didn't think I was after that sort of treasure, did you? I wanted
to clear out from home quietly. It's a pretty expensive way of getting a
passage across, but it has served my turn.'
“I let him know very soon that I was game for anything, from pitch and
toss to wilful murder, in his company.
“'Wilful murder?' says he in his quiet way. 'What the deuce is that?
What are you talking about? People do get killed sometimes when they get
in one's way, but that's self-defence--you understand?'
“I told him I did. And then I said I would run below for a minute, to
ram a few of my things into a sailor's bag I had. I've never cared for
a lot of dunnage; I believed in going about flying light when I was at
sea. I came back and found him strolling up and down the deck, as if
he were taking a breath of fresh air before turning in, like any other
evening.
“'Ready?'
“'Yes, sir.'
“He didn't even look at me. We had had a boat in the water astern ever
since we came to anchor in the afternoon. He throws the stump of his
cigar overboard.
“'Can you get the captain out on deck?' he asks.
“That was the last thing in the world I should have thought of doing. I
lost my tongue for a moment.
“'I can try,' says I.
“'Well, then, I am going below. You get him up and keep him with you
till I come back on deck. Mind! Don't let him go below till I return.'
“I could not help asking why he told me to rouse a sleeping man, when
we wanted everybody on board to sleep sweetly till we got clear of the
schooner. He laughs a little and says that I didn't see all the bearings
of this business.
“'Mind,' he says, 'don't let him leave you till you see me come up
again.' He puts his eyes close to mine. 'Keep him with you at all
costs.'
“'And that means?' says I.
“'All costs to him--by every possible or impossible means. I don't want
to be interrupted in my business down below. He would give me lots
of trouble. I take you with me to save myself trouble in various
circumstances; and you've got to enter on your work right away.'
“'Just so, sir,' says I; and he slips down the companion.
“With a gentleman you know at once where you are; but it was a ticklish
job. The skipper was nothing to me one way or another, any more than you
are at this moment, Mr. Schomberg. You may light your cigar or blow your
brains out this minute, and I don't care a hang which you do, both or
neither. To bring the skipper up was easy enough. I had only to stamp on
the deck a few times over his head. I stamped hard. But how to keep him
up when he got there?
“'Anything the matter; Mr. Ricardo?' I heard his voice behind me.
“There he was, and I hadn't thought of anything to say to him; so I
didn't turn round. The moonlight was brighter than many a day I could
remember in the North Sea.
“'Why did you call me? What are you staring at out there, Mr. Ricardo?'
“He was deceived by my keeping my back to him. I wasn't staring at
anything, but his mistake gave me a notion.
“'I am staring at something that looks like a canoe over there,' I said
very slowly.
“The skipper got concerned at once. It wasn't any danger from the
inhabitants, whoever they were.
“'Oh, hang it!' says he. 'That's very unfortunate.' He had hoped that
the schooner being on the coast would not get known so very soon.
'Dashed awkward, with the business we've got in hand, to have a lot of
niggers watching operations. But are you certain this is a canoe?'
“'It may be a drift-log,' I said; 'but I thought you had better have a
look with your own eyes. You may make it out better than I can.'
“His eyes weren't anything as good as mine. But he says:
“'Certainly. Certainly. You did quite right.'
“And it's a fact I had seen some drift-logs at sunset. I saw what they
were then and didn't trouble my head about them, forgot all about it
till that very moment. Nothing strange in seeing drift-logs off a coast
like that; and I'm hanged if the skipper didn't make one out in the
wake of the moon. Strange what a little thing a man's life hangs on
sometimes--a single word! Here you are, sitting unsuspicious before me,
and you may let out something unbeknown to you that would settle your
hash. Not that I have any ill-feeling. I have no feelings. If the
skipper had said, 'O, bosh!' and had turned his back on me, he would not
have gone three steps towards his bed; but he stood there and stared.
And now the job was to get him off the deck when he was no longer wanted
there.
“'We are just trying to make out if that object there is a canoe or a
log,' says he to Mr. Jones.
“Mr. Jones had come up, lounging as carelessly as when he went below.
While the skipper was jawing about boats and drifting logs. I asked by
signs, from behind, if I hadn't better knock him on the head and drop
him quietly overboard. The night was slipping by, and we had to go. It
couldn't be put off till next night no more. No. No more. And do you
know why?”
Schomberg made a slight negative sign with his head. This direct appeal
annoyed him, jarred on the induced quietude of a great talker forced
into the part of a listener and sunk in it as a man sinks into slumber.
Mr. Ricardo struck a note of scorn.
“Don't know why? Can't you guess? No? Because the boss had got hold of
the skipper's cash-box by then. See?”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“A common thief!”
