第58章

"In his enthusiasm he pulled his stumps out of his pockets and waved them about.Then, catching sight of them, as it were, he held them in front of his eyes, cursing and blaspheming and bewailing his misfortune and his helplessness, till Niclaus quieted him down.

"But it was his mind that planned out the affair and it was his spirit which carried the other two on.Neither of them was of the bold buccaneer type; and Fector, especially, had never in his adventurous life used other weapons than slander and lies.

"That very evening they departed on a visit to Bamtz in Niclaus's prau, which had been lying, emptied of her cargo of cocoanuts, for a day or two under the canal bridge.They must have crossed the bows of the anchored Sissie, and no doubt looked at her with interest as the scene of their future exploit, the great haul, LEGRAND COUP!

"Davidson's wife, to his great surprise, sulked with him for several days before he left.I don't know whether it occurred to him that, for all her angelic profile, she was a very stupidly obstinate girl.She didn't like the tropics.He had brought her out there, where she had no friends, and now, she said, he was becoming inconsiderate.She had a presentiment of some misfortune, and notwithstanding Davidson's painstaking explanations, she could not see why her presentiments were to be disregarded.On the very last evening before Davidson went away she asked him in a suspicious manner:

"'Why is it that you are so anxious to go this time?'

"'I am not anxious,' protested the good Davidson.'I simply can't help myself.There's no one else to go in my place.'

"'Oh! There's no one,' she said, turning away slowly.

"She was so distant with him that evening that Davidson from a sense of delicacy made up his mind to say good-bye to her at once and go and sleep on board.He felt very miserable and, strangely enough, more on his own account than on account of his wife.She seemed to him much more offended than grieved.

"Three weeks later, having collected a good many cases of old dollars (they were stowed aft in the lazarette with an iron bar and a padlock securing the hatch under his cabin-table), yes, with a bigger lot than he had expected to collect, he found himself homeward bound and off the entrance of the creek where Bamtz lived and even, in a sense, flourished.

"It was so late in the day that Davidson actually hesitated whether he should not pass by this time.He had no regard for Bamtz, who was a degraded but not a really unhappy man.His pity for Laughing Anne was no more than her case deserved.But his goodness was of a particularly delicate sort.He realised how these people were dependent on him, and how they would feel their dependence (if he failed to turn up) through a long month of anxious waiting.

Prompted by his sensitive humanity, Davidson, in the gathering dusk, turned the Sissie's head towards the hardly discernible coast, and navigated her safety through a maze of shallow patches.

But by the time he got to the mouth of the creek the night had come.

"The narrow waterway lay like a black cutting through the forest.

And as there were always grounded snaggs in the channel which it would be impossible to make out, Davidson very prudently turned the Sissie round, and with only enough steam on the boilers to give her a touch ahead if necessary, let her drift up stern first with the tide, silent and invisible in the impenetrable darkness and in the dumb stillness.

"It was a long job, and when at the end of two hours Davidson thought he must be up to the clearing, the settlement slept already, the whole land of forests and rivers was asleep.

"Davidson, seeing a solitary light in the massed darkness of the shore, knew that it was burning in Bamtz's house.This was unexpected at this time of the night, but convenient as a guide.

By a turn of the screw and a touch of the helm he sheered the Sissie alongside Bamtz's wharf - a miserable structure of a dozen piles and a few planks, of which the ex-vagabond was very proud.Acouple of Kalashes jumped down on it, took a turn with the ropes thrown to them round the posts, and the Sissie came to rest without a single loud word or the slightest noise.And just in time too, for the tide turned even before she was properly moored.

"Davidson had something to eat, and then, coming on deck for a last look round, noticed that the light was still burning in the house.

"This was very unusual, but since they were awake so late, Davidson thought that he would go up to say that he was in a hurry to be off and to ask that what rattans there were in store should be sent on board with the first sign of dawn.

"He stepped carefully over the shaky planks, not being anxious to get a sprained ankle, and picked his way across the waste ground to the foot of the house ladder.The house was but a glorified hut on piles, unfenced and lonely.

"Like many a stout man, Davidson is very lightfooted.He climbed the seven steps or so, stepped across the bamboo platform quietly, but what he saw through the doorway stopped him short.

"Four men were sitting by the light of a solitary candle.There was a bottle, a jug and glasses on the table, but they were not engaged in drinking.Two packs of cards were lying there too, but they were not preparing to play.They were talking together in whispers, and remained quite unaware of him.He himself was too astonished to make a sound for some time.The world was still, except for the sibilation of the whispering heads bunched together over the table.

"And Davidson, as I have quoted him to you before, didn't like it.

He didn't like it at all.

"The situation ended with a scream proceeding from the dark, interior part of the room.'O Davy! you've given me a turn.'

"Davidson made out beyond the table Anne's very pale face.She laughed a little hysterically, out of the deep shadows between the gloomy mat walls.'Ha! ha! ha!'