Louis Becke
The Call Of The South / 1908
CHAPTER I ~ PAUL, THE DIVER
Feeling any better to-day, Paul?
Guess Im getting round, and the big, bronzed-faced man raised his eyes to mine as he lay under the awning on the after deck of his pearling lugger. I sat down beside him and began to talk.
A mile away the white beach of a little, land-locked bay shimmered under the morning sun, and the drooping fronds of the cocos hung listless and silent, waiting for the rising of the south-east trade.
Paul, I said, it is very hot here. Come on shore with me to the native village, where it is cooler, and I will make you a big drink of lime-juice.
I helped him to risefor he was weak from a bad attack of New Guinea feverand two of our native crew assisted him over the side into my whaleboat. A quarter of an hour later we were seated on mats under the shade of a great wild mango tree, drinking lime-juice and listening to the lazy hum of the surf upon the reef, and the soft croo, croo of many crested pigeons in the branches above.
The place was a little bay in Callie Harbour on Admiralty Island in the South Pacific; and Paul Fremont was one of our European divers. I was in charge of the supply schooner which was tender to our fleet of pearling luggers, and was the one man among us to whom the silent, taciturn Paul would talksometimes.
And only sometimes, for usually Paul was too much occupied in his work to say more than Good-morning, boss, or Good night, when, after he had been disencumbered of his diving gear, he went aft to rest and smoke his pipe. But one day, however, he went down in twenty-six fathoms, stayed too long, and was brought up unconscious. The mate and I saw the signals go up for assistance, hurried on board his lugger, and were just in time to save his life.
Two days later he came on board the tender, shook hands in his silent, undemonstrative way, and held out for my acceptance an old octagon American fifty dollar gold piece.
Got a gal, boss? I admitted that I had.
Pure white, I mean. One thet you like well enough to marry?
I mean to try, Paul.
In Samoa?
NoAustralia.
Guess Id like you to give her this slug I got it outer the wreck of a ship that was sunk off Galveston in the sixties, in the war.
It would have hurt him had I declined the gift. So I thanked him, and he nodded silently, filled his pipe and went back to the Montiara.
Nearly a year passed before we met again, for his lugger and six others went to New Guinea; and our next meeting was at Callie Harbour, where I found him down with malarial fever. Again I became his doctor, and ordered him to lie up.
He nodded.
Guess Ill have ter, boss. But I jest hate loafin around and seein the other divers bringin up shell in easy water. For he was receiving eighty pounds per month wagesdiving or no divingand hated to be idle.
Paul, I said, as we lay stretched out under the wild mango tree, would you mind telling me about that turn-up you had with the niggers at New Ireland, six years ago.
Ef you like, boss. Then he added that he did not care about talking much at any time, as he was a mighty poor hand at the jaw-tackle.
We were startin tryin some new ground between New Hanover and the North Cape of New Ireland. There were only two luggers, and we had for our store-ship a thirty-ton cutter. There were two white divers besides me and one Manila man, and our crews were all natives of some sort or anotherTokelaus, Manahikians and Hawaiians. The skipper of the storeship was a Dutchmana chicken-hearted swab, who turned green at the sight of a nigger with a bunch of spears, or a club in his hand. He used to turn-in with a brace of pistols in his belt and a Winchester lying on the cabin table. At sea he would lose his funk, but whenever we dropped anchor and natives came aboard his teeth would begin to chatter, and he would just jump at his own shadder.
We anchored in six fathoms, and in an hour or two we came across a good patch of black-edge shell, and we began to get the boats and pumps ready to start regular next morning. As I was boss, I had moored the cutter in a well-sheltered nook under a high bluff, and the luggers near to her. So far we had not seen any sign of nativesnot even smokebut knew that there was a big village some miles away, out o sight of us, an that the niggers were a bad lot, and would have a try at cuttin off if they saw a slant.
Early next morning it set in to rain, with easterly squalls, and before long I saw that there was like to be a week of it, and that we should have to lie by and wait until it settled. About noon we sighted a dozen white lime-painted canoes bearing down on us, and Horn, the Dutchman, began to turn green as usual, and wanted me to heave up and clear out. I set on him and said I wanted the niggers to come alongside, an hev a good look at usthey would see that we were a hard nut to crack if they meant mischief.