Schomberg bit his tongue just too late, and woke up completely as he saw
Ricardo retract his lips in a cat-like grin; but the companion of “plain
Mr. Jones” didn't alter his comfortable, gossiping attitude.
“Garn! What if he did want to see his money back, like any tame
shopkeeper, hash-seller, gin-slinger, or ink-spewer does? Fancy a mud
turtle like you trying to pass an opinion on a gentleman! A gentleman
isn't to be sized up so easily. Even I ain't up to it sometimes. For
instance, that night, all he did was to waggle his finger at me. The
skipper stops his silly chatter, surprised.
“'Eh? What's the matter?' asks he.
“The matter! It was his reprieve--that's what was the matter.
“'O, nothing, nothing,' says my gentleman. 'You are perfectly right. A
log--nothing but a log.'
“Ha, ha! Reprieve, I call it, because if the skipper had gone on with
his silly argument much longer he would have had to be knocked out
of the way. I could hardly hold myself in on account of the precious
minutes. However, his guardian angel put it into his head to shut up and
go back to his bed. I was ramping mad about the lost time.”
“'Why didn't you let me give him one on his silly coconut sir?' I asks.
“'No ferocity, no ferocity,' he says, raising his finger at me as calm
as you please.
“You can't tell how a gentleman takes that sort of thing. They don't
lose their temper. It's bad form. You'll never see him lose his
temper--not for anybody to see anyhow. Ferocity ain't good form,
either--that much I've learned by this time, and more, too. I've had
that schooling that you couldn't tell by my face if I meant to rip you
up the next minute--as of course I could do in less than a jiffy. I have
a knife up the leg of my trousers.”
“You haven't!” exclaimed Schomberg incredulously.
Mr. Ricardo was as quick as lightning in changing his lounging, idle
attitude for a stooping position, and exhibiting the weapon with one
jerk at the left leg of his trousers. Schomberg had just a view of it,
strapped to a very hairy limb, when Mr. Ricardo, jumping up, stamped his
foot to get the trouser-leg down, and resumed his careless pose with one
elbow on the table.
“It's a more handy way to carry a tool than you would think,” he went
on, gazing abstractedly into Schomberg's wide-open eyes. “Suppose some
little difference comes up during a game. Well, you stoop to pick up a
dropped card, and when you come up--there you are ready to strike, or
with the thing up you sleeve ready to throw. Or you just dodge under the
table when there's some shooting coming. You wouldn't believe the damage
a fellow with a knife under the table can do to ill-conditioned skunks
that want to raise trouble, before they begin to understand what the
screaming's about, and make a bolt--those that can, that is.”
The roses of Schomberg's cheek at the root of his chestnut beard faded
perceptibly. Ricardo chuckled faintly.
“But no ferocity--no ferocity! A gentleman knows. What's the good of
getting yourself into a state? And no shirking necessity, either. No
gentleman ever shirks. What I learn I don't forget. Why! We gambled
on the plains, with a damn lot of cattlemen in ranches; played fair,
mind--and then had to fight for our winnings afterwards as often as not.
We've gambled on the hills and in the valleys and on the sea-shore, and
out of sight of land--mostly fair. Generally it's good enough. We began
in Nicaragua first, after we left that schooner and her fool errand.
There were one hundred and twenty-seven sovereigns and some Mexican
dollars in that skipper's cash-box. Hardly enough to knock a man on the
head for from behind, I must confess; but that the skipper had a narrow
escape the governor himself could not deny afterwards.
“'Do you want me to understand, sir, that you mind there being one life
more or less on this earth?' I asked him, a few hours after we got away.
“'Certainly not,' says he.
“'Well, then, why did you stop me?'
“'There's a proper way of doing things. You'll have to learn to be
correct. There's also unnecessary exertion. That must be avoided,
too--if only for the look of the thing.' A gentleman's way of putting
things to you--and no mistake!
“At sunrise we got into a creek, to lie hidden in case the treasure hunt
party had a mind to take a spell hunting for us. And dash me if they
didn't! We saw the schooner away out, running to leeward, with ten pairs
of binoculars sweeping the sea, no doubt on all sides. I advised the
governor to give her time to beat back again before we made a start. So
we stayed up that creek something like ten days, as snug as can be. On
the seventh day we had to kill a man, though--the brother of this Pedro
here. They were alligator-hunters, right enough. We got our lodgings in
their hut. Neither the boss nor I could habla Espanol--speak Spanish,
you know--much then. Dry bank, nice shade, jolly hammocks, fresh fish,
good game, everything lovely. The governor chucked them a few dollars to
begin with; but it was like boarding with a pair of savage apes, anyhow.
