Complete Works of Joseph Conrad (Illustrated) (535 page)

“Yes, he was a proper man,” pursued Lingard, meditatively, as if for himself only. “You could not find a better fellow for company ashore. He had an affair with a Bali girl, who one evening threw a red blossom at him from within a doorway, as we were going together to pay our respects to the Rajah’s nephew. He was a good-looking Frenchman, he was — but the girl belonged to the Rajah’s nephew, and it was a serious matter. The old Rajah got angry and said the girl must die. I don’t think the nephew cared particularly to have her krissed; but the old fellow made a great fuss and sent one of his own chief men to see the thing done — and the girl had enemies — her own relations approved! We could do nothing. Mind, Shaw, there was absolutely nothing else between them but that unlucky flower which the Frenchman pinned to his coat — and afterward, when the girl was dead, wore under his shirt, hung round his neck in a small box. I suppose he had nothing else to put it into.”

“Would those savages kill a woman for that?” asked Shaw, incredulously.

“Aye! They are pretty moral there. That was the first time in my life I nearly went to war on my own account, Shaw. We couldn’t talk those fellows over. We couldn’t bribe them, though the Frenchman offered the best he had, and I was ready to back him to the last dollar, to the last rag of cotton, Shaw! No use — they were that blamed respectable. So, says the Frenchman to me: ‘My friend, if they won’t take our gunpowder for a gift let us burn it to give them lead.’ I was armed as you see now; six eight-pounders on the main deck and a long eighteen on the forecastle — and I wanted to try ‘em. You may believe me! However, the Frenchman had nothing but a few old muskets; and the beggars got to windward of us by fair words, till one morning a boat’s crew from the Frenchman’s ship found the girl lying dead on the beach. That put an end to our plans. She was out of her trouble anyhow, and no reasonable man will fight for a dead woman. I was never vengeful, Shaw, and — after all — she didn’t throw that flower at me. But it broke the Frenchman up altogether. He began to mope, did no business, and shortly afterward sailed away. I cleared a good many pence out of that trip, I remember.”

With these words he seemed to come to the end of his memories of that trip. Shaw stifled a yawn.

“Women are the cause of a lot of trouble,” he said, dispassionately. “In the Morayshire, I remember, we had once a passenger — an old gentleman — who was telling us a yarn about them old-time Greeks fighting for ten years about some woman. The Turks kidnapped her, or something. Anyway, they fought in Turkey; which I may well believe. Them Greeks and Turks were always fighting. My father was master’s mate on board one of the three-deckers at the battle of Navarino — and that was when we went to help those Greeks. But this affair about a woman was long before that time.”

“I should think so,” muttered Lingard, hanging over the rail, and watching the fleeting gleams that passed deep down in the water, along the ship’s bottom.

“Yes. Times are changed. They were unenlightened in those old days. My grandfather was a preacher and, though my father served in the navy, I don’t hold with war. Sinful the old gentleman called it — and I think so, too. Unless with Chinamen, or niggers, or such people as must be kept in order and won’t listen to reason; having not sense enough to know what’s good for them, when it’s explained to them by their betters — missionaries, and such like au-tho-ri-ties. But to fight ten years. And for a woman!”

“I have read the tale in a book,” said Lingard, speaking down over the side as if setting his words gently afloat upon the sea. “I have read the tale. She was very beautiful.”

“That only makes it worse, sir — if anything. You may depend on it she was no good. Those pagan times will never come back, thank God. Ten years of murder and unrighteousness! And for a woman! Would anybody do it now? Would you do it, sir? Would you — ”

The sound of a bell struck sharply interrupted Shaw’s discourse. High aloft, some dry block sent out a screech, short and lamentable, like a cry of pain. It pierced the quietness of the night to the very core, and seemed to destroy the reserve which it had imposed upon the tones of the two men, who spoke now loudly.

“Throw the cover over the binnacle,” said Lingard in his duty voice. “The thing shines like a full moon. We mustn’t show more lights than we can help, when becalmed at night so near the land. No use in being seen if you can’t see yourself — is there? Bear that in mind, Mr. Shaw. There may be some vagabonds prying about — ”

“I thought all this was over and done for,” said Shaw, busying himself with the cover, “since Sir Thomas Cochrane swept along the Borneo coast with his squadron some years ago. He did a rare lot of fighting — didn’t he? We heard about it from the chaps of the sloop Diana that was refitting in Calcutta when I was there in the Warwick Castle. They took some king’s town up a river hereabouts. The chaps were full of it.”

