CHAPTER V
NIGHT IN THE BUSH
Well, I was committed now; Tiapolo had to be smashed up before next day,and my hands were pretty full, not only with preparations, but withargument. My house was like a mechanics' debating society: Uma was somade up that I shouldn't go into the bush by night, or that, if I did, Iwas never to come back again. You know her style of arguing: you've hada specimen about Queen Victoria and the devil; and I leave you to fancyif I was tired of it before dark.
At last I had a good idea. What was the use of casting my pearls beforeher? I thought; some of her own chopped hay would be likelier to do thebusiness.
"I'll tell you what, then," said I. "You fish out your Bible, and I'lltake that up along with me. That'll make me right."
She swore a Bible was no use.
"That's just your Kanaka ignorance," said I. "Bring the Bible out."
She brought it, and I turned to the title-page, where I thought therewould likely be some English, and so there was. "There!" said I. "Lookat that! '_London: Printed for the British and Foreign Bible Society,Blackfriars_,' and the date, which I can't read, owing to its being inthese X's. There's no devil in hell can look near the Bible Society,Blackfriars. Why, you silly!" I said, "how do you suppose we get alongwith our own _aitus_ at home? All Bible Society!"
"I think you no got any," said she. "White man, he tell me you no got."
"Sounds likely, don't it?" I asked. "Why would these islands all bechock full of them and none in Europe?"
"Well, you no got bread-fruit," said she.
I could have torn my hair. "Now, look here, old lady," said I, "you dryup, for I'm tired of you. I'll take the Bible, which'll put me asstraight as the mail, and that's the last word I've got to say."
The night fell extraordinary dark, clouds coming up with sundown andoverspreading all; not a star showed; there was only an end of a moon,and that not due before the small hours. Round the village, what withthe lights and the fires in the open houses, and the torches of manyfishers moving on the reef, it kept as gay as an illumination; but thesea and the mountains and woods were all clean gone. I suppose it mightbe eight o'clock when I took the road, laden like a donkey. First therewas that Bible, a book as big as your head, which I had let myself infor by my own tomfoolery. Then there was my gun, and knife, and lantern,and patent matches, all necessary. And then there was the real plant ofthe affair in hand, a mortal weight of gunpowder, a pair of dynamitefishing bombs, and two or three pieces of slow match that I had hauledout of the tin cases and spliced together the best way I could; for thematch was only trade stuff, and a man would be crazy that trusted it.Altogether, you see, I had the materials of a pretty good blow-up!Expense was nothing to me; I wanted that thing done right.
As long as I was in the open, and had the lamp in my house to steer by,I did well. But when I got to the path, it fell so dark I could make noheadway, walking into trees and swearing there, like a man looking forthe matches in his bedroom. I knew it was risky to light up, for mylantern would be visible all the way to the point of the cape, and as noone went there after dark, it would be talked about, and come to Case'sears. But what was I to do? I had either to give the business over andlose caste with Maea, or light up, take my chance, and get through thething the smartest I was able.
As long as I was on the path I walked hard, but when I came to the blackbeach I had to run. For the tide was now nearly flowed; and to getthrough with my powder dry between the surf and the steep hill, took allthe quickness I possessed. As it was, even, the wash caught me to theknees, and I came near falling on a stone. All this time the hurry I wasin, and the free air and smell of the sea, kept my spirits lively; butwhen I was once in the bush and began to climb the path I took iteasier. The fearsomeness of the wood had been a good bit rubbed off forme by Master Case's banjo-strings and graven images, yet I thought itwas a dreary walk, and guessed, when the disciples went up there, theymust be badly scared. The light of the lantern, striking among all thesetrunks and forked branches and twisted rope-ends of lianas, made thewhole place, or all that you could see of it, a kind of a puzzle ofturning shadows. They came to meet you, solid and quick like giants, andthen span off and vanished; they hove up over your head like clubs, andflew away into the night like birds. The floor of the bush glimmeredwith dead wood, the way the match-box used to shine after you had strucka lucifer. Big, cold drops fell on me from the branches overhead likesweat. There was no wind to mention; only a little icy breath of aland-breeze that stirred nothing; and the harps were silent.
