The Ebbing Of The Tide - George Lewis Becke (best books to read ever txt) 📗
- Author: George Lewis Becke
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am a disgraced man. But you haven't heard why I deserted from the _Tagus_. Listen while I tell you. I was flogged. I was only a boy, and it broke my heart."
"Curse you, you chicken-hearted sweep! I've laid the cat on the back of many a better man than myself, and none of 'em ever disgraced themselves by runnin' away and turnin' into a nigger, like you!"
The man heard the sneer with unmoved face, then resumed--
"It broke my heart. And when I was hiding in Dover, and my mother used to come and dress my wounds, do you remember what happened?"
"Aye, you naked swab, I do: your father kicked you out!"
"And I got caught again, and put in irons, and got more cat. Two years afterwards I cleared again in Sydney, from the _Sirius_.... And I came here to live and die among savages. That's nigh on eight years ago."
There was a brief silence. The old man, with fierce, scornful eyes, looked sneeringly at the wild figure of the broken wanderer, and then said--
"What's to stop me from telling our lieutenant you're a deserter? I would, too, by God, only I don't want my shipmates to know I've got a nigger for a son."
The gibe passed unheeded, save for a sudden light that leapt into the eyes of the younger man, then quickly died away.
"Let us part in peace," he said. "We will never meet again. Only tell me one thing--is my mother dead?"
"Yes."
"Thank God for that," he murmured. Then without another word the outcast turned away and disappeared among the cocoa-palms.
*****
The second boat from the _Pleiades_ brought the captain, and as he and the lieutenant stood and talked they watched the natives carrying down the cocoa-nuts.
"Hurry them up, Hallam," said Lieutenant T------; "the tide is falling fast. By the by, where is that fellow Lacy; I don't see him about?"
As he spoke a woman's shriek came from the chiefs house, which stood some distance apart from the other houses, and a tall brown man sprang out from among the other natives about the boats and dashed up the pathway to the village.
"Quick, Hallam, and some of you fellows," said Captain W------, "run and see what's the matter. That scoundrel, Lacy, I suppose, among the women," he added, with a laugh, to the lieutenant.
The two officers followed the men. In a few minutes they came upon a curious scene. Held in the strong arms of two stout seamen was the native chief, whose heaving chest and working features showed him to be under some violent emotion. On the ground, with his head supported by a shipmate, lay Lacy, with blackened and distorted face, and breathing stertorously. Shaking with fear and weeping passionately as she pressed her child to her bosom, the young native wife looked beseechingly into the faces of the men who held her husband.
"What is the meaning of this?" said Captain W------'s clear, sharp voice, addressing the men who held the chief.
"That hound there"--the men who held their prisoner nearly let him go in their astonishment--"came in here. She was alone. Do you want to know more? I tried to kill him."
"Let him loose, men," and Captain W------ stepped up to the prisoner and looked closely into his dark face. "Ah! I thought so--a white man. What is your name?"
The wanderer bent his head, then raised it, and looked for an instant at the sullen face of Hallam.
*****
"I have no name," he said.
"Humph," muttered Captain W------ to his lieutenant, "a runaway convict, most likely. He can't be blamed, though, for this affair. He's a perfect brute, that fellow Lacy." Then to the strange white man he turned contemptuously:
"I'm sorry this man assaulted your wife. He shall suffer for it to-morrow. At the same time I'm sorry I can't tie _you_ up and flog you, as a disgrace to your colour and country, you naked savage."
The outcast took two strides, a red gleam shone in his eyes, and his voice shook with mad passion.
"'A naked savage'; and you would like to flog me. It was a brute such as you made me what I am," and he struck the captain of the _Pleiades_ in the face with his clenched hand.
*****
"We'll have to punish the fellow, T------," said Captain W------, as with his handkerchief to his lips he staunched the flow of blood. "If I let a thing like this pass his native friends would imagine all sorts of things and probably murder any unfortunate merchant captain that may touch here in the future. But, as Heaven is my witness, I do so on that ground only--deserter as he admits himself to be. Hurry up that fellow, T------."
