_Anxiety Over Beelo’s Absence. The Runaways Return in Disgrace. Mr.
Vancouver’s Predicament. Rebellion Breeding. The Arrest. Merciless
Discipline._
NEXT morning the young men in Mr. Vancouver’s plot passed secret looks
and words, and Mr. Vancouver and Rawley wore an indifferent air too
conspicuously.
Annabel emerged late; she and Dr. Preston had been with the suffering
child that night; but she looked much more worn and depressed than the
night’s vigil warranted. I greeted her cheerily, and her quiet smile was
ready. I saw nothing to indicate that she noted anything unusual afoot.
Captain Mason gave her a pleasant bow.
The colony had early integrated into small social groups, particularly
at meal-times. We sat on rough benches at two long tables under trees.
There was a rearrangement of groups at breakfast this morning, so as to
bring the conspirators together at an end occupied by Mr. Vancouver and
Rawley. Annabel sat with the children. The maneuver of the men did not
escape Captain Mason, who was some distance away and at the other table,
having rigidly held himself aloof from all social preferences. After
breakfast he gave me an unobtrusive look, and left. I soon followed, and
found Christopher with him in our hut.
“You noticed, Mr. Tudor?”
“Yes. They will go out of the valley today. Lentala will see that they
are turned back. What shall I do?”
An amused look came into his eyes. “You may abandon your usual plan of
calling the names of those who shall go to the fields, and announce that
only volunteers need go. That will spare such of the idiots as are on
your list from sneaking out of the fields on pretense of headache. Give
them a long rope. Everything is moving beautifully to a crisis. Take
your men to the fields. Christopher will stay here.”
With the insistence of trifles thrusting themselves into a tense
situation, every small thing of the morning marched with me back to the
tables. I must observe the progress of some insatiably hungry nestlings
in a tree, and laugh at a round scolding from their mother. Never had I
heard so many birds singing at once. The solemn cadence of the waterfall
sent a Sabbath spirit through the air. The forest shadows quivered with
mysteries and portents, and the air was drunk with the perfume of many
flowers.
Annabel’s glance showed that she had noted our leaving the tables, but a
cheery word from me laid her uneasiness.
Relief appeared in some faces when I announced that only volunteers
would go to the fields that day. Mr. Vancouver studied me, and Rawley
was nervous. A small crowd responded to my call, and then amused shame
swept over the men as I good-naturedly laughed at them, with the result
that a larger squad than usual came forward. I kept Mr. Vancouver
in sight, and was not surprised to catch him throwing a look at a
conspirator here and there, causing the guilty to stand forth with the
innocent. I knew that he suspected something in my departure from the
usual way lately of calling out the men.
The work in the fields went with a smoothness that gave no hint of
trouble beneath the surface. The conspirators dropped away one after
another, with my pleasant assent. Rawley remained. That meant his want
of courage to join the daring expedition. When the remnant started for
camp I went to the spot where I expected Beelo and Christopher.
The time for Beelo’s appearance came and passed. I had an irksome wait,
and in spite of my confidence in his skill, I grew uneasy lest he
had fallen into difficulties. Never before had he failed to keep an
appointment. His endurance and pluck had been extraordinary. From his
home at the palace to our meeting-places had been a number of miles,
without counting his trouble and ingenuity in avoiding detection, and
the hard labor of scaling the valley wall; yet he had never failed,
never complained, never mentioned the heroism for which his conduit
stood. I bitterly accused myself and Captain Mason for our selfishness
in accepting the boy’s allegiance and labors as a mere incident of our
struggle to escape. My heart went out to him now; I had been remiss in
appreciation. Had he been of a more aggressive nature, less gentle and
timid, relying more on force than ingenuity, perhaps my conscience would
have been easier. The task which it had been so easy for me to send
Lentala with reference to the malcontents, must have been severe for
her, and must have involved her brother.
Christopher came at last, but not Beelo. The man reported all well in
camp; Annabel had been downcast until Captain Mason cheered her; Mr.
