About a week after Dr. Bruce had returned to his plantation Brabant and
his wife were talking in their dining-room, from the wide-open windows
of which the little harbour of Levuka lay basking in the fervid glow of
the westering sun.
Pipe in mouth, and with a smile on his bronzed, rugged face, Brabant
was scanning a heap of accounts which were lying on the table. His wife,
seated in an easy-chair near the window, fanned herself languidly.
“You've spent a lot of money, Nell, in five months--nearly a thousand
pounds. Two hundred a month is a big item to a man in my position.”
“But you are very well off, Jack. You told me yesterday that you will
clear three thousand pounds from this last voyage.”
She spoke in a petulant, irritated manner, and her brows drew together
as she looked out over the sea.
“Just so, my dear girl; but we cannot afford to live at such a rate as
two hundred pounds a month.”
“I have entertained a great many people.” This was said with a sullen
inflexion in her voice.
“So I see, Nell. But you need not have done so. We don't want such a lot
of visitors.”
“It is all very well for you to talk like that, Jack, but you must
remember that I have to keep myself alive in this wretched place whilst
you are away.”
Brabant turned his deep-set eyes upon her. “Did you find it so very dull
then, Nell?”
“Yes, I did. I hate the place, and hate the people, and so I suppose
I spent more of your money than I should have done had I been living
anywhere else.”
“Don't say '_your_ money,' Nell. I am only too happy to know that I am
able to meet all these bills, heavy as they are; and I want you to enjoy
yourself as much as possible. But we cannot spend money at this rate, my
girl.”
He spoke with a certain grave tenderness that only served to irritate
her.
“Am I to live here like the wife of one of the common shopkeepers on the
beach--see no one, go out nowhere?”
“As my wife, Nell, I expect you to go out a good deal, and see a lot of
people. It gives me pleasure to know that the people here like you, and
that you have given all these dances and things. But, Nell, my dear,
don't be so lavish. After all, I am only a trader, and it seems rather
absurd for us to spend more money than any one else does in the matter
of entertaining people who, after all, are merely acquaintances. You
see, Nell, I want to make money, make it as quickly as I can, so that we
can go home to the old country and settle down. But we can't do it if we
live at the rate of two hundred pounds a month.”
“But if you amalgamate your business with that of Captain Danvers's
company, you will make £25,000.”
“But I may not amalgamate with Captain Danvers's company, Nell. I am
quite satisfied that they can pay me the £25,000, but I am not satisfied
as to the _bond-fides_ of the company. Danvers himself admitted to me
that it is proposed to float the new company in London at a figure
which represents four times the value of my own and his own company's
properties. I don't like it, Nell. My business as it stands I could sell
to the Germans for £20,000, cash down. But I won't associate myself with
an enterprise that is not absolutely fair and square, for the sake of an
extra £5,000.”
“I suppose Dr. Bruce has prejudiced you against Captain Danvers.”
“Bruce! No, certainly not, Nell. Why should he? Bruce has nothing to
do with the thing. He quarrelled with Danvers over some matter that
has nothing to do with me, and Danvers got the worst of it. Certainly,
however, before I decide to sell my business to Danvers's company I
shall consult Bruce.”
“Why consult him?”
“Because he is a man in whose business judgment I have great faith. And
he's an honest man.”
“And you think Captain Danvers is not?”
“Not at all. But I do think that Captain Danvers attaches an exaggerated
value to the prospects of the new trading company. He's very young, you
see, Nell, and takes too rosy a view of everything. And I'd rather die
in poverty than be the indirect means of making money at the expense of
other people. I'm old-fashioned Nell, and when I die, I want to die with
the knowledge that I have left a clean sheet behind me.”
Nell Brabant rose with an angry light in her eyes. “I hate talking about
money and such horrid things. But I do hope you will come to terms with
Captain Danvers and his company.”
“Wait a moment, Nell. I want to tell you something which I think will
please you. Would you like a trip to Sydney?”
“Very much indeed,” she answered, with sudden graciousness.