They came alongside, six or eight greasy-haired bucks in each canoeand asked for terbacker and knives in exchange for some pigs and yams. I let twenty or so of em come aboard, bought their provisions, and let em have a good look around. Their chief was a fat, bloated feller, with a body like a barrel, and his face pitted with small-pox. He told me that he was boss of all the place around us, and had some big plantations about a mile back in the bush, just abreast of us, and that he would let me have all the food I wanted. In five days or so, he said, we should have fine weather for diving, and he and his crowd would help me all they could.
About a quarter of a mile away was a rocky little island of about five acres in extent It had a few heavy trees on it, but no scrub, and there were some abandoned fishermens huts on the beach. I asked the fat hog if I could use it as a shore station to overhaul our boats and diving gear when necessary, and he agreed to let me use it as long as I liked for three hundred sticks of terbacker and two muskets.
They went off on shore again to the plantations, and in a little while we saw smoke ascendinthey were cookin food, and repairing their huts. Later on in the day they sent me a canoe load of yams, taro, and other stuff for the men, and asked me to come ashore and look at the village. I went, fur I knew that they would not try on any games so soon.
There were, in addition to the bucks, a lot of women and children there, makin thatch, cookin, and repairin the pig-proof fencin. I stayed a bit, and then came on board again, an we made snug for the night.
Next morning we landed on the island, repaired two of the huts, and started mendin sails, overhauling the boats, and doin such work that it was easier to do on shore than on board. Of course we kep our arms handy, and old Horn kep a good watch on boardhe dassent put foot on shore himselfsaid he was skeered o fever.
The natives sent us plenty of food, and a good many of em loafed around on the island, and some on board the luggers and cutter, cadgin fur terbacker and biscuit Of course they always carried their clubs and spears with em, as is usual in New Ireland, but they were quiet and civil enough. Every day canoes were passin from where we lay to the main village, and returnin with other batches of bucks and women all takin spells at work; an there was any amount o drum beating and duk duk1 dancin, and old Horn shivered in his boots swearin they were comin to wipe us out But my native crews and I and the other white divers were used to the nigger customs at such times, and although we kep a good watch ashore and afloat, none o us were afraid of any trouble comin.
On the fifth night, I, another white diver, named Docky Mason, his Samoan wife, and a Manahiki sailor named Star were sleeping on shore in one of the huts. In another hut were three or four New Ireland niggers, who had brought us some fish and were going away again in the mornin.
About ten oclock the sky became as black as inka heavy blow was comin on, and we just had time to stow our loose gear up tidy, when the wind came down from between the mountains with a roar like thunder, and away went the roofs of the huts, and with it nearly everything around us that was not too heavy to be carried away. My own boat, which was lying on the beach, was lifted up bodily, sent flyin into the water, and carried out to sea.
We tried to make out the cutters and luggers lights, but could see nothing and every second the wind was yellin louder and louder like forty thousand cats gone mad, and the air was filled with sticks, leaves, and sand, and I had a mighty great fear for my little fleet; fur three miles away to the west, there was a long stretch o reefs, an I was afraid they had dragged and would get mussed up.
Thets jest what did happenthough they cleared the reefs by the skin of their teeth. The moment they began to drag, all three slipped. The luggers stood away under the lee of New Ireland, stickin in to the land, and tryin to bring to for shelter, but they were a hundred miles away from me, down the coast, before they could bring-to and anchor, for the blow had settled into a hurricane, and raised such a fearful sea that they had to heave-to for twenty-four hours. It was two weeks before we met again, after they had had to tow and sweep back to my little island, against a dead calm and a strong current, gettin a whiff of a land breeze at night now an agin, which let em use their canvas. As for the cutter, she ran before it for New Britain, and brought up at Matupi in Blanche Bay, two hundred miles away, where old Horn knew there was a white settlement of Germanshis own kidney. He was a white-livered old swine, but a good sailor-manas far as any man who says Ja for Yes goes.
When daylight came my mates and I set to work to straighten up.