*****
"That fellow" was Hallam, who had been sent to the boat for a bit of line suitable for the purpose in view. His florid face paled somewhat when the coxswain jeeringly asked him if he didn't miss his green bag, and flung him an old pair of yoke-lines.
*****
The business of flogging was not, on the whole, unduly hurried. Although "All Hands to Witness Punishment" was not piped, every native on the island, some seventy or so all told, gathered round the cocoanut-tree to which the man was lashed, and at every stroke of the heavy yoke-lines they shuddered. One, a woman with a child sitting beside her, lay face to the ground, and as each cruel swish and thud fell on her ear the savage creature wept.
*****
"That's enough, Hallam," said Captain W------, somewhat moved by the tears and bursting sobs of the pitying natives, who, when they saw the great blue weals on the brown back swell and black drops burst out, sought to break in through the cordon of blue jackets.
***** Clustering around him, the brown people sought to lift him in their arms and carry him to his house; but his strength was not all gone, and he thrust them aside. Then he spoke, and even the cold, passionless Captain W------ felt his face flush at the burning words:
"For seven years, lads, I've lived here, a naked savage, as your captain called me. I had a heavy disgrace once, an' it just broke my heart like--I was flogged--and I wanted to hide myself out of the world. Seven years it is since I saw a white man, an' I've almost forgotten I _was_ a white man once; an' now because I tried to choke a hound that wanted to injure the only being in the world I have to love, I'm tied up and lashed like a dog--_by my own father!_"
*****
The island was just sinking below the horizon when the burly figure of boatswain's mate Hallam was seen to disappear suddenly over the bows, where he had been standing.
*****
"A very regrettable occurrence," said Captain W------, pompously, to the chaplain when the boats returned from the search. "No doubt the horror of seeing his only son a disgraced fugitive and severed from all decent associations preyed upon his mind and led him to commit suicide. Such men as Hallam, humble as was his position, are an Honour to the Service. I shall always remember him as a very zealous seaman."
"Particularly with the cat," murmured Lieutenant T------.
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"Curse you, you chicken-hearted sweep! I've laid the cat on the back of many a better man than myself, and none of 'em ever disgraced themselves by runnin' away and turnin' into a nigger, like you!"
The man heard the sneer with unmoved face, then resumed--
"It broke my heart. And when I was hiding in Dover, and my mother used to come and dress my wounds, do you remember what happened?"
"Aye, you naked swab, I do: your father kicked you out!"
"And I got caught again, and put in irons, and got more cat. Two years afterwards I cleared again in Sydney, from the _Sirius_.... And I came here to live and die among savages. That's nigh on eight years ago."
There was a brief silence. The old man, with fierce, scornful eyes, looked sneeringly at the wild figure of the broken wanderer, and then said--
"What's to stop me from telling our lieutenant you're a deserter? I would, too, by God, only I don't want my shipmates to know I've got a nigger for a son."
The gibe passed unheeded, save for a sudden light that leapt into the eyes of the younger man, then quickly died away.
"Let us part in peace," he said. "We will never meet again. Only tell me one thing--is my mother dead?"
"Yes."
"Thank God for that," he murmured. Then without another word the outcast turned away and disappeared among the cocoa-palms.
*****
The second boat from the _Pleiades_ brought the captain, and as he and the lieutenant stood and talked they watched the natives carrying down the cocoa-nuts.
"Hurry them up, Hallam," said Lieutenant T------; "the tide is falling fast. By the by, where is that fellow Lacy; I don't see him about?"
As he spoke a woman's shriek came from the chiefs house, which stood some distance apart from the other houses, and a tall brown man sprang out from among the other natives about the boats and dashed up the pathway to the village.
"Quick, Hallam, and some of you fellows," said Captain W------, "run and see what's the matter. That scoundrel, Lacy, I suppose, among the women," he added, with a laugh, to the lieutenant.