“Well, I'm thinking of sending the _Maritana_ there, to be docked and to
be overhauled, with Lester in command. Then whilst you are away I shall
charter the _Loelia_, cutter, and make a trip through the Line Islands.
You will have at least two months in Sydney, and Lester will take good
care of you on the voyage.”
“It will be a nice change for me, Jack? But why cannot you come?”
“I must make this cruise through the Line Islands before I decide to
sell out to Danvers's company.”
That evening Brabant announced his plans to his chief officer, and a
week later both the _Maritana_ and the _Loelia_ were ready for sea.
During this time Captain Danvers was an occasional visitor to the
bungalow on the hill, but he and Brabant met very frequently in the town
to discuss business together, and it soon became known that the latter
either intended to sell out to, or amalgamate with, the Danvers company.
Ten days before the _Maritana_ left Brabant bade his wife goodbye, for
the _Loelia_ was to sail first. He kissed her but once, and looked so
searchingly into her eyes as he held her hand that every vestige of
colour left her cheeks.
“You must try and enjoy yourself,” he said. “Minea” (her Samoan maid)
“and you will be very comfortable on board. You'll have the entire cabin
to yourselves, as Lester will take up his quarters in the deck-house.”
Half an hour later he was giving Lester his final instructions.
“You will not leave Sydney till either you hear from me or see me. I
may follow you in the _Loelia_ in a month. But no one else is to know
this--not even Mrs. Brabant.”
“You may depend on me,” replied Lester.
“I know it well. Goodbye, Lester.”
*****
That evening the _Loelia_ sailed from Levuka. Pedro Diaz had been
transferred from the _Maritana_ and was now mate of the cutter.
As night came on, and the green hills of Ovalau Island changed to
purple, Brabant turned suddenly to his officer.
“Come below, Pedro, I want to talk to you.”
The Chileno followed him in silence, and the two men remained conversing
in almost whispered tones for some time.
“Tell me,” asked the Chileno, fixing his dark eyes on the captain's
face; “when did you first begin to suspect?”
“From the very first day that I saw her and Danvers together. He
betrayed himself--fool that he is--by being too formally polite to her,
before me.”
“And then you read this letter of his to her. How did you get hold of
it?”
“I was coming back from my bathe in Totoga Creek about six in the
morning. Went into Manton's for a few minutes' rest and a smoke.
Danvers's door was open, and though he was not in the room, I could hear
his voice talking to Manton. I stepped inside to sit down and wait for
him. He had been writing a letter, which was but half finished. It was
to my wife, and began, 'My darling Helen.'”
“Ah-h-h!” said Diaz, in a savage, hissing whisper.
“I left it there, strolled out into the dining-room where Manton and
Danvers were having their morning coffee. I joined them, and chatted
with them for half an hour. Then I went home, and told Minea what to
do when the letter came. It was delivered by Danvers's native servant.
Minea met him at the garden gate. He asked if I was in. She said I was
out; he gave her the letter, and told her to give it to her mistress,
who was still in bed. The girl brought it to me to where I was waiting.
I opened it, took a copy of it, and gave it back to her to give to her
mistress.”
He paused, and then smiled grimly at the Chileno. Then he smoked on in
silence.
“You will kill them both?” asked Diaz.
“I don't think so, Pedro. I must wait. And you will stand to me?”
The officer's hand met his in a steady grip.
“That is all for the present, Pedro. She--and he, too--thinks that the
_Loelia_ will not be back in Levuka for three months. But we shall be
here in less than a month. And if I find that Danvers has gone to Sydney
in the monthly steamer, then I shall know how to act,” and he tapped the
copy of the letter that was in his breast pocket.
Then Pedro told him the real cause of the quarrel between Dr. Bruce and
Danvers. Brabant heard him with an unmoved face. “I thought as much,” he
said briefly.
