In Strange Company: A Story of Chili and the Southern Seas

by Guy Boothby

  CHAPTER V.

  A CURIOUS QUEST.

  Apart from the fact that it was being undertaken solely for the purposeof digging up and rifling a dead man's body, there was somethingpeculiarly uncanny to me about this voyage to Vanua Lava. And the more Iallowed my mind to dwell upon it, the more convinced I became that,somehow or other, what we found would materially affect my welfare. Itmay therefore be imagined with what interest I gazed across theintervening stretch of water at the thickly-timbered island, nowdisappearing into the fast-falling shadows. Juanita was wildly excited,and would have liked nothing better than to have gone ashore andcommenced operations that very night. Indeed, I could not help thinkingthat the fortune her husband had hidden away must be even larger thanshe had led me to suppose, if I might estimate its size by her anxietyto obtain possession of the locket.

  As soon as tea was over we returned on deck. It was a glorious night.Overhead, in a coal-black sky, the great stars hung lustrous andwonderful. Below them all was silence. Not a sound save the subduedvoices of the crew forward, and now and again a tiny wave, stirred bysome gentle zephyr, breaking against the schooner's side, disturbed thestillness. Then, little by little, the eastern stars began to lose theirbrilliance. The sky at that end of the island relinquished some of itsblackness, and presently, with a majesty untranslatable, the great moonrose into the heavens, casting a mellow light across the silent deep,and touching with silver the topmost trees ashore. With her coming afaint breeze stole down to meet us and set the schooner gently rocking.

  When we had paced the deck together for a while Juanita drew me to thetaffrail, and passing her arm through mine in a caressing mannerpeculiar to herself, fell to talking in a strain which I had neverdiscovered in her before. The impression her conversation forced upon mewas that she was trying to excuse herself for a great wrong she hadalready done or was about to do me, and yet nothing in her actual speechlent any reason to this supposition.

  "To-morrow," she said, half to herself, "will decide a great deal forboth of us."

  "How for both of us, Juanita?" I asked. "If you find what you want overyonder you'll be a rich lady, and then 'good-bye' to poor Jack."

  She started as if frightened, and pressed my arm tighter.

  "You have been so good to me that I don't know what to say to you," shecontinued, disregarding my last speech. "Oh, Jack! if we could only beourselves, free to act and to do whatsoever we wished, instead of beingdriven so relentlessly on and on by destiny, how much happier we shouldbe! Do you believe in fate?"

  "I believe you are my fate," I replied, pressing her hand with all theardour of a lover, "and what better fate could I ask?"

  "Or what worse?" she said sadly. "Jack, my poor Jack, you don't know howyou will hate me some day."

  "Never, Juanita, and that I'll swear to."

  She was silent for a minute or two. When she spoke again there was abitterness in her voice I had never heard in it before.

  "If I had only known and loved you sooner," she went on, "I might havebeen a better woman. But I was cursed from the very beginning; cursedwith a bad mother, cursed with a bad father, cursed with a beauty thatwas only a snare for sin; lured to my ruin before I was old enough tounderstand, driven by poverty and despair to be what I am--a woman atwar with all the world. Oh, Jack, may the Holy Mother forbid that youmay ever know what my life has been! But there, why should I tell youall this? let us be happy and believe in each other to-night, if onlyfor to-night."

  "My darling," I cried with real alarm, noticing that big tears wererolling down her cheeks, "what is the matter? Tell me, and let mecomfort you. This monotonous voyage has tired you, to-morrow you willbe better. Don't give way just at the time when you want all yournerve."

  But my advice came too late; she threw herself into my arms and wept asif her heart would break. I could see that she was thoroughly upset, butwhat had occasioned it I could not of course understand. Since then,however, I have become wiser, and whenever I think of that night on theschooner's deck, under the shadow of the island, I say to myself, "Well,however she may have acted towards me afterwards, at least Juanita lovedme then."