By and by we noticed them talking a lot together. They had twigged
the cash-box, and the leather portmanteaus, and my bag--a jolly lot of
plunder to look at. They must have been saying to each other:
“'No one's ever likely to come looking for these two fellows, who seem
to have fallen from the moon. Let's cut their throats.'
“Why, of course! Clear as daylight. I didn't need to spy one of them
sharpening a devilish long knife behind some bushes, while glancing
right and left with his wild eyes, to know what was in the wind. Pedro
was standing by, trying the edge of another long knife. They thought we
were away on our lookout at the mouth of the river, as was usual with us
during the day. Not that we expected to see much of the schooner, but
it was just as well to make certain, if possible; and then it was cooler
out of the woods, in the breeze. Well, the governor was there right
enough, lying comfortable on a rug, where he could watch the offing, but
I had gone back to the hut to get a chew of tobacco out of my bag. I had
not broken myself of the habit then, and I couldn't be happy unless I
had a lump as big as a baby's fist in my cheek.”
At the cannibalistic comparison, Schomberg muttered a faint, sickly
“don't.” Ricardo hitched himself up in his seat and glanced down his
outstretched legs complacently.
“I am tolerably light on my feet, as a general thing,” he went on. “Dash
me if I don't think I could drop a pinch of salt on a sparrow's tail,
if I tried. Anyhow, they didn't hear me. I watched them two brown, hairy
brutes not ten yards off. All they had on was white linen drawers rolled
up on their thighs. Not a word they said to each other. Antonio was
down on his thick hams, busy rubbing a knife on a flat stone; Pedro was
leaning against a small tree and passing his thumb along the edge of his
blade. I got away quieter than a mouse, you bet.”
“I didn't say anything to the boss then. He was leaning on his elbow
on his rug, and didn't seem to want to be spoken to. He's like
that--sometimes that familiar you might think he would eat out of your
hand, and at others he would snub you sharper than a devil--but always
quiet. Perfect gentleman, I tell you. I didn't bother him, then; but
I wasn't likely to forget them two fellows, so businesslike with their
knives. At that time we had only one revolver between us two--the
governor's six-shooter, but loaded only in five chambers; and we had no
more cartridges. He had left the box behind in a drawer in his cabin.
Awkward! I had nothing but an old clasp-knife--no good at all for
anything serious.
“In the evening we four sat round a bit of fire outside the
sleeping-shed, eating broiled fish off plantain leaves, with roast yams
for bread--the usual thing. The governor and I were on one side, and
these two beauties cross-legged on the other, grunting a word or two
to each other, now and then, hardly human speech at all, and their eyes
down, fast on the ground. For the last three days we couldn't get them
to look us in the face. Presently I began to talk to the boss quietly,
just as I am talking to you now, careless like, and I told him all I had
observed. He goes on picking up pieces of fish and putting them into his
mouth as calm as anything. It's a pleasure to have anything to do with a
gentleman. Never looked across at them once.
“'And now,' says I, yawning on purpose, 'we've got to stand watch at
night, turn about, and keep our eyes skinned all day, too, and mind we
don't get jumped upon suddenly.'
“'It's perfectly intolerable,' says the governor. 'And you with no
weapon of any sort!'
“'I mean to stick pretty close to you, sir, from this on, if you don't
mind,' says I.
“He just nods the least bit, wipes his fingers on the plantain leaf,
puts his hand behind his back, as if to help himself to rise from the
ground, snatches his revolver from under his jacket and plugs a bullet
plumb centre into Mr. Antonio's chest. See what it is to have to do with
a gentleman. No confounded fuss, and things done out of hand. But he
might have tipped me a wink or something. I nearly jumped out of my
skin. Scared ain't in it! I didn't even know who had fired. Everything
had been so still just before that the bang of the shot seemed
the loudest noise I had ever heard. The honourable Antonio pitches
forward--they always do, towards the shot; you must have noticed that
yourself--yes, he pitches forward on to the embers, and all that lot of
hair on his face and head flashes up like a pinch of gunpowder. Greasy,
I expect; always scraping the fat off them alligators' hides--”
“Look here,” exclaimed Schomberg violently, as if trying to burst some
invisible bonds, “do you mean to say that all this happened?”
“No,” said Ricardo coolly. “I am making it all up as I go along, just to
help you through the hottest part of the afternoon. So down he pitches
his nose on the red embers, and up jumps our handsome Pedro and I at the
same time, like two Jacks-in-the-box. He starts to bolt away, with his
head over his shoulder, and I, hardly knowing what I was doing, spring
on his back. I had the sense to get my hands round his neck at once, and
it's about all I could do to lock my fingers tight under his jaw. You
saw the beauty's neck, didn't you? Hard as iron, too. Down we both went.
