The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton Page 10

  CHAPTER X

  However, we were not to see Makin Island, for about midnight the windchopped round to the north--right ahead--and by daylight we had to reefdown and keep away for the south point of Apaian, in the hope that byrunning along the east coast for a few miles we might get shelter. Butwe found it impossible to anchor owing to the heavy sea running; neithercould we turn back and make for our former anchorage, which was nowexposed to the full strength of the wind and sweep of the sea. Wecertainly could make the passage at the north end of Tarawa--near theIsland of the Bloody Eye--and run into the lagoon, where we should bein smooth water; but we did not want to go back to Tarawa, under anycircumstances--my own pride, quite apart from my companions' feelings,would not let me entertain that idea for an instant. To attempt to beatback round the south point of Apaian, and get into Apaian Lagoon wouldbe madness, for the sea in the straits was now running mountains high,owing to a strong westerly current, and the wind was steadily increasingin violence; and even had it not been so, and we could have got insideeasily, would either Lucia or myself have cared to avail ourselves ofits security. For Bob Randall, the trader there, would be sure to boardus, and Bob Randall, one of the straightest, decentest white men thatever trod in shoe leather, would wonder what Mrs. Krause was doing inJim Sherry's boat! He and I had never met, but he knew both Krause andMrs. Krause. No, I thought, that would never do.

  All this time we were hugging the land as near as we could, first onone tack, then on the other, hoping that the weather would moderate, buthoping in vain, for the sky was now a dull leaden hue, and the sea wasso bad, even in our somewhat sheltered situation, that we were all moreor less sea-sick. I got my chart and studied the thing out. Sixty milesdue south of us was Maiana Lagoon--a huge square-shaped atoll, intowhich we might run, and have the boat plundered by the natives to acertainty. That was no good. No, if the gale did not moderate, there wasbut one course open to me--to run before it for Apamama, a hundred andthirty miles to the S.S.E., which meant two hundred and sixty milesof sailing before we laid a course for the N.W. And then the delay. Wemight be tied up by the nose in Apamama Lagoon for a week or more beforewe could make another start. I rolled up the chart, wet and soddened asit was with the rain beating on it, and angrily told Tematau, who wassteering, to watch the sea, for every now and then the boat would plungeheavily and ship a caskful or two of water over the bows.

  "We are in a bad place here, master," he replied, quietly; "'tis thestrong current that raiseth the high sea."

  I knew he was right, and could not but feel ashamed of my irritability,for both he and Tepi had been watching the boat most carefully, and Ithere and then decided what to do, my ill-temper vanishing when I sawMrs. Krause and Niabon bailing out the water which had come over thehatch coamings into their cabin.

  "This is a bad start for us, Lucia," I said cheerfully; "we can't dodgeabout here under the lee of the land with such a sea running. I amafraid that there is no help for us but to make a run for it forApamama. What do you think, Niabon?"

  She looked at me with a smiling face, and rising to her feet steadiedherself by placing her hands on the after-coaming of the hatch. Her thinmuslin gown was wet through from neck to hem, and clung closely to herbody, and as her eyes met mine, I, for the first time in my life, felta sudden tenderness for her, something that I never before felt when anywoman's eyes had looked into mine. And I had never been a saint, thoughnever a libertine; but between the two courses, I think, I had had asmuch experience of women as falls to most men, and I had never yet meta woman who seemed to so hold and possess my moral sense as did thissemi-savage girl, who, for all I knew, might be no better than the usualrun of Polynesian girls with European blood in their veins. But yet atthat moment, I felt, ay, I _knew_, though I could not tell why, that shewas _not_ what she might well have been, when one considered her pastenvironment, and her lonely unprotected situation--that is, lonely andunprotected from a civilised and conventional point of view; for withthe wild races among whom she had dwelt since her infancy, shehad always met with full, deep, and ample protection, and love andrespect--and fear.

  "Thou art the captain, Simi," she said in Samoan, "and thou alone canstguide us on the sea. And I think, as thou dost, that we must sail beforethe storm to Apamama; for when the wind comes suddenly and strong fromthe north, as it has done now, it sometimes lasteth for five days, andthe sea becomes very great."

  "'Tis well, Niabon," I answered, with a laugh, meant more for Lucia thanfor her; "we shall turn the boat's head for Apamama, and lie there inthe lagoon in peace till the gale hath died away."

  And then we wore ship, and in another hour were racing before the galeunder the jib and an extemporised foresail of a mat lashed to two shortoars, the lower one fast to the deck, and the upper one, eighteen inchesor so higher, to the mast stays. This lifted the boat beautifully, andmade her steer ever so much easier than had I tried to run her with aclose-reefed mainsail, for the lopping seas would have caught the boom,and either capsized us or carried the mast away, and yet I had tokeep enough canvas on her--jib and mat foresail--to run away fromthe toppling mountains of water behind us. I had never had such anexperience before, and hope I may never have one like it again. Everyfew minutes we would drop down into a valley as dark as death, with anawful wall of blackness astern, towering over us mountain high, shakingand wavering as if it knew not the exact spot whereunder we, strugglingupward, lay helpless in the trough, awaiting to be sent to the bottomif we failed to rise on the first swelling outlier of the black terrorastern.