  When she grew calmer she began again, this time with a sort of malignantfierceness that was equally inexplicable.

  "My Jack, if I told you that I was a despicable coward and asked you toweigh anchor to-night and to leave the island without as much as goingashore, would you do it? Think before you answer, for heaven and helldepend upon it."

  I suppose at some period of his life every man has his fate in his handto do as he likes with. I had mine then, and, as will be seen, I threwit from me. Oh, if I had only taken the opportunity she offered and setsail without rifling that grave, what awful misery for both of us Ishould have averted! But, blind bat that I was, it was ordained that Ishould see everything in a wrong light, and so I began immediately toreproach her for her weakness, telling her that since she had come sofar to do it, it would be worse than cowardice to return withoutcarrying out her work.

  "But, Jack," she said, "if you only knew, if you only knew?"

  "If I knew what?" I asked. "Come, come, Juanita, what does all thismystery mean? What are you hinting at? You're in a very extraordinarymood to-night." I was beginning to grow impatient with her.

  "Don't," she cried, preparing to burst into tears again, "don't scoldme. If you could only know how we shall both look back on this nightsome day, and how it will comfort me to remember that at least you werenot angry then!"

  When she went below I lit my pipe and fell to work upon my own thoughts.I tried to recall her conversation and to find a reason for herextraordinary behaviour, but it was impossible. In vain also Iendeavoured to rid myself of the feeling of approaching danger whichpossessed me. At last, unable to make head or tail of it, and thoroughlywretched, I sought my bunk in the hope of obtaining a little restagainst the labours of the morrow.

  My dreams were not pleasant ones. Juanita seemed to stand before mecontinually, gazing at me as she had done on deck, with tear-streamingface, imploring me to forgive her, always to forgive her. I don'tremember ever to have spent a more miserable night. But it was only aforetaste of what was to come.

  Shortly after daylight I awoke to hear the hands "washing down." I wenton deck and had a bath; the clear green water braced me like a tonic. Amore perfect morning could not be imagined. The sea lay around us, incolour a pale grey, and smooth as the inside of an oyster-shell. Ashorethe rugged mountain peaks were enveloped in vast masses of white cloud,while on the lower lands every shrub and tree was gemmed with dew. A fewsea-birds hovered round the schooner, and from far down the northernbeach a spiral column of palest blue smoke ascended into the stillmorning air.

  About half-an-hour before breakfast-time, Juanita came on deck, lookingradiant; all signs of her last night's trouble had completelydisappeared. Stepping out of the companion, she swept the sea with aproud, defiant glance, as though she had at length achieved somethingwhich other people had deemed impossible. Then her eyes fell on me, andshe came across to where I stood, wishing me "good-morning" with abright smile. I felt inclined to ask myself if this could be the samewoman who had wept upon my shoulder the night before, and begged me inheart-broken accents to forgive her some imaginary transgression. Aftera few moments her glance wandered from the schooner and the open sea tothe island, and then the expression upon her face (for I watched itcontinually) changed. When she came on deck, it was that of a woman whothrough much suffering had conquered; but when she looked towards thespot where the man she had once loved lay buried, it was the face of onewho had still to prove that the struggle was not going against her.Just at that moment the bell sounded for breakfast, and leaving the deckto the mate, I escorted her below.

  As soon as we had finished our meal, I gave orders for the long-boat tobe swung out, and a crowbar and a couple of shovels put into her. I hadalready chosen the hands who should accompany us, so nothing remainedbut to assist my sweetheart down the gangway, take our places in theboat, and s
et out for the shore. It was no use trying to persuadeJuanita to remain on board, and let me do the work. She would not hearof it. On the way I could not help noticing the appearance of her face;it had become deadly white and haggard, a circumstance which I couldonly attribute to the ghastly nature of our errand.

  Owing to the fact of there being no reef on this side of the island, wewere able to bring the boat flush up to the shore, and to secure her bya long painter to a tree.