Docky Masons native wifeTiawas a whole waggon with a yaller dog under the team. She first of all made us some hot coffee, and gave us a rousin breakfast; then she made the New Ireland buckswho were wantin to swim to the mainlandturn to and put a new roof of coco-nut thatch over our hut, although it was still blowin a ragin gale. My! thet gal was a wonder! She hed eyes like stars, an red lips an shinin pearly teeth, an a tongue like a whip-lash when she got mad, an Docky Mason uster let her talk to him as if he was a niggeran say nuthinexcep givin a foolish laugh and then slouchin off. And yet she was as gentle as a lamb to any of us fellows when we got fever, or had gone down under moren twenty fathoms, and was hauled up three parts dead and chokin.
Well, boss, we got to straights at last, although it was blowin as hard as ever. We had a lot o gear on shore in that native house, for I was intendin to beach the cutter an give her copper a scrubbin before we started divin regular.
There was near on a ton o twist terbacker in tierces (which we used fur tradin with the niggers), a ton o biscuit in fifty pound tins, boxes o red an yaller seed beads, an knives an axes, an a case o dynamite, an heaps o things that was a direct invitation to the niggers, an a challenge ter the Almighty to hev our silly throats cut. And those four or five bucks, whilst Tia was hustlin them around, was jest takin stock as they worked.
By sunfall the wind an sea in the bay had gone down a bit; an the bucks said that they would swim on shore (their canoe had been smashed in the night) and bring us some food early in the mornin. I gave em a bottle o Hollands, an my kind regards for the old barrelled-belly swine of a chief, some terbacker fur themselves; and then, after they had gone, looked to our Winchesters and pistols, which the bucks hadnt seen, fur we always kept em outer sight, under our sleepin mats.
Paulo, sez Tia to me, speakin in Samoan (an cussin in English), you an Docky an Star are a lot o blamed fools! You orter hev shot all those bucks ez soon ez they hed finished. Didnt you say that, Star?
Star had said Yes to her, but being an unobtrusive sorter o Kanaka, he hadnt said nuthin to usthinkin we knew bettern him what ter do.
We kep a good watch all that day an the nex day, and then at sunset two bucks in a canoe came off, bringing us six cooked pigeons from the chief, with a message that he would come an see us in a day or two, and bring men to build us better houses to live in until the luggers and the cutter came back.
We collared the two bucks and tied em up, and then Tia made one of em eat part of a pigeonshe standin over him with a Winchester at his ear. He ate it, an in ten minutes he was tyin himself up in knots, and was a dead nigger in another quarter of an hour. The pigeons were all poisoned.
We kep the other nigger alive an told him that if he would tell us what was a-goin on wed let him off, and set him ashore, free.
At dawn to-morrow, says he, Baian (the fat old chief) thought to find you all dead, because of the poisoned pigeons sent to you. And then he meant to take all the good things you have here, and set up your heads in his duk duk house.
Before daylight came, Docky Mason an Star an me hed fixed up things all serene ter give Baian and his cannibals a doin. Fust ev allto show our prisoner that we meant business, Tia held up his right hand, an Docky sent a Winchester bullet through it, an told him that he would send one through his skull ef he didnt do what he was told.
Then we took two empty one gallon colza oil tins, and filled em with dynamite, tamped it down tight, and then ran short fuses through the corks, and carried em down to the place where our prisoner said Baian and his crowd would land. It was a little bay, lined on each side by pretty high, ragged coral boulders, covered with creepers. We stowed the tins in readiness, and then brought our prisoner down, and told him what to do when the time came. I guess thet thet nigger knew thet ef he didnt play straight he was a dead coon. Tia sat down jest behind him, and every now and then touched his backbone with the muzzle ev her pistoljest ter show him she was keepin awake. At the same time he wasnt unwillin, for he hed told us thet he and his dead mate were not Baians menthey were slaves he had captured from a town he had raided somewhere near North Cape, and they were liable to be killed and eaten at any time if Baians crowd ran short of pig meat or turtle.
A little bit higher up, Docky Mason, Star an me, planted ourselves with our Winchesters, an one of our boats whalers bomb guns, which fired four pounds of slugs and deer shot, mixed upthe sorter thing, boss, thet you an me may find mighty handy here in this very place, if we get rushed sudden. We made a charcoal fire, and then frayed out the ends of the dynamite fuses so thet they would light quickly.
When daylight came, we caught sight of nigh on fifty canoes, all crammed with niggers, paddlin like blazes to where we was cached, but making no noise. Even if they hed we would not hev heard it, fur the wind and the surf beatin on the reef would hev drowned it.