by Jack London
From the shore of the peninsula the discharges of four rifles announcedthat Brown and his men had worked through the jungle to the beach andwere taking a hand. The bullets ceased coming, and Grief and Mauririjoined in with their rifles. But they could do no damage, for the men ofthe _Rattler_ were firing from the shelter of the deck-houses, while thewind and tide carried the schooner farther in.
There was no sign of the _Valetta_, which had sunk in the deep water ofthe crater.
Two things Raoul Van Asveld did that showed his keenness and coolnessand that elicited Grief's admiration. Under the _Rattler's_ rifle fireRaoul compelled the fleeing Fuatino men to come in and surrender. And atthe same time, dispatching half his cutthroats in the _Rattler's_ boat,he threw them ashore and across the peninsula, preventing Brown fromgetting away to the main part of the island. And for the rest of themorning the intermittent shooting told to Grief how Brown was beingdriven in to the other side of the Big Rock. The situation wasunchanged, with the exception of the loss of the _Valetta_.
VI
The defects of the position on the Big Rock were vital. There wasneither food nor water. For several nights, accompanied by one of theRaiatea men, Mauriri swam to the head of the bay for supplies. Then camethe night when lights flared on the water and shots were fired. Afterthat the water-side of the Big Rock was invested as well.
"It's a funny situation," Brown remarked, who was getting all theadventure he had been led to believe resided in the South Seas. "We'vegot hold and can't let go, and Raoul has hold and can't let go. He can'tget away, and we're liable to starve to death holding him."
"If the rain came, the rock-basins would fill," said Mauriri. It wastheir first twenty-four hours without water. "Big Brother, to-night youand I will get water. It is the work of strong men."
That night, with cocoanut calabashes, each of quart capacity and tightlystoppered, he led Grief down to the water from the peninsula side of theBig Rock. They swam out not more than a hundred feet. Beyond, they couldhear the occasional click of an oar or the knock of a paddle againsta canoe, and sometimes they saw the flare of matches as the men in theguarding boats lighted cigarettes or pipes.
"Wait here," whispered Mauriri, "and hold the calabashes."
Turning over, he swam down. Grief, face downward, watched hisphosphorescent track glimmer, and dim, and vanish. A long minuteafterward Mauriri broke surface noiselessly at Grief's side.
"Here! Drink!"
The calabash was full, and Grief drank sweet fresh water which had comeup from the depths of the salt.
"It flows out from the land," said Mauriri.
"On the bottom?"
"No. The bottom is as far below as the mountains are above. Fifty feetdown it flows. Swim down until you feel its coolness."
Several times filling and emptying his lungs in diver fashion, Griefturned over and went down through the water. Salt it was to his lips,and warm to his flesh; but at last, deep down, it perceptibly chilledand tasted brackish. Then, suddenly, his body entered the cold,subterranean stream. He removed the small stopper from the calabash,and, as the sweet water gurgled into it, he saw the phosphorescentglimmer of a big fish, like a sea ghost, drift sluggishly by.
Thereafter, holding the growing weight of the calabashes, he remained onthe surface, while Mauriri took them down, one by one, and filled them.
"There are sharks," Grief said, as they swam back to shore.
"Pooh!" was the answer. "They are fish sharks. We of Fuatino arebrothers to the fish sharks."
"But the tiger sharks? I have seen them here."
"When they come, Big Brother, we will have no more water todrink--unless it rains."
VII
A week later Mauriri and a Raiatea man swam back with empty calabashes.The tiger sharks had arrived in the harbour. The next day they thirstedon the Big Rock.
"We must take our chance," said Grief. "Tonight I shall go after waterwith Mautau. Tomorrow night, Brother, you will go with Tehaa."
Three quarts only did Grief get, when the tiger sharks appeared anddrove them in. There were six of them on the Rock, and a pint a day, inthe sweltering heat of the mid-tropics, is not sufficient moisture for aman's body. The next night Mauriri and Tehaa returned with no water. Andthe day following Brown learned the full connotation of thirst, when thelips crack to bleeding, the mouth is coated with granular slime, and theswollen tongue finds the mouth too small for residence.