  As I helped Juanita out, I asked her in which direction she supposed thegrave to lie, and without any hesitation she pointed to a little woodedknoll, about a hundred yards to our left. Off we set towards it.

  By this time the pallor of her face was such as to quite frighten me. Iasked her if she did not think she'd better sit down and rest a while.Her answer, if not assuring, was emphatic.

  "Rest! What rest can I have? No, no, no; on, on! I can't rest; I can'tthink till we've done the work. Oh, be quick! be quick!"

  Reaching the spot she had pointed out, we commenced our search for thegrave. Though she declared her husband had only been buried a fewmonths, no sign of his resting-place was to be seen. This I accountedfor by the fact that it was situated on a slope, and the wash of thewater (for the rains had occurred since the burial took place) hadsmoothed the earth all along the hill-side, levelling and obliteratingall traces of the mound. However, after much diligent search, I foundamid some rank grass a spot which seemed to bear some resemblance towhat we sought, and here I decided to dig.

  The ground was by no means hard, and as the two men I had brought ashorewere muscular fellows, it was not long before we had a good hole to showfor our work. Suddenly the shovel struck something with a hollow sound,bringing my heart into my mouth with a jump. Next moment a corner of aroughly-made coffin came into view. And as it did so, Juanita gave alittle cry, while I felt large clammy beads of sweat ooze out and downmy own forehead.

  Bidding the two men exert all their strength, I worked the crowbarunderneath the coffin, and leant my weight upon it. Inch by inch ituncovered itself, and at last we were able, by getting our hands underit, to lift it out on to the level ground. As we laid it down, I heardJuanita gasp for breath. And when I told her we were going to prize thelid off, she could bear it no longer, but turned her back, and buryingher face in her hands, bade me search round the dead man's neck for thelocket. She could not do it herself.

  Inserting a corner of the shovel between the lid and the side, I triedto force it open, but it was securely fastened, and defied me. There wasnothing for it but to send off to the schooner for a screwdriver. Howbitterly I reproached myself for not having brought one with me!

  The waiting was intolerable. Though it was in reality not ten minutes,it seemed an hour before the man returned with the tool. Then, one byone, my hands shaking with nervousness, I withdrew the screws. That workaccomplished, I ordered one of the Kanakas to lift off the lid. As heprepared to do so, I could not repress a feeling of wonderment as towhat this former lover of Juanita's would be like; at the same time, Ibraced my nerves for what we should see.

  The lid was off. I looked; I rubbed my eyes and looked again--could I bedreaming?

  _Save for a large roll of sheet-lead, the coffin was empty. No man hadever been buried in it!_

  The whole funeral must have been a farce, intended to deceive some one.Could that some one, I asked myself, have been Juanita?

  My exclamations must have puzzled her, for she cried out--

  "Oh, what have you found?"

  I was so overcome with surprise that I had some difficulty in findingvoice enough to reply to her. Then I said--

  "Juanita, you've been hoaxed! No man was ever buried here. There's onlya sheet of lead in the coffin!"

  With that she faced round on me, and never, before or since, have I seensuch an expression of fear in the human face. She stood there, wildlystaring, first at the open coffin, then at the grave, unable to speak.Her face seemed to grow every moment paler. Then, turning to me, shesaid very softly, so softly that I asked myself whether the shock couldhave been too much for her brain--

  "I have been the victim of a conspiracy; take me back to the schooner."

  I signed to the men to collect the tools, and we were in the act ofstarting on our return to the beach, when I heard unmistakable sounds ofsome one moving through the undergrowth on the bank above us. Juanitaheard them too, and by some means, for which I cannot account, must havedivined their cause, for she faced round like a tigress at bay. Then thebushes parted, _and the Albino stood before us_!

  Anything so uncanny as his appearance at that moment cannot be imagined.He gazed at us, his fingers cracking, his little pink eyes gleamingmaliciously, and his long white hair floating in the breeze. As Ilooked, I felt Juanita fall heavily on my arm. She had fainted.