The first landfall I made was when I got through the bush of wildcocoa-nuts, and came in view of the bogies on the wall. Mighty queerthey looked by the shining of the lantern, with their painted faces andshell eyes, and their clothes and their hair hanging. One after anotherI pulled them all up and piled them in a bundle on the cellar roof, soas they might go to glory with the rest. Then I chose a place behind oneof the big stones at the entrance, buried my powder and the two shells,and arranged my match along the passage. And then I had a look at thesmoking head, just for good-bye. It was doing fine.
"Cheer up," says I. "You're booked."
It was my first idea to light up and be getting homeward; for thedarkness and the glimmer of the dead wood and the shadows of the lanternmade me lonely. But I knew where one of the harps hung; it seemed a pityit shouldn't go with the rest; and at the same time I couldn't helpletting on to myself that I was mortal tired of my employment, and wouldlike best to be at home and have the door shut. I stepped out of thecellar and argued it fore and back. There was a sound of the sea fardown below me on the coast; nearer hand not a leaf stirred; I might havebeen the only living creature this side of Cape Horn. Well, as I stoodthere thinking, it seemed the bush woke and became full of littlenoises. Little noises they were, and nothing to hurt--a bit of acrackle, a bit of a rush--but the breath jumped right out of me and mythroat went as dry as a biscuit. It wasn't Case I was afraid of, whichwould have been common-sense; I never thought of Case; what took me, assharp as the colic, was the old wives' tales, the devil-women and theman-pigs. It was the toss of a penny whether I should run: but I got apurchase on myself, and stepped out, and held up the lantern (like afool) and looked all round.
In the direction of the village and the path there was nothing to beseen; but when I turned inland it's a wonder to me I didn't drop. There,coming right up out of the desert and the bad bush--there, sure enough,was a devil-woman, just as the way I had figured she would look. I sawthe light shine on her bare arms and her bright eyes, and there went outof me a yell so big that I thought it was my death.
"Ah! No sing out!" says the devil-woman, in a kind of a high whisper."Why you talk big voice? Put out light! Ese he come."
"My God Almighty, Uma, is that you?" says I.
"_Ioe_,"[5] says she. "I come quick. Ese here soon."
"You come alone?" I asked. "You no 'fraid?"
"Ah, too much 'fraid!" she whispered, clutching me. "I think die."
"Well," says I, with a kind of a weak grin, "I'm not the one to laugh atyou, Mrs. Wiltshire, for I'm about the worst scared man in the SouthPacific myself."
She told me in two words what brought her. I was scarce gone, it seems,when Fa'avao came in, and the old woman had met Black Jack running ashard as he was fit from our house to Case's. Uma neither spoke norstopped, but lit right out to come and warn me. She was so close at myheels that the lantern was her guide across the beach, and afterwards,by the glimmer of it in the trees, she got her line up hill. It was onlywhen I had got to the top or was in the cellar that she wandered Lordknows where! and lost a sight of precious time, afraid to call out lestCase was at the heels of her, and falling in the bush, so that she wasall knocked and bruised. That must have been when she got too far to thesouthward, and how she came to take me in the flank at last and frightenme beyond what I've got the words to tell of.
Well, anything was better than a devil-woman, but I thought her yarnserious enough. Black Jack had no call
to be about my house, unless hewas set there to watch; and it looked to me as if my tomfool word aboutthe paint, and perhaps some chatter of Maea's had got us all in a clovehitch. One thing was clear: Uma and I were here for the night; wedaren't try to go home before day, and even then it would be safer tostrike round up the mountain and come in by the back of the village, orwe might walk into an ambuscade. It was plain, too, that the mine shouldbe sprung immediately, or Case might be in time to stop it.
I marched into the tunnel, Uma keeping tight hold of me, opened mylantern, and lit the match. The first length of it burned like a spillof paper, and I stood stupid, watching it burn, and thinking we weregoing aloft with Tiapolo, which was none of my views. The second took toa better rate, though faster than I cared about; and at that I got mywits again, hauled Uma clear of the passage, blew out and dropped thelantern, and the pair of us groped our way into the bush until I thoughtit might be safe, and lay down together by a tree.
"Old lady," I said, "I won't forget this night. You're a trump, andthat's what's wrong with you."
She humped herself close up to me. She had run out the way she was, withnothing on her but her kilt; and she was all wet with the dews and thesea on the black beach, and shook straight on with cold and the terrorof the dark and the devils.
"Too much 'fraid," was all she said.