Vancouver was painfully restless; none of the conspirators had returned.
We waited until all hope of Beelo’s arrival was futile. Christopher had
been listening, but I dreaded to question him. Finally I remarked that
we must go, as we could not expect Beelo so late. The readiness with
which Christopher acquiesced assured me that he had not expected the
lad, but I had no heart to ask him whether he thought that trouble had
been the detaining cause. We returned to camp.
Dr. Preston had much patching of cuticle to do that night, for the young
men returned after dark. There had been an uneasy hush over the camp
all day. Upon their arrival, which was accomplished with all possible
unostentation, a buzz arose and gossip leaked. I was with Captain Mason,
who sat silent and in grim content as I told him what was going on. We
were both curious to see what Dr. Preston, a quiet young man of fine
intelligence, would deem his duty after the urgency of his offices had
passed. After a while he came, excited and a little frightened.
He reported that there were no serious hurts, and that the men would be
about next day.
“What account do they give?” inquired Captain Mason. The twinkle in his
eyes was lost on the earnest young physician.
“They were peaceably exploring the valley, Captain,--just a lark, you
know, although it had the serious purpose of finding out anything that
might be useful in the escape of the colony,--when they were set upon by
an overwhelming horde of savages, the evident purpose being to take
them away by force. Our men, though so greatly outnumbered, held their
ground, but the scrimmage was close and savage. They would have won
without the fan-bearer’s interference, but her coming up with a personal
guard put an end to the affair, as she called the natives off.”
Captain Mason’s amused attention sharpened to a keen interest. “The
king’s fan-bearer?” he echoed.
“Yes; the one we saw at the feast.”
The president nodded. “They have all told you the same story, I
suppose,” he remarked.
“Yes.”
“Thank you. That is all.”
In leaving, Dr. Preston looked surprised that Captain Mason should
appear so indifferent.
Captain Mason announced no plans concerning the young men that night,
and there was nothing unusual in his bearing next morning when the
colony assembled for breakfast. All watched him narrowly. When breakfast
was over, and before we had risen from the tables, he sent Christopher
for me, for I sat some distance away. As I rose, I had a strong feeling
that something extraordinary was about to fall to my hand, for I knew
Captain Mason’s nature and his trust in me.
That brought Beelo vividly to mind. He had seen hardly more than the
gentler side of me. Indeed, it had doubtless been his own gentleness,
his innate delicacy and refinement, that had held in subjection the
ruder elements in me, so deep was my fondness for him. And it had never
been irksome, though the conduct which it had almost forced upon me was
strikingly different from that which usually governed me. While I was
glad that Beelo was not present to see what I knew was coming, still
his spirit was with me, and so strongly that it was tangible. My whole
outlook was filled with him, and I could not shake off the feeling that
he was really near and observing.
Under the impulse, I sent a trained glance into the shadows about the
camp, and suddenly stopped, for I found his bright eyes peering at me
from the trees. A closer look discovered that underneath the almost
conscious mischief that sparkled in his eyes was apprehension. I had a
moment of anger that he should be there, and tried to give him a look
that would send him away; but he made a face at me, and with deep
misgivings I went to my duty, striving to put him out of my mind.
“Call for order,” Captain Mason directed, “and make a complete statement
of the affair, omitting Mr. Vancouver’s connexion with it. Then tell off
twelve steady men for a guard, and have them arrest all of the young men
who disobeyed the rule. Manage the details in your own way. I’ll take
command after the arrest.”
Obedience to authority was a law of my training, but I was aghast, and
wondered if the man realized that he might be touching a match to a
magazine.
As Mr. Vancouver was the danger-center, I glanced at him. He had been
closely observing the president. I shall not forget the picture that he
made as I called for order and proceeded with the speech. By no
effort could he control the emotions that surged to his face,--his
consternation at the appalling correctness of my account, his ferocious
resentment and anger, his sense of being baffled and humiliated while
being spared from open shame, his white fear that at last he would be
exposed as the arch-traitor.