“Sir Thomas did good work,” answered Lingard, “but it will be a long time before these seas are as safe as the English Channel is in peace time. I spoke about that light more to get you in the way of things to be attended to in these seas than for anything else. Did you notice how few native craft we’ve sighted for all these days we have been drifting about — one may say — in this sea?”

“I can’t say I have attached any significance to the fact, sir.”

“It’s a sign that something is up. Once set a rumour afloat in these waters, and it will make its way from island to island, without any breeze to drive it along.”

“Being myself a deep-water man sailing steadily out of home ports nearly all my life,” said Shaw with great deliberation, “I cannot pretend to see through the peculiarities of them out-of-the-way parts. But I can keep a lookout in an ordinary way, and I have noticed that craft of any kind seemed scarce, for the last few days: considering that we had land aboard of us — one side or another — nearly every day.”

“You will get to know the peculiarities, as you call them, if you remain any time with me,” remarked Lingard, negligently.

“I hope I shall give satisfaction, whether the time be long or short!” said Shaw, accentuating the meaning of his words by the distinctness of his utterance. “A man who has spent thirty-two years of his life on saltwater can say no more. If being an officer of home ships for the last fifteen years I don’t understand the heathen ways of them there savages, in matters of seamanship and duty, you will find me all there, Captain Lingard.”

“Except, judging from what you said a little while ago — except in the matter of fighting,” said Lingard, with a short laugh.

“Fighting! I am not aware that anybody wants to fight me. I am a peaceable man, Captain Lingard, but when put to it, I could fight as well as any of them flat-nosed chaps we have to make shift with, instead of a proper crew of decent Christians. Fighting!” he went on with unexpected pugnacity of tone, “Fighting! If anybody comes to fight me, he will find me all there, I swear!”

“That’s all right. That’s all right,” said Lingard, stretching his arms above his head and wriggling his shoulders. “My word! I do wish a breeze would come to let us get away from here. I am rather in a hurry, Shaw.”

“Indeed, sir! Well, I never yet met a thorough seafaring man who was not in a hurry when a con-demned spell of calm had him by the heels. When a breeze comes . . . just listen to this, sir!”

“I hear it,” said Lingard. “Tide-rip, Shaw.”

“So I presume, sir. But what a fuss it makes. Seldom heard such a — ”

On the sea, upon the furthest limits of vision, appeared an advancing streak of seething foam, resembling a narrow white ribbon, drawn rapidly along the level surface of the water by its two ends, which were lost in the darkness. It reached the brig, passed under, stretching out on each side; and on each side the water became noisy, breaking into numerous and tiny wavelets, a mimicry of an immense agitation. Yet the vessel in the midst of this sudden and loud disturbance remained as motionless and steady as if she had been securely moored between the stone walls of a safe dock. In a few moments the line of foam and ripple running swiftly north passed at once beyond sight and earshot, leaving no trace on the unconquerable calm.

“Now this is very curious — ” began Shaw.

Lingard made a gesture to command silence. He seemed to listen yet, as if the wash of the ripple could have had an echo which he expected to hear. And a man’s voice that was heard forward had something of the impersonal ring of voices thrown back from hard and lofty cliffs upon the empty distances of the sea. It spoke in Malay — faintly.

“What?” hailed Shaw. “What is it?”

Lingard put a restraining hand for a moment on his chief officer’s shoulder, and moved forward smartly. Shaw followed, puzzled. The rapid exchange of incomprehensible words thrown backward and forward through the shadows of the brig’s main deck from his captain to the lookout man and back again, made him feel sadly out of it, somehow.

Lingard had called out sharply — ”What do you see?” The answer direct and quick was — ”I hear, Tuan. I hear oars.”

“Whereabouts?”

“The night is all around us. I hear them near.”

“Port or starboard?”

There was a short delay in answer this time. On the quarter-deck, under the poop, bare feet shuffled. Somebody coughed. At last the voice forward said doubtfully:

“Kanan.”