The far side of Case's hill goes down near as steep as a precipice intothe next valley. We were on the very edge of it, and I could see thedead wood shine and hear the sea sound far below. I didn't care aboutthe position, which left me no retreat, but I was afraid to change. ThenI saw I had made a worse mistake about the lantern, which I should haveleft lighted, so that I could have had a crack at Case when he steppedinto the shine of it. And even if I hadn't had the wit to do that, itseemed a senseless thing to leave the good lantern to blow up with thegraven images. The thing belonged to me, after all, and was worth money,and might come in handy. If I could have trusted the match, I might haverun in still and rescued it. But who was going to trust the match? Youknow what trade is. The stuff was good enough for Kanakas to go fishingwith, where they've got to look lively anyway, and the most they risk isonly to have their hand blown off. But for any one that wanted to foolaround a blow-up like mine that match was rubbish.
Altogether, the best I could do was to lie still, see my shot-gunhandy, and wait for the explosion. But it was a solemn kind of abusiness. The blackness of the night was like solid; the only thing youcould see was the nasty bogy glimmer of the dead wood, and that showedyou nothing but itself; and as for sounds, I stretched my ears till Ithought I could have heard the match burn in the tunnel, and that bushwas as silent as a coffin. Now and then there was a bit of a crack; butwhether it was near or far, whether it was Case stubbing his toes withina few yards of me, or a tree breaking miles away, I knew no more thanthe babe unborn.
And then, all of a sudden, Vesuvius went off. It was a long time coming;but when it came (though I say it that shouldn't) no man could ask tosee a better. At first it was just a son of a gun of a row, and a spoutof fire, and the wood lighted up so that you could see to read. And thenthe trouble began. Uma and I were half buried under a wagonful of earth,and glad it was no worse, for one of the rocks at the entrance of thetunnel was fired clean into the air, fell within a couple of fathoms ofwhere we lay, and bounded over the edge of the hill, and went poundingdown into the next valley. I saw I had rather under-calculated ourdistance, or overdone the dynamite and powder, which you please.
And presently I saw I had made another slip. The noise of the thingbegan to die off, shaking the island; the dazzle was over; and yet thenight didn't come back the way I expected. For the whole wood wasscattered with red coals and brands from the explosion; they were allround me on the flat; some had fallen below in the valley, and somestuck and flared in the tree-tops. I had no fear of fire, for theseforests are too wet to kindle. But the trouble was that the place wasall lit up--not very bright, but good enough to get a shot by; and theway the coals were scattered, it was just as likely Case might have theadvantage as myself. I looked all round for his white face, you may besure; but there was not a sign of him. As for Uma, the life seemed tohave been knocked right out of her by the bang and blaze of it.
There was one bad point in my game. One of the blessed graven images hadcome down all afire, hair and clothes and body, not four yards away fromme. I cast a mighty noticing glance all round; there was still no Case,and I made up my mind I must get rid of that burning stick before hecame, or I should be shot there like a dog.
It was my first idea to have crawled, and then I thought speed was themain thing, and stood half up to make a rush. The same moment fromsomewhere between me and the sea there came a flash and a report, and arifle bullet screeched in my ear. I swung straight round and up with mygun, but the brute had a Winchester, and before I could as much as seehim his second shot knocked me over like a nine-pin. I seemed to fly inthe air, then came down by the run and lay half a minute, silly; andthen I found my hands empty, and my gun had flown over my head as Ifell. It makes a man mighty wide awake to be in the kind of box that Iwas in. I scarcely knew where I was hurt, or whether I was hurt or not,but turned right over on my face to crawl after my weapon. Unless youhave tried to get about with a smashed leg you don't know what pain is,and I let out a howl like a bullock's.
This was the unluckiest noise that ever I made in my life. Up to thenUma had stuck to her tree like a sensible woman, knowing she would beonly in the way; but as soon as she heard me sing out she ran forward.The Winchester cracked again and down she went.
I had sat up, leg and all, to stop her; but when I saw her tumble Iclapped down again where I was, lay still, and felt the handle of myknife. I had been scurried and put out before. No more of that for me.He had knocked over my girl, I had got to fix him for it; and I laythere and gritted my teeth, and footed up the chances. My leg was broke,my gun was gone. Case had still ten shots in his Winchester. It looked akind of hopeless business. But I never despaired nor thought upondespairing: that man had got to go.