Grief swam out in the darkness with Mautau. Turn by turn, they went downthrough the salt, to the cool sweet stream, drinking their fill whilethe calabashes were filling. It was Mau-tau's turn to descend with thelast calabash, and Grief, peering down from the surface, saw the glimmerof sea-ghosts and all the phosphorescent display of the struggle. Heswam back alone, but without relinquishing the precious burden of fullcalabashes.
Of food they had little. Nothing grew on the Rock, and its sides,covered with shellfish at sea level where the surf thundered in, weretoo precipitous for access. Here and there, where crevices permitted, afew rank shellfish and sea urchins were gleaned. Sometimes frigate birdsand other sea birds were snared. Once, with a piece of frigate bird,they succeeded in hooking a shark. After that, with jealously guardedshark-meat for bait, they managed on occasion to catch more sharks.
But water remained their direst need. Mauriri prayed to the GoatGod for rain. Taute prayed to the Missionary God, and his two fellowislanders, backsliding, invoked the deities of their old heathen days.Grief grinned and considered. But Brown, wild-eyed, with protrudingblackened tongue, cursed. Especially he cursed the phonograph thatin the cool twilights ground out gospel hymns from the deck of the_Rattler_. One hymn in particular, "Beyond the Smiling and the Weeping,"drove him to madness. It seemed a favourite on board the schooner, forit was played most of all. Brown, hungry and thirsty, half out ofhis head from weakness and suffering, could lie among the rocks withequanimity and listen to the tinkling of ukuleles and guitars, andthe hulas and himines of the Huahine women. But when the voices of theTrinity Choir floated over the water he was beside himself. One eveningthe cracked tenor took up the song with the machine:
"Beyond the smiling and the weeping, I shall be soon. Beyond the waking and the sleeping, Beyond the sowing and the reaping, I shall be soon, I shall be soon."
Then it was that Brown rose up. Again and again, blindly, he emptied hisrifle at the schooner. Laughter floated up from the men and women, andfrom the peninsula came a splattering of return bullets; but the crackedtenor sang on, and Brown continued to fire, until the hymn was playedout.
It was that night that Grief and Mauriri came back with but one calabashof water. A patch of skin six inches long was missing from Grief'sshoulder in token of the scrape of the sandpaper hide of a shark whosedash he had eluded.
VIII
In the early morning of another day, before the sun-blaze had gained itsfull strength, came an offer of a parley from Raoul Van Asveld.
Brown brought the word in from the outpost among the rocks a hundredyards away. Grief was squatted over a small fire, broiling a strip ofshark-flesh. The last twenty-four hours had been lucky. Seaweed and seaurchins had been gathered. Tehaa had caught a shark, and Mauriri hadcaptured a fair-sized octopus at the base of the crevice where thedynamite was stored. Then, too, in the darkness they had made twosuccessful swims for water before the tiger sharks had nosed them out.
"Said he'd like to come in and talk with you," Brown said. "But I knowwhat the brute is after. Wants to see how near starved to death we are."
"Bring him in," Grief said.
"And then we will kill him," the Goat Man cried joyously.
Grief shook his head.
"But he is a killer of men, Big Brother, a beast and a devil," the GoatMan protested.
"He must not be killed, Brother. It is our way not to break our word."
"It is a foolish way."
"Still it is our way," Grief answered gravely, turning the strip ofshark-meat over on t
he coals and noting the hungry sniff and look ofTehaa. "Don't do that, Tehaa, when the Big Devil comes. Look as if youand hunger were strangers. Here, cook those sea urchins, you, and you,Big Brother, cook the squid. We will have the Big Devil to feast withus. Spare nothing. Cook all."
And, still broiling meat, Grief arose as Raoul Van Asveld, followed by alarge Irish terrier, strode into camp. Raoul did not make the mistake ofholding out his hand.
"Hello!" he said. "I've heard of you."
"I wish I'd never heard of you," Grief answered.
"Same here," was the response. "At first, before I knew who it was,I thought I had to deal with an ordinary trading captain. That's whyyou've got me bottled up."
