leaning over the taffrail and peering out across the great desert of
snow, part of which lay in shadow, while part glittered mistily in the
moonlight. Several times I could see by his movements that he was
referring to his watch, and once he muttered a short sentence, of which
I could only catch the one word "ready." I confess to having felt an
eerie feeling creeping over me as I watched the loom of his tall figure
through the darkness, and noted how completely he fulfilled the idea of
a man who is keeping a tryst. A tryst with whom? Some vague perception
began to dawn upon me as I pieced one fact with another, but I was
utterly unprepared for the sequel.
By the sudden intensity of his attitude I felt that he saw something. I
crept up behind him. He was staring with an eager questioning gaze at
what seemed to be a wreath of mist, blown swiftly in a line with the
ship. It was a dim nebulous body, devoid of shape, sometimes more,
sometimes less apparent, as the light fell on it. The moon was dimmed in
its brilliancy at the moment by a canopy of thinnest cloud, like the
coating of an anemone.
"Coming, lass, coming," cried the skipper, in a voice of unfathomable
tenderness and compassion, like one who soothes a beloved one by some
favour long looked for, and as pleasant to bestow as to receive.
What followed happened in an instant. I had no power to interfere. He
gave one spring to the top of the bulwarks, and another which took him
on to the ice, almost to the feet of the pale misty figure. He held out
his hands as if to clasp it, and so ran into the darkness with
outstretched arms and loving words. I still stood rigid and motionless,
straining my eyes after his retreating form, until his voice died away
in the distance. I never thought to see him again, but at that moment
the moon shone out brilliantly through a chink in the cloudy heaven, and
illuminated the great field of ice. Then I saw his dark figure already a
very long way off, running with prodigious speed across the frozen
plain. That was the last glimpse which we caught of him--perhaps the
last we ever shall. A party was organised to follow him, and I
accompanied them, but the men's hearts were not in the work, and nothing
was found. Another will be formed within a few hours. I can hardly
believe I have not been dreaming, or suffering from some hideous
nightmare, as I write these things down.
7.30 P.M.--Just returned dead beat and utterly tired out from a second
unsuccessful search for the Captain. The floe is of enormous extent, for
though we have traversed at least twenty miles of its surface, there has
been no sign of its coming to an end. The frost has been so severe of
late that the overlying snow is frozen as hard as granite, otherwise we
might have had the foot-steps to guide us. The crew are anxious that we
should cast off and steam round the floe and so to the southward, for
the ice has opened up during the night, and the sea is visible upon the
horizon. They argue that Captain Craigie is certainly dead, and that we
are all risking our lives to no purpose by remaining when we have an
opportunity of escape. Mr. Milne and I have had the greatest difficulty
in persuading them to wait until to-morrow night, and have been
compelled to promise that we will not under any circumstances delay our
departure longer than that. We propose therefore to take a few hours'
sleep, and then to start upon a final search.
_September 20th, evening._--I crossed the ice this morning with a party
of men exploring the southern part of the floe, while Mr. Milne went off
in a northerly direction. We pushed on for ten or twelve miles without
seeing a trace of any living thing except a single bird, which fluttered
a great way over our heads, and which by its flight I should judge to
have been a falcon. The southern extremity of the ice field tapered away
into a long narrow spit which projected out into the sea. When we came
to the base of this promontory, the men halted, but I begged them to
continue to the extreme end of it, that we might have the satisfaction
of knowing that no possible chance had been neglected.
We had hardly gone a hundred yards before M'Donald of Peterhead cried
out that he saw something in front of us, and began to run. We all got a
glimpse of it and ran too. At first it was only a vague darkness against
the white ice, but as we raced along together it took the shape of a
man, and eventually of the man of whom we were in search. He was lying
face downwards upon a frozen bank. Many little crystals of ice and
feathers of snow had drifted on to him as he lay, and sparkled upon his
dark seaman's jacket. As we came up some wandering puff of wind caught
these tiny flakes in its vortex, and they whirled up into the air,
partially descended again, and then, caught once more in the current,
sped rapidly away in the direction of the sea. To my eyes it seemed but
a snow-drift, but many of my companions averred that it started up in
the shape of a woman, stooped over the corpse and kissed it, and then
hurried away across the floe. I have learned never to ridicule any man's
opinion, however strange it may seem. Sure it is that Captain Nicholas
Craigie had met with no painful end, for there was a bright smile upon
his blue pinched features, and his hands were still outstretched as
though grasping at the strange visitor which had summoned him away into
the dim world that lies beyond the grave.