A few days later, the _Loelia_, instead of laying northwards for the
Line Islands, was at anchor in Apia Harbour in Samoa, and Brabant,
leaving the vessel in charge of his mate, paid a round of visits to
several of his old friends in various parts of the island. At the end
of three weeks he returned on board as calm as usual, and told Diaz to
heave up anchor. By sunset that evening the _Loelia_ was sailing between
the islands of Savaii and Manono, and heading due west for Fiji before
the strong south-east trade wind. Just four weeks from the date of her
departure she re-entered Levuka harbour, and the first news that Brabant
heard was that the _Eagle_, the monthly steamer to Sydney, had sailed a
few days previously, and that among her passengers was Captain Danvers,
who had “been called to Melbourne on matters connected with his
business,” but would be returning in a couple of months. He had left
a letter for Brabant, in which, after speaking of company matters, he
said: “I do hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Brabant in
Sydney before she leaves. I daresay I can get her address from your
agents there.” As he was reading his letters Bruce came on board.
“You are back sooner than you thought, Brabant.”
“Yes. When I got to Samoa I met a German brig bound to the line Islands,
and arranged with her captain to see all my traders for me, as the
_Loelia_ is as leaky as a basket. I'm going to give her a good overhaul
here.”
There were of course the usual sneering comments made by the local
female gossips on Captain Danvers's sudden departure for Sydney, so soon
after Mrs. Brabant had left in the _Maritana_. If Brabant knew of them
he took no heed. He went about his work as usual, met his friends, and
attended to the _Loelia's_ repairs in his methodical manner.
Eight weeks passed by, and then the _Eagle_, a slow-crawling old
ex-collier, which did duty as a mail and passenger steamer, entered the
port, and Danvers, jauntier and handsomer than ever, stepped ashore
and took up his old quarters at Manton's Hotel. Here he soon learnt the
reason of Brabant's early return, and in less than an hour he was up at
the bungalow, and seated opposite Nell Brabant's husband, whom he had
found reading his letters.
“I met Mrs. Brabant quite a number of times,” he said effusively; “she
was looking very well, but I think was getting tired of Sydney when I
last saw her. Said that she thought that Fiji after all was the best
place, you know.”
Brabant nodded. “Just so. Well, we'll see her before another couple of
months, I hope.”
“I hope so,” said Danvers genially, as he raised his glass of
brandy-and-soda and nodded “good luck” to his host.
“I was thinking, Danvers,” said Brabant, as he laid down unopened the
rest of his letters, “that it would be just as well if you came round
with me in the _Loelia_ and saw my stations in the New Hebrides. It
would facilitate matters a good deal, and the cutter is all ready for
sea. In anticipation of your coming I have fitted up your quarters on
board.”
“Delighted, my dear fellow. When do you propose sailing?”
“As soon as ever you like.”
“To-morrow, then. I'm anxious to get this matter pulled through. As you
will see by your letters from my people, they are prepared to pay ten
thousand down at once, and fifteen thousand in three bills, at one, two,
and three years.”
“That is all right. Shall you be ready tomorrow, then?”
“Quite.”
After Danvers had gone to his hotel Brabant went on board the _Loelia_,
and he and Pedro Diaz again talked together.
*****
At nine o'clock next morning the cutter Loelia weighed anchor, and made
sail for “a cruise among the New Hebrides. With Captain Brabant” (so
said the tiny weekly newspaper published in Levuka) “was Captain Harold
Danvers, who is making a tour of inspection of the captain's properties
before taking possession of them on behalf of the new Trading Company.”
*****
Forty-eight hours after leaving Levuka the cutter was clear of the
land, and leaping and spinning before the trade wind which was blowing
lustily. Danvers, as he sat in a deck-chair smoking a cigar, took a lazy
interest in the crew, who were all natives of the Line Islands--short,
square-built, half-naked savages, with jet-black hair and huge pendulous
ear-lobes filled with coiled-up leaves. There were but eight of
them--the _Loelia_ was a vessel of ninety tons--and Diaz was the only
white man on board except Brabant and Danvers.
It was four o'clock in the afternoon. A native seaman struck eight bells
and Brabant came on deck. Pedro was standing aft beside the helmsman.
“We're going along at a jolly good pace, are we not----” began Danvers.
Then his voice failed him suddenly, and his face turned white as he saw
that Brabant was looking at him with the deadliest hatred in his eyes.
