"Didn't you hear what he was reading?" he said, trembling. "It was the
proclamation offering a reward for the 'Twin Death'?"
"That's nothing, man; you know they read it out every few weeks."
"I can't help it, sir; don't leave me, sir! For God's sake get me back
to the '_B.A._'! That's not all. I've seen something else."
He would not tell me what, but walked as fast as he could, looking back
every other second, with wild eyes, as if he was afraid of being
followed. He walked so fast that I could barely keep up with him, and
in one street or alleyway, which was fairly empty, he broke into a run
again.
He was in a pitiable state of terror, and I was mighty glad when we did
at last reach the beach, jump into a shore boat, and get aboard the
_Bunder Abbas_.
It was not until he had had a glass of brandy that he began to calm
down, and presently he apologized most abjectly for spoiling my walk.
I knew that I should never take him ashore again; I was very irritated.
The whole business was so childish. He might take the bracelet off--I
would guarantee to have it off in ten minutes--without the least risk.
I tried to argue with him; but it was not of the least use; he only
became more agitated. He shut himself in our cabin, and I left him
there till Percy announced dinner, with a grin of importance at having
provided a special feast for us from one of the sheep those poor devils
of villagers had given us.
"Kid-ney on to-ast," he said, his eyes and mouth wide open with delight.
"Come along, Mr. Scarlett!" I shouted, and tried to make him come out.
"I durs'n't yet, sir; I'll wait till it's dark."
"What on earth are you frightened of--now?"
"Of being seen, sir; I durs'n't show myself. Look at those boats there,
sir," he said, pointing through the cabin door at some native boats
which were passing--such boats were passing at all hours of the day.
"He might be there."
"Who? Not that decrepit old chap we saw this afternoon?"
"No," he said, clutching the side of his bunk and looking half-mad;
"Jassim! Jassim himself!"
"Jassim? You haven't seen him, have you?" I asked, startled.
"Yes," he groaned; "and he saw me! We came face to face in that crowd
outside the mosque. I knew him directly, and he knew me--I'll swear
it."
"You're mistaken, man; it couldn't have been he."
Mr. Scarlett shook his head. "No, no! I recollect his face as though
it was yesterday--he has a scar on his upper lip, too. No, no! I
couldn't make a mistake! He shot out an arm, felt above my elbow, then
turned away without a word."
"Touched the bracelet; made sure it was still there, did he?"
Phew! I whistled, and shivered in spite of the terrible heat inside the
cabin, for there was something so uncanny about the whole business. If
Jassim had recognized him there might be danger--might be very great
danger, unless Mr. Scarlett would let me or someone take the cursed
thing off his arm. We could not hope that we had escaped by hurrying
away. Two Englishmen couldn't walk through the town of Muscat without
everyone knowing from where they came. There was not a mail steamer in
the harbour, and even if there had been, and we might have been taken
for passengers, the native boatmen who had brought us off from shore
would give us away. It was very awkward.
"Kid-ney get cold, master," Percy pleaded, with a disappointed look in
his face; so I went and tried to eat, sending Mr. Scarlett's share into
the cabin.
I ate but little; he ate less. His nervousness and fright were
infectious. I began to feel as nervous as a cat. Fearing lest
Jassim--if indeed it was Jassim--should try to force his way on board, I
gave very stringent orders that no native boat should be allowed to come
alongside and no one allowed on board without my permission. I also
stopped the leave of the native crew, lest they should be tampered with.
Webster, Moore, and Ellis, who acted as quartermasters, were provided
with revolvers, and ordered to use them if anyone did attempt to come
aboard during the night. I don't know what they thought had suddenly
made this precaution necessary. Certainly the whole crew knew that
something had happened, and every one of us was in a horrid state of
nerves.
When the sun had set, Mr. Scarlett ventured out for a breath of the hot
air. I had a terrible night with him. I had never seen anyone so
unmanned as he was. Eventually he did go to sleep, but woke screaming
in a hideous nightmare, and there was no more sleep after that--for
either of us.
Next morning he would not be content until he had rigged a screen round
the little upper deck where the cabin was, and there he stayed, hour
after hour, peering through a slit in the canvas, with a pair of
field-glasses at his side to scrutinize any approaching boat. This made
me more "jumpy" than ever. But a screen would not keep Jassim away, nor
did it, and during the forenoon a native boat came pulling towards us
with a single Arab in the stern-sheets. Mr. Scarlett called out for me,
and I found him yellow with fear, peeping through his screen.
"That's him, sir. He's coming."
"He can't do anything; I won't let him aboard!" I said. "For goodness'
sake don't be such a confounded coward."
"But I am a coward! I told you I was a coward. I am, sir; I can't help
it;" and he slunk into his cabin and fastened the door.
"No one allowed to come aboard," I reminded Ellis, who happened to be
the quartermaster at the time. He waved off the boat, but the Arab
forced the boatman to bring it closer, and as I saw him more clearly I
gasped with amazement, for I had seen him before; he was the sheikh who
had commanded the caravan we had captured--the red-bearded man to whose
wounded son I had given water. There could be no possible mistake. His
beard was not dyed now, but once having seen this man Jassim---if it was
Jassim--there was no forgetting him.
To meet him under these conditions was startling, to say the least of
it, and I was quite thrown off my balance. To gain time I told Jaffa to
ask him what he wanted.
A long conversation followed, and then Jaffa said: "Say he want very
great talk---must have very great talk."
In my own opinion it would have been better to let him come aboard, have
the matter out once and for all, and hear what he proposed doing; but
the door of the cabin overhead slid back and Mr. Scarlett whispered
through the screen: "For God's sake, sir, send him away; don't let him
come near me."
So, as my head really was rather dizzy with my discovery, I sent him
away, and back he went, never moving a muscle of his face to show that
he was disappointed.
I certainly was disappointed; one doesn't meet such people every day,
and I should have liked to find out whether his son was alive. One
thing, only, I determined on--not to let Mr. Scarlett know that it was
his caravan of rifles we had captured, because I knew this would only
add to his fright and his fear of impending calamity.
That afternoon a letter was brought off addressed in sprawling letters
to the "Officer with black beard, His Britannic Majesty's ship, _Bunder
Abbas_."
The quartermaster brought it to me and I took it up to Mr. Scarlett, who
seized it with trembling fingers and tore it open. Presently he called
me to come to him.
"I've translated it, sir. He wants the snake; he offers me five
thousand rupees if only I will let him take it off my arm. He says he
does not want to do me any harm, but that he is desperately hard up and
must and will have it. It's really a threat, sir," he said, his hands
trembling violently.
I guessed why he was so desperately "hard up", though I did not tell Mr.
Scarlett, but spent the whole day trying to argue with the poor chap,
going over the same old arguments which Baron Popple Opstein and I had
used so often--with the added inducement of his now being able to make
money by getting rid of the snake.
Every now and again he would almost yield. Then he would remember
seeing Jassim's wife dying and that bluejacket clawing his way down to
the sea, and he would rock himself from side to side, like a woman in
despair, shouting at me that he would sooner be killed than die such a
death.