We buried him the same afternoon with the ship's ensign around him, and
a thirty-two pound shot at his feet. I read the burial service, while
the rough sailors wept like children, for there were many who owed much
to his kind heart, and who showed now the affection which his strange
ways had repelled during his lifetime. He went off the grating with a
dull, sullen splash, and as I looked into the green water I saw him go
down, down, down until he was but a little flickering patch of white
hanging upon the outskirts of eternal darkness. Then even that faded
away, and he was gone. There he shall lie, with his secret and his
sorrows and his mystery all still buried in his breast, until that great
day when the sea shall give up its dead, and Nicholas Craigie come out
from among the ice with the smile upon his face, and his stiffened arms
outstretched in greeting. I pray that his lot may be a happier one in
that life than it has been in this.
I shall not continue my journal. Our road to home lies plain and clear
before us, and the great ice field will soon be but a remembrance of the
past. It will be some time before I get over the shock produced by
recent events. When I began this record of our voyage I little thought
of how I should be compelled to finish it. I am writing these final
words in the lonely cabin, still starting at times and fancying I hear
the quick nervous step of the dead man upon the deck above me. I entered
his cabin to-night, as was my duty, to make a list of his effects in
order that they might be entered in the official log. All was as it had
been upon my previous visit, save that the picture which I have
described as having hung at the end of his bed had been cut out of its
frame, as with a knife, and was gone. With this last link in a strange
chain of evidence I close my diary of the voyage of the _Polestar_.
* * * * *
Note by Dr. John M'Alister Ray, senior.--I have read over the strange
events connected with the death of the Captain of the _Polestar_, as
narrated in the journal of my son. That everything occurred exactly as
he describes it I have the fullest confidence, and, indeed, the most
positive certainty, for I know him to be a strong-nerved and
unimaginative man, with the strictest regard for veracity. Still, the
story is, on the face of it, so vague and so improbable, that I was long
opposed to its publication. Within the last few days, however, I have
had independent testimony upon the subject which throws a new light upon
it. I had run down to Edinburgh to attend a meeting of the British
Medical Association, when I chanced to come across Dr. P.----, an old
college chum of mine, now practising at Saltash, in Devonshire. Upon my
telling him of this experience of my son's, he declared to me that he
was familiar with the man, and proceeded, to my no small surprise, to
give me a description of him, which tallied remarkably well with that
given in the journal, except that he depicted him as a younger man.
According to his account, he had been engaged to a young lady of
singular beauty residing upon the Cornish coast. During his absence at
sea his betrothed had died under circumstances of peculiar horror.
IX
THE FIEND OF THE COOPERAGE
It was no easy matter to bring the _Gamecock_ up to the island, for the
river had swept down so much silt that the banks extended for many miles
out into the Atlantic. The coast was hardly to be seen when the first
white curl of the breakers warned us of our danger, and from there
onwards we made our way very carefully under mainsail and jib, keeping
the broken water well to the left, as is indicated on the chart. More
than once her bottom touched the sand (we were drawing something under
six feet at the time), but we had always way enough and luck enough to
carry us through. Finally, the water shoaled, very rapidly, but they had
sent a canoe from the factory, and the Krooboy pilot brought us within
two hundred yards of the island. Here we dropped our anchor, for the
gestures of the negro indicated that we could not hope to get any
farther. The blue of the sea had changed to the brown of the river, and,
even under the shelter of the island, the current was singing and
swirling round our bows. The stream appeared to be in spate, for it was
over the roots of the palm trees, and everywhere upon its muddy, greasy
surface we could see logs of wood and debris of all sorts which had been
carried down by the flood.