The two officers followed the men. In a few minutes they came upon a curious scene. Held in the strong arms of two stout seamen was the native chief, whose heaving chest and working features showed him to be under some violent emotion. On the ground, with his head supported by a shipmate, lay Lacy, with blackened and distorted face, and breathing stertorously. Shaking with fear and weeping passionately as she pressed her child to her bosom, the young native wife looked beseechingly into the faces of the men who held her husband.
"What is the meaning of this?" said Captain W------'s clear, sharp voice, addressing the men who held the chief.
"That hound there"--the men who held their prisoner nearly let him go in their astonishment--"came in here. She was alone. Do you want to know more? I tried to kill him."
"Let him loose, men," and Captain W------ stepped up to the prisoner and looked closely into his dark face. "Ah! I thought so--a white man. What is your name?"
The wanderer bent his head, then raised it, and looked for an instant at the sullen face of Hallam.
*****
"I have no name," he said.
"Humph," muttered Captain W------ to his lieutenant, "a runaway convict, most likely. He can't be blamed, though, for this affair. He's a perfect brute, that fellow Lacy." Then to the strange white man he turned contemptuously:
"I'm sorry this man assaulted your wife. He shall suffer for it to-morrow. At the same time I'm sorry I can't tie _you_ up and flog you, as a disgrace to your colour and country, you naked savage."
The outcast took two strides, a red gleam shone in his eyes, and his voice shook with mad passion.
"'A naked savage'; and you would like to flog me. It was a brute such as you made me what I am," and he struck the captain of the _Pleiades_ in the face with his clenched hand.
*****
"We'll have to punish the fellow, T------," said Captain W------, as with his handkerchief to his lips he staunched the flow of blood. "If I let a thing like this pass his native friends would imagine all sorts of things and probably murder any unfortunate merchant captain that may touch here in the future. But, as Heaven is my witness, I do so on that ground only--deserter as he admits himself to be. Hurry up that fellow, T------."
*****
"That fellow" was Hallam, who had been sent to the boat for a bit of line suitable for the purpose in view. His florid face paled somewhat when the coxswain jeeringly asked him if he didn't miss his green bag, and flung him an old pair of yoke-lines.
*****
The business of flogging was not, on the whole, unduly hurried. Although "All Hands to Witness Punishment" was not piped, every native on the island, some seventy or so all told, gathered round the cocoanut-tree to which the man was lashed, and at every stroke of the heavy yoke-lines they shuddered. One, a woman with a child sitting beside her, lay face to the ground, and as each cruel swish and thud fell on her ear the savage creature wept.
*****
"That's enough, Hallam," said Captain W------, somewhat moved by the tears and bursting sobs of the pitying natives, who, when they saw the great blue weals on the brown back swell and black drops burst out, sought to break in through the cordon of blue jackets.
***** Clustering around him, the brown people sought to lift him in their arms and carry him to his house; but his strength was not all gone, and he thrust them aside. Then he spoke, and even the cold, passionless Captain W------ felt his face flush at the burning words:
"For seven years, lads, I've lived here, a naked savage, as your captain called me. I had a heavy disgrace once, an' it just broke my heart like--I was flogged--and I wanted to hide myself out of the world. Seven years it is since I saw a white man, an' I've almost forgotten I _was_ a white man once; an' now because I tried to choke a hound that wanted to injure the only being in the world I have to love, I'm tied up and lashed like a dog--_by my own father!_"
*****
The island was just sinking below the horizon when the burly figure of boatswain's mate Hallam was seen to disappear suddenly over the bows, where he had been standing.
*****
"A very regrettable occurrence," said Captain W------, pompously, to the chaplain when the boats returned from the search. "No doubt the horror of seeing his only son a disgraced fugitive and severed from all decent associations preyed upon his mind and led him to commit suicide. Such men as Hallam, humble as was his position, are an Honour to the Service. I shall always remember him as a very zealous seaman."
"Particularly with the cat," murmured Lieutenant T------.
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Publication Date: 08-11-2010
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