“Call the serang, Mr. Shaw,” said Lingard, calmly, “and have the hands turned up. They are all lying about the decks. Look sharp now. There’s something near us. It’s annoying to be caught like this,” he added in a vexed tone.

He crossed over to the starboard side, and stood listening, one hand grasping the royal back-stay, his ear turned to the sea, but he could hear nothing from there. The quarter-deck was filled with subdued sounds. Suddenly, a long, shrill whistle soared, reverberated loudly amongst the flat surfaces of motionless sails, and gradually grew faint as if the sound had escaped and gone away, running upon the water. Haji Wasub was on deck and ready to carry out the white man’s commands. Then silence fell again on the brig, until Shaw spoke quietly.

“I am going forward now, sir, with the tindal. We’re all at stations.”

“Aye, Mr. Shaw. Very good. Mind they don’t board you — but I can hear nothing. Not a sound. It can’t be much.”

“The fellow has been dreaming, no doubt. I have good ears, too, and — ”

He went forward and the end of his sentence was lost in an indistinct growl. Lingard stood attentive. One by one the three seacannies off duty appeared on the poop and busied themselves around a big chest that stood by the side of the cabin companion. A rattle and clink of steel weapons turned out on the deck was heard, but the men did not even whisper. Lingard peered steadily into the night, then shook his head.

“Serang!” he called, half aloud.

The spare old man ran up the ladder so smartly that his bony feet did not seem to touch the steps. He stood by his commander, his hands behind his back; a figure indistinct but straight as an arrow.

“Who was looking out?” asked Lingard.

“Badroon, the Bugis,” said Wasub, in his crisp, jerky manner.

“I can hear nothing. Badroon heard the noise in his mind.”

“The night hides the boat.”

“Have you seen it?”

“Yes, Tuan. Small boat. Before sunset. By the land. Now coming here — near. Badroon heard him.”

“Why didn’t you report it, then?” asked Lingard, sharply.

“Malim spoke. He said: ‘Nothing there,’ while I could see. How could I know what was in his mind or yours, Tuan?”

“Do you hear anything now?”

“No. They stopped now. Perhaps lost the ship — who knows? Perhaps afraid — ”

“Well!” muttered Lingard, moving his feet uneasily. “I believe you lie. What kind of boat?”

“White men’s boat. A four-men boat, I think. Small. Tuan, I hear him now! There!”

He stretched his arm straight out, pointing abeam for a time, then his arm fell slowly.

“Coming this way,” he added with decision.

From forward Shaw called out in a startled tone:

“Something on the water, sir! Broad on this bow!”

“All right!” called back Lingard.

A lump of blacker darkness floated into his view. From it came over the water English words — deliberate, reaching him one by one; as if each had made its own difficult way through the profound stillness of the night.

“What — ship — is — that — pray?”

“English brig,” answered Lingard, after a short moment of hesitation.

“A brig! I thought you were something bigger,” went on the voice from the sea with a tinge of disappointment in its deliberate tone. “I am coming alongside — if — you — please.”

“No! you don’t!” called Lingard back, sharply. The leisurely drawl of the invisible speaker seemed to him offensive, and woke up a hostile feeling. “No! you don’t if you care for your boat. Where do you spring from? Who are you — anyhow? How many of you are there in that boat?”

After these emphatic questions there was an interval of silence. During that time the shape of the boat became a little more distinct. She must have carried some way on her yet, for she loomed up bigger and nearly abreast of where Lingard stood, before the self-possessed voice was heard again:

“I will show you.”

Then, after another short pause, the voice said, less loud but very plain:

“Strike on the gunwale. Strike hard, John!” and suddenly a blue light blazed out, illuminating with a livid flame a round patch in the night. In the smoke and splutter of that ghastly halo appeared a white, four-oared gig with five men sitting in her in a row. Their heads were turned toward the brig with a strong expression of curiosity on their faces, which, in this glare, brilliant and sinister, took on a deathlike aspect and resembled the faces of interested corpses. Then the bowman dropped into the water the light he held above his head and the darkness, rushing back at the boat, swallowed it with a loud and angry hiss.

“Five of us,” said the composed voice out of the night that seemed now darker than before. “Four hands and myself. We belong to a yacht — a British yacht — ”

“Come on board!” shouted Lingard. “Why didn’t you speak at once? I thought you might have been some masquerading Dutchmen from a dodging gunboat.”