When I had assured myself that we swung securely at our moorings, I
thought it best to begin watering at once, for the place looked as if it
reeked with fever. The heavy river, the muddy, shining banks, the bright
poisonous green of the jungle, the moist steam in the air, they were all
so many danger signals to one who could read them. I sent the long-boat
off, therefore, with two large hogsheads, which should be sufficient to
last us until we made St. Paul de Loanda. For my own part I took the
dinghy and rowed for the island, for I could see the Union Jack
fluttering above the palms to mark the position of Armitage and Wilson's
trading station.
When I had cleared the grove, I could see the place, a long, low,
whitewashed building, with a deep verandah in front, and an immense pile
of palm oil barrels heaped upon either flank of it. A row of surf boats
and canoes lay along the beach, and a single small jetty projected into
the river. Two men in white suits with red cummerbunds round their
waists were waiting upon the end of it to receive me. One was a large
portly fellow with a greyish beard. The other was slender and tall, with
a pale pinched face, which was half concealed by a great mushroom-shaped
hat.
"Very glad to see you," said the latter, cordially. "I am Walker, the
agent of Armitage and Wilson. Let me introduce Dr. Severall of the same
company. It is not often we see a private yacht in these parts."
"She's the _Gamecock_," I explained. "I'm owner and captain--Meldrum is
the name."
"Exploring?" he asked.
"I'm a lepidopterist--a butterfly-catcher. I've been doing the west
coast from Senegal downwards."
"Good sport?" asked the Doctor, turning a slow yellow-shot eye upon me.
"I have forty cases full. We came in here to water, and also to see what
you have in my line."
These introductions and explanations had filled up the time whilst my
two Krooboys were making the dinghy fast. Then I walked down the jetty
with one of my new acquaintances upon either side, each plying me with
questions, for they had seen no white man for months.
"What do we do?" said the Doctor, when I had begun asking questions in
my turn. "Our business keeps us pretty busy, and in our leisure time we
talk politics."
"Yes, by the special mercy of Providence Severall is a rank Radical, and
I am a good stiff Unionist, and we talk Home Rule for two solid hours
every evening."
"And drink quinine cocktails," said the Doctor. "We're both pretty well
salted now, but our normal temperature was about 103 last year. I
shouldn't, as an impartial adviser, recommend you to stay here very long
unless you are collecting bacilli as well as butterflies. The mouth of
the Ogowai River will never develop into a health resort."
There is nothing finer than the way in which these outlying pickets of
civilisation distil a grim humour out of their desolate situation, and
turn not only a bold, but a laughing face upon the chances which their
lives may bring. Everywhere from Sierra Leone downwards I had found the
same reeking swamps, the same isolated fever-racked communities and the
same bad jokes. There is something approaching to the divine in that
power of man to rise above his conditions and to use his mind for the
purpose of mocking at the miseries of his body.
"Dinner will be ready in about half an hour, Captain Meldrum," said the
Doctor. "Walker has gone in to see about it; he's the housekeeper this
week. Meanwhile, if you like, we'll stroll round and I'll show you the
sights of the island."
The sun had already sunk beneath the line of palm trees, and the great
arch of the heaven above our head was like the inside of a huge shell,
shimmering with dainty pinks and delicate iridescence. No one who has
not lived in a land where the weight and heat of a napkin become
intolerable upon the knees can imagine the blessed relief which the
coolness of evening brings along with it. In this sweeter and purer air
the Doctor and I walked round the little island, he pointing out the
stores, and explaining the routine of his work.
"There's a certain romance about the place," said he, in answer to some
remark of mine about the dullness of their lives. "We are living here
just upon the edge of the great unknown. Up there," he continued,
pointing to the north-east, "Du Chaillu penetrated, and found the home
of the gorilla. That is the Gaboon country--the land of the great apes.
In this direction," pointing to the south-east, "no one has been very
far. The land which is drained by this river is practically unknown to
Europeans. Every log which is carried past us by the current has come
from an undiscovered country. I've often wished that I was a better
botanist when I have seen the singular orchids and curious-looking
plants which have been cast up on the eastern end of the island."
The place which the Doctor indicated was a sloping brown beach, freely
littered with the flotsam of the stream. At each end was a curved point,
like a little natural breakwater, so that a small shallow bay was left
between. This was full of floating vegetation, with a single huge
splintered tree lying stranded in the middle of it, the current rippling
against its high black side.