"And I am ashamed to say that I underrated you," Grief smiled. "I tookyou for a thieving beachcomber, and not for a really intelligent pirateand murderer. Hence, the loss of my schooner. Honours are even, I fancy,on that score."
Raoul flushed angrily under his sunburn, but he contained himself. Hiseyes roved over the supply of food and the full water-calabashes, thoughhe concealed the incredulous surprise he felt. His was a tall, slender,well-knit figure, and Grief, studying him, estimated his characterfrom his face. The eyes were keen and strong, but a bit too closetogether--not pinched, however, but just a trifle near to balance thebroad forehead, the strong chin and jaw, and the cheekbones wide apart.Strength! His face was filled with it, and yet Grief sensed in it theintangible something the man lacked.
"We are both strong men," Raoul said, with a bow. "We might have beenfighting for empires a hundred years ago."
It was Grief's turn to bow.
"As it is, we are squalidly scrapping over the enforcement of thecolonial laws of those empires whose destinies we might possibly havedetermined a hundred years ago."
"It all comes to dust," Raoul remarked sen-tentiously, sitting down. "Goahead with your meal. Don't let me interrupt."
"Won't you join us?" was Grief's invitation.
The other looked at him with sharp steadiness, then accepted.
"I'm sticky with sweat," he said. "Can I wash?"
Grief nodded and ordered Mauriri to bring a calabash. Raoul looked intothe Goat Man's eyes, but saw nothing save languid uninterest as theprecious quart of water was wasted on the ground.
"The dog is thirsty," Raoul said.
Grief nodded, and another calabash was presented to the animal.
Again Raoul searched the eyes of the natives and learned nothing.
"Sorry we have no coffee," Grief apologized. "You'll have to drink plainwater. A calabash, Tehaa. Try some of this shark. There is squid tofollow, and sea urchins and a seaweed salad. I'm sorry we haven't anyfrigate bird. The boys were lazy yesterday, and did not try to catchany."
With an appetite that would not have stopped at wire nails dipped inlard, Grief ate perfunctorily, and tossed the scraps to the dog.
"I'm afraid I haven't got down to the primitive diet yet," he sighed,as he sat back. "The tinned goods on the _Rattler_, now I could make ahearty meal off of them, but this muck----" He took a half-pound stripof broiled shark and flung it to the dog. "I suppose I'll come to it ifyou don't surrender pretty soon."
Raoul laughed unpleasantly.
"I came to offer terms," he said pointedly.
Grief shook his head.
"There aren't any terms. I've got you where the hair is short, and I'mnot going to let go."
"You think you can hold me in this hole!" Raoul cried.
"You'll never leave it alive, except in double irons." Grief surveyedhis guest with an air of consideration. "I've handled your kind before.We've pretty well cleaned it out of the South Seas. But you are a--howshall I say?--a sort of an anachronism. You're a throwback, and we'vegot to get rid of you. Personally, I would advise you to go back to theschooner and blow your brains out. It is the only way to escape whatyou've got coming to you."
The parley, so far as Raoul was concerned, proved fruitless, and he wentback into his own lines convinced that the men on the Big Rock couldhold out for years, though he would have been swiftly unconvinced couldhe have observed Tehaa and the Raiateans, the moment his back wasturned and he was out of sight, crawling over the rocks and sucking andcrunching the scraps his dog had left uneaten.
IX
"We hunger now, Brother," Grief said, "but it is better than to hungerfor many days to come. The Big Devil, after feasting and drinking goodwater with us in plenty, will not stay long in Fuatino. Even to-morrowmay he try to leave. To-night you and I sleep over the top of the Rock,and Tehaa, who shoots well, will sleep with us if he can dare the Rock."
Tehaa, alone among the Raiateans, was cragsman enough to venture theperilous way, and dawn found him in a rock-barricaded nook, a hundredyards to the right of Grief and Mauriri.