I observed Annabel also, and saw her puzzled uneasiness as I reminded
the colony of the king’s injunction and the great danger of disregarding
it; her furtive glances at her father; her amazement when I hinted at
the plot for undermining Captain Mason’s authority, and spoke of its
secret working toward the destruction of the colony; the blanching of
her cheeks when I described the effort of the young men to slip out of
the valley, their being beaten and bound, and the mercy that had spared
them, whipped and wounded, to sneak back in darkness to camp; and the
lie they told to cover their treachery and shame.
There was a tense pause when I had done, and then I called out the
names of the guilty. So overwhelming had been the presentation, that,
as Captain Mason must have foreseen, there was no time for immediate
reaction toward mutiny. I called out the guard. A death-like stillness
followed. Captain Mason was standing with the silence and firmness
of stone. I stole a glance at Beelo and saw that he had slipped round
through the trees to be nearer.
I rapped out an order for the guard to step forward. They looked round
curiously at one another, some with a half-smile as they glanced at
Captain Mason, to see if he approved. His face was expressionless.
I repeated the order, more peremptorily, and in slowly rising they
regarded me curiously and in some wonder, as they had never seen me
with such a bearing. Whatever they saw and heard quickened their action.
There was an impressive solemnity in the proceeding, and it strengthened
them moment by moment. I did not hurry them, since it was clear that a
sense of serious responsibility was rising in them.
“Lenardo, step forward and submit to arrest,” I sharply said to one of
the recalcitrants, a decent young carpenter.
He paled, then flushed, and blunderingly turned to Mr. Vancouver. But
that gentleman was gazing at me with all the hate of his soul. Annabel
shrank under the significance of Lenardo’s silent appeal to her father.
Receiving no guidance from Mr. Vancouver, the young culprit sent a
fluttering, desperate look abroad, picking out his guilty associates.
All the comfort he got from them was a frightened glance in return.
The impaled man wriggled awkwardly to his feet,--for I was giving him
time,--and with a grin and shrug made a pitiful attempt to treat the
arrest as a pleasantry.
“Stand facing that end of the guard-line,” I ordered, pointing.
“Come, Henry,” he said to one of the conspirators. The bravado was
clearly sham.
“No talking!” I ripped out.
It jerked Lenardo straight, and he came forward and stood where I had
directed.
The young man addressed as Henry slouched up with a faint trace of
Lenardo’s swagger, but my sharp “Step lively!” electrified him into
firmer action, and his grin went sour.
“Hobart!” I next called. I selected him for the third, for I knew his
independent, rebellious nature, his courage and pride, and wished the
severest test of the discipline to come at once.
Because we had been good friends and he knew that I respected him,
he stared incredulously, but found me a stranger. Then a vicious look
flared in his face, and, still sitting, he fingered the handle of a
heavy iron vessel on the table while regarding me defiantly.
I waited, and then called him again.
“I won’t be made a fool of in this way!” he cried, rising, his face
blazing, his hold on the iron vessel tightening.
“You two guards on the left, do your duty!” I commanded.
They hesitatingly advanced upon him. Making a great scattering of
frightened women and children, Hobart stepped back, brandished the
vessel, and shouted:
“I’m a free American citizen, I am! I’m a law-abiding man and I know my
rights! Stand back, there,” to the guards, “or I’ll------”
“Two more guards from the left. Step lively!” I called.
The advance of the four guards was checked by a diversion. Mr.
Vancouver, who had been sitting in apathetic silence, suddenly spoke out
with biting clearness:
“Hobart, it is the duty of every one here to submit to authority.”
The young man opened his mouth in astonishment, and instantly drooped;
the vessel clattered from his hand to the ground.
“I won’t make trouble now,” he grumbled, “but we’ve been played low down
by somebody, and I’ll-----”
“Silence!” I said.
With a threatening shoulder-lift at Mr. Vancouver, which deepened that
gentleman’s pallor, Hobart sullenly fell in. I quickly called out the
other culprits; all obeyed and stood in line facing the guard. Then I
looked round at Captain Mason for orders.