“What is the matter with you, Brabant? Why do you----”
Brabant raised his hand, and Pedro came and stood beside him, and then
two of the wild-looking crew suddenly sprang upon Danvers, seized him by
the arms, and handcuffed him.
“Away with him below,” said Brabant, turning on his heel and walking
aft.
Too utterly astounded to offer any resistance, Danvers was hurried along
the deck to the main hatch and made to descend. The hold was empty, but
an armed native was there awaiting the prisoner.
Diaz followed him below.
“You are to make no noise, nor speak to the sentry,” he said, with a
sullen savageness; “if you do I shall put on the hatches.”
Danvers was no coward, but his heart sank within him. “Is this a joke,
or has Captain Brabant gone mad?”
The Chileno looked at him with blazing eyes, and half raised his hand as
if to strike. Then, without a word, he turned away and went on deck.
Brabant was seated on the skylight with an outspread chart before him.
“Keep her S.S.W., Pedro. We are steering for Hunter's Island. Set the
squaresail.”
*****
For five days the _Loelia_ steered steadily before the trade wind, till
one morning there lay before her a huge, treeless cone, whose barren,
rugged sides rose blackly from the sea.
Not a vestige of vegetation was visible anywhere from the cutter, and
from the summit of the cone, and from long, gaping fissures in the
sides, ascended thin, wavering clouds of dull, sulphurous smoke. Here
and there were small bays, whose shores showed narrow beaches of black
sand, upon which the surf thundered and clamoured unceasingly. Not even
a wandering sea-bird was to be seen, and the only sound that disturbed
the dread silence of the place was the roar of the breakers mingling
with the muffled groanings and heavings of the still struggling and
mighty forces of Nature in the heart of the island--forces which,
ninety-five years before, had found a vent and destroyed every living
thing, man and beast, in one dreadful outburst of flame, whose awful
reflection was seen a hundred leagues away.
It was a place of horror and desolation, set in a lonely sea, appalling
in appearance to the human eye.
But at one point on the western side, as the _Loelia_ crept in under the
lee, there opened out a small bay less than fifty fathoms in width from
head to head, where, instead of the roaring surf which beat so fiercely
against the rest of the island, as if it sought to burst in its rocky
walls and extinguish for ever the raging fires hidden deep down in its
heart, there was but a gentle swell which broke softly upon a beach less
dismal to the eye than the others. For instead of the black volcanic
sand the shore was strewn with rough boulders of rock, whose sides were
covered in places with a thick, green creeper. Above, the sides of the
mountain showed here and there a scanty foliage, low, stunted, and dull
tinted; and in the centre of the beach a tiny stream of fresh water
trickled through sand and rock and mingled itself with the sea.
Abreast of this spot the cutter's jib-sheet was hauled to windward. Then
the boat was lowered and filled with provisions in cases and casks, and
Diaz, with four hands, went ashore and carried everything up beyond high
water-mark. Brabant watched them unconcernedly from the ship.
The boat returned and Diaz came on deck, and looked at the captain
expectantly. Brabant made a gesture towards the main hatch, then stepped
forward. Diaz, with two seamen, descended the hold. In two minutes they
reappeared with Danvers, who, the moment he came on deck, looked wildly
about him.
“For God's sake, listen to me!” he said hoarsely to the Chileno. “Are
you, too, and these men, as mad as your captain, or am I mad myself?
Where is he? Let me see him. What are you doing with me?”
No answer was made. The native sailors seized him by the arms and
dragged him to the side. Then he was lowered into the boat, which at
once pushed off and was headed towards the land. He looked, with horror
in his eyes, at the dreadful aspect before him, then turned his face
towards the cutter. Brabant was leaning on the rail watching him.
The five grim, silent men landed him on the beach, and Diaz pointed
without a word to the pile of stores, and then, grasping his steer-oar,
motioned to his crew to push off.
“You devils! You fiends incarnate! Are you going to leave me here to die
alone in this awful place?” cried Danvers, as with clenched and uplifted
hands he saw Diaz swing the boat's head seaward.
The Chileno turned his face slowly towards him.
“You shall not die alone, Señor Danvers. You shall have company--good
company.”