For a goodish bit not one of us let on. Then I heard Case begin to movenearer in the bush, but mighty careful. The image had burned out; therewere only a few coals left here and there, and the wood was main dark,but had a kind of a low glow in it like a fire on its last legs. It wasby this that I made out Case's head looking at me over a big tuft offerns, and at the same time the brute saw me and shouldered hisWinchester. I lay quite still, and as good as looked into the barrel: itwas my last chance, but I thought my heart would have come right out ofits bearings. Then he fired. Lucky for me it was no shot-gun, for thebullet struck within an inch of me and knocked the dirt in my eyes.
Just you try and see if you can lie quiet, and let a man take a sittingshot at you and miss you by a hair. But I did, and lucky too. A whileCase stood with the Winchester at the port-arms; then he gave a littlelaugh to himself and stepped round the ferns.
"Laugh!" thought I. "If you had the wit of a louse you would bepraying!"
I was all as taut as a ship's hawser or the spring of a watch, and assoon as he came within reach of me I had him by the ankle, plucked thefeet right out from under him, laid him out, and was upon the top ofhim, broken leg and all, before he breathed. His Winchester had gone thesame road as my shot-gun; it was nothing to me--I defied him now. I'm apretty strong man anyway, but I never knew what strength was till I gothold of Case. He was knocked out of time by the rattle he came downwith, and threw up his hands together, more like a frightened woman, sothat I caught both of them with my left. This wakened him up, and hefastened his teeth in my forearm like a weasel. Much I cared. My leggave me all the pain I had any use for, and I drew my knife and got itin the place.
"Now," said I, "I've got you; and you're gone up, and a good job too!Do you feel the point of that? That's for Underhill! And there's forAdams! And now here's for Uma, and that's going to knock your bloomingsoul right out of you!"
With that I gave him the cold steel f
or all I was worth. His body kickedunder me like a spring sofa; he gave a dreadful kind of a long moan, andlay still.
"I wonder if you're dead? I hope so!" I thought, for my head wasswimming. But I wasn't going to take chances; I had his own example tooclose before me for that; and I tried to draw the knife out to give ithim again. The blood came over my hands, I remember, hot as tea; andwith that I fainted clean away, and fell with my head on the man'smouth.
When I came to myself it was pitch dark; the cinders had burned out;there was nothing to be seen but the shine of the dead wood, and Icouldn't remember where I was nor why I was in such pain, nor what I wasall wetted with. Then it came back, and the first thing I attended towas to give him the knife again a half a dozen times up to the handle. Ibelieve he was dead already, but it did him no harm, and did me good.
"I bet you're dead now," I said, and then I called to Uma.
Nothing answered, and I made a move to go and grope for her, fouled mybroken leg, and fainted again.
When I came to myself the second time the clouds had all cleared away,except a few that sailed there, white as cotton. The moon was up--atropic moon. The moon at home turns a wood black, but even this old buttend of a one showed up that forest as green as by day. The nightbirds--or, rather, they're a kind of early morning bird--sang out withtheir long, falling notes like nightingales. And I could see the deadman, that I was still half resting on, looking right up into the skywith his open eyes, no paler than when he was alive; and a little wayoff Uma tumbled on her side. I got over to her the best way I was able,and when I got there she was broad awake, and crying and sobbing toherself with no more noise than an insect. It appears she was afraid tocry out loud, because of the _aitus_. Altogether she was not much hurt,but scared beyond belief; she had come to her senses a long while ago,cried out to me, heard nothing in reply, made out we were both dead, andhad lain there ever since, afraid to budge a finger. The ball hadploughed up her shoulder and she had lost a main quantity of blood; butI soon had that tied up the way it ought to be with the tail of my shirtand a scarf I had on, got her head on my sound knee and my back againsta trunk, and settled down to wait for morning. Uma was for neither usenor ornament, and could only clutch hold of me and shake and cry. Idon't suppose there was ever anybody worse scared, and, to do herjustice, she had had a lively night of it. As for me, I was in a goodbit of pain and fever, but not so bad when I sat still; and every time Ilooked over to Case I could have sung and whistled. Talk about meat anddrink! To see that man lying there dead as a herring filled me full.
The night birds stopped after a while; and then the light began tochange, the east came orange, the whole wood began to whirr with singinglike a musical box, and there was the broad day.