  How we escaped broaching to 140]

  How we escaped broaching to and foundering in that wild gale will alwaysbe a wonder to me, for the boat, although she did not ship much water,seemed so deadly sluggish at times that looking astern made my fleshcreep. All that night we went tearing along, and glad enough we werewhen day broke, and we saw the sun rise. The wind still blew with greatviolence, but later on in the morning the sky cleared rapidly, and atnine o'clock, to our delight, we sighted Apamama a little to leeward,distant about eight miles, and in another hour we raced through thenorth passage and brought-to in smooth water under the lee of two smalluninhabited islands which gave us good shelter. From where we wereanchored we could see the main village, which was six miles away to theeastward, and I quite expected to see visitors coming as soon as thewind fell sufficiently to permit of boats or canoes beating over tous, and determined to give them the slip if possible, and get under wayagain before they could board us and urge me to come and anchor on theother side, abreast of the village.

  My reasons for wishing to avoid coming in contact with the people wereshared by my companions, and were based on good grounds.

  The ruler of Apamama, King Apinoka, was, although quite a young man, themost powerful and most dreaded of all the chiefs of the islands of themid-Pacific, and he boasted that in time he would crush out and utterlyexterminate the inhabitants of the surrounding islands unless theysubmitted to him, and for years past had been steadily buying arms ofthe best quality. He had in his employ several white men, one of whomwas his secretary, another was a sort of military instructor, and athird commanded a small but well-armed schooner, and it was his (theking's) ambition to possess a steamer, so that he could more easily andexpeditiously set out on his career of conquest. The revenue he derivedwas a very large one, for the island contained hundreds of thousandsof coco-nut trees, and all day long, from morn till night, his subjectswere employed in turning the nuts into oil or copra, which he sold totrading vessels. A thorough savage, though he affected European dressat times, he ruled with a rod of iron, and he had committed an appallingnumber of murders, exercising his power and his love of bloodshed ina truly horrifying manner. For instance, if one of his slaves offendedhim, he would have the man brought before him and order him to climba very tall coco-nut tree which grew in front of the king's house andthrow himself down. If the poor wretch hesitated, Apinoka would thenand there shoot him dead; if he obeyed, and threw himself down, hewas equall
y as certain to be killed by the fall--sixty feet or more.Wherever he went he was surrounded by his bodyguard, and his haughty anddomineering disposition was a general theme among the white traders ofthe Pacific Islands. To those captains who supplied him with firearmshe was liberal to lavishness in the favours he conferred; to any whocrossed him or declined to pander to him, he would be grossly insulting,and forbid them to ever come into the lagoon again.

  His house was a huge affair, and contained an extraordinary medley ofarticles--European furniture, sewing machines, barrel organs, brasscannon and cannon-balls, cuckoo clocks, bayonets, cutlasses, rifles,cases and casks of liquor, from Hollands gin to champagne, and fieryFiji rum to the best old French brandy. His harem consisted of thedaughters of his most notable chiefs, and occupied a house near by,which was guarded day and night by men armed with breechloaders, whohad instructions to shoot any one who dared to even look at the king'sfavourites.

  And yet, strangely enough, the very people over whom this despottyrannised were devotedly attached to him; and many trading captains hadtold me that he was "a real good sort when you got to know him." Oneof these men a few years later conveyed Apinoka and five hundred of hisfighting-men to the neighbouring islands of Euria and Axanuka--two ofthe loveliest gems of the mid-Pacific--and witnessed the slaughter ofthe entire male population, Apinoka sparing only the young women and thestrongest children, keeping the former for himself and his chiefs, andthe children for slaves. As might have been expected, there were alwaysplenty of renegade and ruffianly white men eager to enter into hisservice, in which they could give full fling to their instincts ofrapine and licentiousness.

  I had never seen Apinoka nor any of his European hangers-on, and hadno desire to make his or their acquaintance, so I anxiously watched theweather and had everything ready to get under way the moment we could doso with safety. But though it was smooth enough inside the lagoon,the wind continued to blow with undiminished violence, and even had itmoderated there was such a terrific sea tumbling in through the narrowpassage, that it would have been a most risky undertaking to haveattempted to beat out against a head wind, with such a heavy, sluggishboat. Had I known what was to happen I should have risked it ten timesover.

  At noon, whilst we were having our midday meal, Tematau, who wasstanding for'ard, scanning the eastern shore of the atoll, said he couldsee a boat coming towards us, beating up under a reefed mainsail andjib.