The first warning was the firing of rifles from the peninsula, whereBrown and his two Raiateans signalled the retreat and followed thebesiegers through the jungle to the beach. From the eyrie on the faceof the rock Grief could see nothing for another hour, when the _Rattler_appeared, making for the passage. As before, the captive Fuatino mentowed in the whaleboat. Mauriri, under direction of Grief, called downinstructions to them as they passed slowly beneath. By Grief's sidelay several bundles of dynamite sticks, well-lashed together and withextremely short fuses.
The deck of the _Rattler_ was populous. For'ard, rifle in hand, amongthe Raiatean sailors, stood a desperado whom Mauriri announced wasRaoul's brother. Aft, by the helmsman, stood another. Attached to him,tied waist to waist, with slack, was Mataara, the old Queen. On theother side of the helmsman, his arm in a sling, was Captain Glass.Amidships, as before, was Raoul, and with him, lashed waist to waist,was Naumoo.
"Good morning, Mister David Grief," Raoul called up.
"And yet I warned you that only in double irons would you leave theisland," Grief murmured down with a sad inflection.
"You can't kill all your people I have on board," was the answer.
The schooner, moving slowly, jerk by jerk, as the men pulled in thewhaleboat, was almost directly beneath. The rowers, without ceasing,slacked on their oars, and were immediately threatened with the rifle ofthe man who stood for'ard.
"Throw, Big Brother!" Naumoo called up in the Fuatino tongue. "I amfilled with sorrow and am willed to die. His knife is ready with whichto cut the rope, but I shall hold him tight. Be not afraid, Big Brother.Throw, and throw straight, and good-bye."
Grief hesitated, then lowered the fire-stick which he had been blowingbright.
"Throw!" the Goat Man urged.
Still Grief hesitated.
"If they get to sea, Big Brother, Naumoo dies just the same. And thereare all the others. What is her life against the many?"
"If you drop any dynamite, or fire a single shot, we'll kill all onboard," Raoul cried up to them. "I've got you, David Grief. You can'tkill these people, and I can. Shut up, you!"
This last was addressed to Naumoo, who was calling up in her nativetongue and whom Raoul seized by the neck with one hand to choketo silence. In turn, she locked both arms about him and looked upbeseechingly to Grief.
"Throw it, Mr. Grief, and be damned to them," Captain Glass rumbledin his deep voice. "They're bloody murderers, and the cabin's full ofthem."
The desperado who was fastened to the old Queen swung half about tomenace Captain Glass with his rifle, when Tehaa, from his positionfarther along the Rock, pulled trigger on him. The rifle dropped fromthe man's hand, and on his face was an expression of intense surprise ashis legs crumpled under him and he sank down on deck, dragging the Queenwith him.
"Port! Hard a port!" Grief cried.
Captain Glass and the Kanaka whirled the wheel over, and the bow of the_Rattler_ headed in for the Rock. Amidships Raoul still struggled withNaumoo. His brother ran from for'ard to his aid, being missed by thefusillade of quick shots from Tehaa and the Goat Man. As Raoul's brotherplaced the muzzle of his rifle to Naumoo's side Grief touched thefire-stick to the match-head in the split end of the fuse. E
ven as withboth hands he tossed the big bundle of dynamite, the rifle went off,and Naumoo's fall to the deck was simultaneous with the fall of thedynamite. This time the fuse was short enough. The explosion occurredat the instant the deck was reached, and that portion of the _Rattler_,along with Raoul, his brother, and Naumoo, forever disappeared.
The schooner's side was shattered, and she began immediately to settle.For'ard, every Raiatean sailor dived overboard. Captain Glass met thefirst man springing up the com-panionway from the cabin, with a kickfull in the face, but was overborne and trampled on by the rush.Following the desperadoes came the Huahine women, and as they wentoverboard, the _Rattler_ sank on an even keel close to the base of theRock. Her cross-trees still stuck out when she reached bottom.
Looking down, Grief could see all that occurred beneath the surface. Hesaw Mataara, a fathom deep, unfasten herself from the dead pirate andswim upward. As her head emerged she saw Captain Glass, who could notswim, sinking several yards away. The Queen, old woman that she was,but an islander, turned over, swam down to him, and held him up as shestruck out for the unsubmerged cross-trees.