I didn't expect Maea for a long while yet; and indeed I thought therewas an off-chance he might go back on the whole idea and not come atall. I was the better pleased when, about an hour after daylight, Iheard sticks smashing and a lot of Kanakas laughing and singing out tokeep their courage up.
Uma sat up quite brisk at the first word of it; and presently we saw aparty come stringing out of the path, Maea in front, and behind him awhite man in a pith helmet. It was Mr. Tarleton, who had turned up latelast night in Falesa, having left his boat and walked the last stagewith a lantern.
They buried Case upon the field of glory, right in the hole where hehad kept the smoking head. I waited till the thing was done; and Mr.Tarleton prayed, which I thought tomfoolery, but I'm bound to say hegave a pretty sick view of the dear departed's prospects, and seemed tohave his own ideas of hell. I had it out with him afterwards, told himhe had scamped his duty, and what he had ought to have done was to uplike a man and tell the Kanakas plainly Case was damned, and a goodriddance; but I never could get him to see it my way. Then they made mea litter of poles and carried me down to the station. Mr. Tarleton setmy leg, and made a regular missionary splice of it, so that I limp tothis day. That done, he took down my evidence, and Uma's, and Maea's,wrote it all out fine, and had us sign it; and then he got the chiefsand marched over to Papa Randall's to seize Case's papers.
All they found was a bit of a diary, kept for a good many years, and allabout the price of copra, and chickens being stolen, and that; and thebooks of the business and the will I told you of in the beginning, byboth of which the whole thing (stock, lock, and barrel) appeared tobelong to the Samoa woman. It was I that bought her out at a mightyreasonable figure, for she was in a hurry to get home. As for Randalland the black, they had to tramp; got into some kind of a station on thePapa-malulu side; did very bad business, for the truth is neither of thepair was fit for it, and lived mostly on fish, which was the means ofRandall's death. It seems there was a nice shoal in one day, and Papawent after them with the dynamite; either the match burned too fast, orPapa was full, or both, but the shell went off (in the usual way) beforehe threw it, and where was Papa's hand? Well, there's nothing to hurt inthat; the islands up north are all full of one-handed men, like theparties in the "Arabian Nights"; but either Randall was too old, or hedrank too much, and the short and the long of it was that he died.Pretty soon after, the nigger was turned out of the island for stealingfrom white men, and went off to the west, where he found men of his owncolour, in case he liked that, and the men of his own colour took andate him at some kind of a corroborree, and I'm sure I hope he was totheir fancy!
So there was I, left alone in my glory at Falesa; and when the schoonercame round I filled her up, and gave her a deck-cargo half as high asthe house. I must say Mr. Tarleton did the right thing by us; but hetook a meanish kind of a revenge.
"Now, Mr. Wiltshire," said he, "I've put you all square with everybodyhere. It wasn't difficult to do, Case being gone; but I have done it,and given my pledge besides that you will deal fairly with the natives.I must ask you to keep my word."
Well, so I did. I used to be bothered about my balances, but I reasonedit out this way: We all have queerish balances, and the natives all knowit, and water their copra in a proportion so that it's fair all round;but the truth is, it did use to bother me, and, though I did well inFalesa, I was half glad when the firm moved me on to another station,where I was under no kind of a pledge and could look my balances in theface.
As for the old lady, you know her as well as I do. She's only the onefault. If you don't keep your eye lifting she would give away the roofoff the station. Well, it seems it's natural in Kanakas. She's turned apowerful big woman now, and could throw a London bobby over hershoulder. But that's natural in Kanakas too, and there's no manner ofdoubt that she's an A1 wife.
Mr. Tarleton's gone home, his trick being over. He was the bestmissionary I ever struck, and now, it seems, he's parsonising downSomerset way. Well, that's best for him; he'll have no Kanakas there toget luny over.
My public-house? Not a bit of it, nor ever likely. I'm stuck here, Ifancy. I don't like to leave the kids, you see: and--there's no usetalking--they're better here than what they would be in a white man'scountry, though Ben took the eldest up to Auckland, where he's beingschooled with the best. But what bothers me is the girls. They're onlyhalf-castes, of course; I know that as well as you do, and there'snobody thinks less of half-castes than I do; but they're mine, and aboutall I've got. I can't reconcile my mind to their taking up with Kanakas,and I'd like to know where I'm to find the whites?
FOOTNOTE:
[5] Yes.