  "It is one of Apinoka's boats, Simi," said Niabon, "for there is notrader in Apamama; the king will let no one trade here."

  "Well, we can't help ourselves," I said, as I looked at the boat throughmy glasses; "she is beating up for us--there is no doubt about that. Idaresay we shall get rid of them when they find out who we are."

  Niabon shook her head, and by their faces I saw that both Tepi andTematau did not like the idea of our awaiting the coming boat.

  "What can we do?" I said, with childish petulance. "We cannot go to seain such weather as this, and get knocked about uselessly."

  "Master," said big Tepi gravely, "may I speak?"

  "Speak," I said, as I handed my glasses to Lucia--"what is it?"

  "This master. These men of Apamama be dangerous. No one can trust them;and they will be rude and force themselves upon us, and when they seethe many guns we have on board they will take them by force, if thouwilt not sell them at their own price."

  "Let them so try," I said, in sudden anger at the thought of a boatloadof King Apinoka's crowd of naked bullies coming on board and compellingme to do as they wished: "I will shoot the first man of them who triesto lay his hand on anything which is mine."

  Tepi's black eyes sparkled, and all the fighting blood of his race leaptto his cheeks and brow, as he stretched out his huge right arm.

  "Ay, master. And I too desire to fight. But these men will come asfriends, and their numbers and weight will render us helpless in thissmall boat. Is it not better that we should hoist the anchor and runbefore the wind to the south passage, gain the open sea, and then cometo anchor again under the lee of the land until the storm is spent?"

  His suggestion was so sensible that I felt annoyed and disgusted withmyself. Of course there was a south passage less than ten miles distant,and we could easily run down to it and bring to outside the reef, andeither lay-to or anchor in almost as smooth water as it was inside. ButI would not let Lucia or Niabon think that I had forgotten about it; soI spoke sharply to poor Tepi, and told him to mind his own business.Did he think, I asked, that I was a fool and did not know either ofthe south passage or my own mind? And so I let my vanity and obstinacyoverrule my common sense.

  "Get thy arms ready," I said to Tematau and Tepi, "and if these fellowsare saucy stand by me like men, I shall not lift anchor and ran awaybecause Apinoka of Apamama sendeth a boat to me."

  Now, I honestly believe that these two men thought that there would beserious trouble if I was so foolishly obstinate as to await the comingboat, when we could so easily lift anchor, rip down the lagoon, and beout through the south passage and in smooth water under the lee of theland in less than an hour; but at the same time they cocked their eyesso lovingly at the Sniders and Evans's magazine rifles which Niabonpassed up to me that I knew they were secretly delighted at the prospectof a fight.

  Niabon said something in a low voice to Lucia, who then spoke to me, andsaid nervously--

  "Please do not think I am a coward, Mr. Sherry. But do you not think itis better for us to get away?"

  "No, I don't," I answered so rudely that her face flushed scarlet,and her eyes filled with tears; "I shall stay here if fifty of KingApinoka's boats were in sight." And as I spoke I felt a strange,unreasoning fury against the approaching boat.

  I picked up an Evans rifle--we had two on board--filled the magazine,handed it to Niabon, told her to lay it down in the little cabin, outof sight, with the other arms--three Snider carbines, my breechloadingshotgun, and three of those rotten pin-fire French servicerevolvers--the Lefaucheux. My own revolver was a Deane and Adams, andcould be depended upon--the Lefaucheux could not, for the cartridgeswere so old that twenty-five per cent, of them would miss fire. Yearsbefore, at a ship chandler's shop in Singapore, I had bought twentyof these revolvers, with ten thousand cartridges, for a trifling sum,intending to sell them to the natives of the Admiralty Islands, who havea great craze for "little many-shooting guns," as they call repeaters;but the cartridges were so defective that I was ashamed to palm themoff as an effective weapon, and had given all but three away to varioustraders as curiosities to hang upon the walls of their houses.

  As the boat drew near I saw that she was steered by a white man, whosailed her beautifully. He was dressed in a suit of dirty pyjamas, andpresently, as the wind lifted the rim of the wide Panama hat he waswearing, I caught a glimpse of his features and recognised him--FlorenceTully, one of the greatest blackguards in the Pacific, and whom I hadlast seen at Ponape, in the Carolines. As he saw me looking at him, hetook off his hat and waved it.

  "That is 'Florry' Tully, Jim," said Lucia. "I have often seen him. Heis the man who shot his wife--a native girl--at Yap, in the Carolines,because she told the captain of a Spanish gunboat that he had beenselling arms to the natives."

  "I know the fellow too," I said; "the little scoundrel used to beboatswain of Bully Hayes's brig, the _Leonora_. Hayes kicked him ashoreat Jakoits Harbour, on Ponape, for stealing a cask of rum from the_Leonora_, and selling it to the crew of an American whaler."