"These are all from up country," said the Doctor. "They get caught in
our little bay, and then when some extra freshet comes they are washed
out again and carried out to sea."
"What is the tree?" I asked.
"Oh, some kind of teak, I should imagine, but pretty rotten by the look
of it. We get all sorts of big hardwood trees floating past here, to say
nothing of the palms. Just come in here, will you?"
He led the way into a long building with an immense quantity of barrel
staves and iron hoops littered about in it.
"This is our cooperage," said he. "We have the staves sent out in
bundles, and we put them together ourselves. Now, you don't see anything
particularly sinister about this building, do you?"
I looked round at the high corrugated iron roof, the white wooden walls,
and the earthen floor. In one corner lay a mattress and a blanket.
"I see nothing very alarming," said I.
"And yet there's something out of the common, too," he remarked. "You
see that bed? Well, I intend to sleep there to-night. I don't want to
buck, but I think it's a bit of a test for nerve."
"Why?"
"Oh, there have been some funny goings on. You were talking about the
monotony of our lives, but I assure you that they are sometimes quite as
exciting as we wish them to be. You'd better come back to the house now,
for after sundown we begin to get the fever-fog up from the marshes.
There, you can see it coming across the river."
I looked and saw long tentacles of white vapour writhing out from among
the thick green underwood and crawling at us over the broad swirling
surface of the brown river. At the same time the air turned suddenly
dank and cold.
"There's the dinner gong," said the Doctor. "If this matter interests
you I'll tell you about it afterwards."
It did interest me very much, for there was something earnest and
subdued in his manner as he stood in the empty cooperage, which appealed
very forcibly to my imagination. He was a big, bluff, hearty man, this
Doctor, and yet I had detected a curious expression in his eyes as he
glanced about him--an expression which I would not describe as one of
fear, but rather of a man who is alert and on his guard.
"By the way," said I, as we returned to the house, "you have shown me
the huts of a good many of your native assistants, but I have not seen
any of the natives themselves."
"They sleep in the hulk over yonder," the Doctor answered, pointing over
to one of the banks.
"Indeed. I should not have thought in that case that they would need the
huts."
"Oh, they used the huts until quite recently. We've put them on the hulk
until they recover their confidence a little. They were all half mad
with fright, so we let them go, and nobody sleeps on the island except
Walker and myself."
"What frightened them?" I asked.
"Well, that brings us back to the same story. I suppose Walker has no
objection to your hearing all about it. I don't know why we should make
any secret about it, though it is certainly a pretty bad business."
He made no further allusion to it during the excellent dinner which had
been prepared in my honour. It appeared that no sooner had the little
white topsail of the _Gamecock_ shown round Cape Lopez than these kind
fellows had begun to prepare their famous pepper-pot--which is the
pungent stew peculiar to the West Coast--and to boil their yams and
sweet potatoes. We sat down to as good a native dinner as one could
wish, served by a smart Sierra Leone waiting boy. I was just remarking
to myself that he at least had not shared in the general fright when,
having laid the dessert and wine upon the table, he raised his hand to
his turban.
"Anyting else I do, Massa Walker?" he asked.
"No, I think that is all right, Moussa," my host answered. "I am not
feeling very well to-night, though, and I should much prefer if you
would stay on the island."
I saw a struggle between his fears and his duty upon the swarthy face of
the African. His skin had turned of that livid purplish tint which
stands for pallor in a negro, and his eyes looked furtively about him.
"No, no, Massa Walker," he cried, at last, "you better come to the hulk
with me, sah. Look after you much better in the hulk, sah!"
"That won't do, Moussa. White men don't run away from the posts where
they are placed."
Again I saw the passionate struggle in the negro's face, and again his
fears prevailed.
"No use, Massa Walker, sah!" he cried. "S'elp me, I can't do it. If it
was yesterday or if it was to-morrow, but this is the third night, sah,
an' it's more than I can face."
Walker shrugged his shoulders.
"Off with you then!" said he. "When the mail-boat comes you can get back
to Sierra Leone, for I'll have no servant who deserts me when I need him
most. I suppose this is all mystery to you, or has the Doctor told you,
Captain Meldrum?"