Seeing this the governor puts his revolver in his pocket.
“'Tie his legs together, sir,' I yell. 'I'm trying to strangle him.'
“There was a lot of their fibre-lines lying about. I gave him a last
squeeze and then got up.
“'I might have shot you,' says the governor, quite concerned.
“'But you are glad to have saved a cartridge, sir,' I tell him.
“My jump did save it. It wouldn't have done to let him get away in
the dark like that, and have the beauty dodging around in the bushes,
perhaps, with the rusty flint-lock gun they had. The governor owned up
that the jump was the correct thing.
“'But he isn't dead,' says he, bending over him.
“Might as well hope to strangle an ox. We made haste to tie his elbows
back, and then, before he came to himself, we dragged him to a small
tree, sat him up, and bound him to it, not by the waist but by the
neck--some twenty turns of small line round his throat and the trunk,
finished off with a reef-knot under his ear. Next thing we did was to
attend to the honourable Antonio, who was making a great smell frizzling
his face on the red coals. We pushed and rolled him into the creek, and
left the rest to the alligators.
“I was tired. That little scrap took it out of me something awful. The
governor hadn't turned a hair. That's where a gentleman has the pull
of you. He don't get excited. No gentleman does--or hardly ever. I fell
asleep all of a sudden and left him smoking by the fire I had made
up, his railway rug round his legs, as calm as if he were sitting in a
first-class carriage. We hardly spoke ten words to each other after
it was over, and from that day to this we have never talked of the
business. I wouldn't have known he remembered it if he hadn't alluded to
it when talking with you the other day--you know, with regard to Pedro.”
“It surprised you, didn't it? That's why I am giving you this yarn of
how he came to be with us, like a sort of dog--dashed sight more useful,
though. You know how he can trot around with trays? Well, he could bring
down an ox with his fist, at a word from the boss, just as cleverly. And
fond of the governor! Oh, my word! More than any dog is of any man.”
Schomberg squared his chest.
“Oh, and that's one of the things I wanted to mention to Mr. Jones,” he
said. “It's unpleasant to have that fellow round the house so early. He
sits on the stairs at the back for hours before he is needed here, and
frightens people so that the service suffers. The Chinamen--”
Ricardo nodded and raised his hand.
“When I first saw him he was fit to frighten a grizzly bear, let alone
a Chinaman. He's become civilized now to what he once was. Well, that
morning, first thing on opening my eyes, I saw him sitting there, tied
up by the neck to the tree. He was blinking. We spent the day watching
the sea, and we actually made out the schooner working to windward,
which showed that she had given us up. Good! When the sun rose again, I
took a squint at our Pedro. He wasn't blinking. He was rolling his eyes,
all white one minute and black the next, and his tongue was hanging out
a yard. Being tied up short by the neck like this would daunt the arch
devil himself--in time--in time, mind! I don't know but that even a
real gentleman would find it difficult to keep a stiff lip to the end.
Presently we went to work getting our boat ready. I was busying myself
setting up the mast, when the governor passes the remark:
“'I think he wants to say something.'
“I had heard a sort of croaking going on for some time, only I wouldn't
take any notice; but then I got out of the boat and went up to him, with
some water. His eyes were red--red and black and half out of his
head. He drank all the water I gave him, but he hadn't much to say for
himself. I walked back to the governor.
“'He asks for a bullet in his head before we go,' I said. I wasn't at
all pleased.
“'Oh, that's out of the question altogether,' says the governor.
“He was right there. Only four shots left, and ninety miles of wild
coast to put behind us before coming to the first place where you could
expect to buy revolver cartridges.
“'Anyhow,' I tells him, 'he wants to be killed some way or other, as a
favour.'
“And then I go on setting up the boat's mast. I didn't care much for the
notion of butchering a man bound hand and foot and fastened by the neck
besides. I had a knife then--the honourable Antonio's knife; and that
knife is this knife.
“Ricardo gave his leg a resounding slap.
“First spoil in my new life,” he went on with harsh joviality. “The
dodge of carrying it down there I learned later. I carried it stuck in
my belt that day. No, I hadn't much stomach for the job; but when you
work with a gentleman of the real right sort you may depend on your
feelings being seen through your skin. Says the governor suddenly:
“'It may even be looked upon as his right'--you hear a gentleman
speaking there?--'but what do you think of taking him with us in the
boat?'
“And the governor starts arguing that the beggar would be useful in
working our way along the coast. We could get rid of him before coming
to the first place that was a little civilized. I didn't want much
talking over. Out I scrambled from the boat.
“'Ay, but will he be manageable, sir?'