"I showed Captain Meldrum the cooperage, but I did not tell him
anything," said Dr. Severall. "You're looking bad, Walker," he added,
glancing at his companion. "You have a strong touch coming on you."
"Yes, I've had the shivers all day, and now my head is like a
cannon-ball. I took ten grains of quinine, and my ears are singing like
a kettle. But I want to sleep with you in the cooperage to-night."
"No, no, my dear chap. I won't hear of such a thing. You must get to bed
at once, and I am sure Meldrum will excuse you. I shall sleep in the
cooperage, and I promise you that I'll be round with your medicine
before breakfast."
It was evident that Walker had been struck by one of those sudden and
violent attacks of remittent fever which are the curse of the West
Coast. His sallow cheeks were flushed and his eyes shining with fever,
and suddenly as he sat there he began to croon out a song in the
high-pitched voice of delirium.
"Come, come, we must get you to bed, old chap," said the Doctor, and
with my aid he led his friend into his bedroom. There we undressed him
and presently, after taking a strong sedative, he settled down into a
deep slumber.
"He's right for the night," said the Doctor, as we sat down and filled
our glasses once more. "Sometimes it is my turn and sometimes his, but,
fortunately, we have never been down together. I should have been sorry
to be out of it to-night, for I have a little mystery to unravel. I told
you that I intended to sleep in the cooperage."
"Yes, you said so."
"When I said sleep I meant watch, for there will be no sleep for me.
We've had such a scare here that no native will stay after sundown, and
I mean to find out to-night what the cause of it all may be. It has
always been the custom for a native watchman to sleep in the cooperage,
to prevent the barrel hoops being stolen. Well, six days ago the fellow
who slept there disappeared, and we have never seen a trace of him
since. It was certainly singular, for no canoe had been taken, and these
waters are too full of crocodiles for any man to swim to shore. What
became of the fellow, or how he could have left the island is a complete
mystery. Walker and I were merely surprised, but the blacks were badly
scared and queer Voodoo tales began to get about amongst them. But the
real stampede broke out three nights ago, when the new watchman in the
cooperage also disappeared."
"What became of him?" I asked.
"Well, we not only don't know, but we can't even give a guess which
would fit the facts. The niggers swear there is a fiend in the cooperage
who claims a man every third night. They wouldn't stay in the
island--nothing could persuade them. Even Moussa, who is a faithful boy
enough, would, as you have seen, leave his master in a fever rather than
remain for the night. If we are to continue to run this place we must
reassure our niggers, and I don't know any better way of doing it than
by putting in a night there myself. This is the third night, you see, so
I suppose the thing is due, whatever it may be."
"Have you no clue?" I asked. "Was there no mark of violence, no
blood-stain, no foot-prints, nothing to give you a hint as to what kind
of danger you may have to meet?"
"Absolutely nothing. The man was gone and that was all. Last time it was
old Ali, who has been wharf-tender here since the place was started. He
was always as steady as a rock, and nothing but foul play would take him
from his work."
"Well," said I, "I really don't think that this is a one-man job. Your
friend is full of laudanum, and come what might he can be of no
assistance to you. You must let me stay and put in a night with you at
the cooperage."
"Well, now, that's very good of you, Meldrum," said he heartily, shaking
my hand across the table. "It's not a thing that I should have ventured
to propose, for it is asking a good deal of a casual visitor, but if you
really mean it----"
"Certainly I mean it. If you will excuse me a moment, I will hail the
_Gamecock_ and let them know that they need not expect me."
As we came back from the other end of the little jetty we were both
struck by the appearance of the night. A huge blue-black pile of clouds
had built itself up upon the landward side, and the wind came from it in
little hot pants, which beat upon our faces like the draught from a
blast furnace. Under the jetty the river was swirling and hissing,
tossing little white spurts of spray over the planking.
"Confound it!" said Doctor Severall. "We are likely to have a flood on
the top of all our troubles. That rise in the river means heavy rain
up-country, and when it once begins you never know how far it will go.
We've had the island nearly covered before now. Well, we'll just go and
see that Walker is comfortable, and then if you like we'll settle down
in our quarters."