In the words there was foreboding that riveted every eye on the tanned face.
“It was one time, some years back, when we’d just made Aden from Calicut,” he abruptly began, “that we got wind of some gossip that had come up the African coast, about a Franj ship-their word for European-that had been seen away to the south.”
There was a stir around the table. Everyone’s eyes sought Diaz, and those near him saw his hands clench. But Scander, intent on his story, went on:
“It didn’t sound sensible to me, but when we started outh to Melmde, for ivory, up popped the story again; kept on popping, too. Seemed as if every place we went, we heard about this Franj ship.”
“Didn’t they know you were a European?” Gama asked.
“Funny part of that was that I’d been there so long and got into their ways so, that I didn’t think of it myself – at least, not at first.”
“Where did you say that place Melinde was?” Abel interrupted, and jotted hasty notes as the sailor directed.
“The next time we were at Aden,” Scander pursued, “talk about the Franj was running high, and in particular about – about –” he nervously wet his lips –” a Franj spice dealer there.”
For a moment he seemed to have forgotten his audience, and his eyes, staring over their heads, had a curious, dazed expression. Someone moved uneasily, and at once he recovered himself.
“Odd, how talking about it brings it all back,” he said, apologetically. “They were telling it around that this Franj had the finest spice concern on the coast, and the story went that he’d married an Arab girl to keep in with the native merchants – who are all Arabs, you understand. I’d seen the place, sorting sheds and warehouse, and his own house, too, a big palace of a place. Well, instead of putting to sea, the way we usually did, we hung around. I noticed several merchants come on board, and they appeared to be having some sort of conference with Captain. He had something on his mind, too. The way I noticed it first, he was so in earnest over his prayers; seemed almost like he was having a real talk with Allah!”
“How would you have happened to hear him at his prayers?” Abel inquired.
“That’s so!” Scander exclaimed. “I’ve been among the Arabs so long, I forget you don’t know their customs. You see, sir, every good Mohammedan prays three times a day: drops on his knees wherever he is, faces toward Mecca, and starts right in, loud and free. No whispering in dark corners or behind curtains the way you do here-nothing like that.
“Well, I began to suspect something was afoot, and sure enough, one morning, Captain told me that all up and down the African Coast and the Red Sea, across to Malabar and Cochin and Calicut, word had been passed to stand together against the Franj, to do no business with them, and to make way with them when it came handy.”
“I’d like to take my chances with a good stout caravel and a Portuguese crew!” Gama quietly commented.
“All the time he was talking,” the sailor went on, “I could feel something coming. Finally, he said Aden was going to start in by cleaning out the Franj merchant, and – ’Will you help?’ says he, looking me in the eye. It went through my head like lightning that he was trying me, which side was I on, for I knew he’d not forgotten I was a Franj. ‘What you going to do, Captain?’ said I, playing for time. He didn’t mince words: ‘Burn,’ said he, ‘burn and-kill. Are you with us?’”
“‘When?’ said I, still playing for time, and thinking that, if I couldn’t warn this Franji, I’d at least find a way to get out rather than take up against one of my own kind, as you might say. But he was too sharp for me. ‘At once, when evening calls the Faithful to prayer. Are you with us? ‘he asks again. But not a word did he say of my Franj blood! ‘Certain, Captain,’ I said, I’ll go with you.’ I reckoned that was the only way to save my skin. Later, I figured, I’d find some way to get back to the Mediterranean.”
“Why folks want to kill each other,” Ruth exploded from the doorway, “for stuff that makes your tongue smart and your eyes water, is more than I can see!”
“Maybe you could, ma’am,” grinned Scander, “if you could sell it for half its weight in gold, as the Arab traders do!”
“But the call to prayer?” Nicolo reminded him.
“Yes . . . yes.” Again there was that nervous wetting of the lips. “Well, just as soon as we heard it, Captain gave the word, and we all started for the Franj outfit. Some carried long, two-handed native swords, and some had knives. The warehouse was right on the water front, and I figured that as soon as we got there I’d make a break for the house and warn the Franj merchant.
“But no sooner had we reached the place, than Captain herded us around to the big sorting shed. Through the cracks we could see the pepper and cloves and cinnamon piled up, and the sweaty, half-naked natives with their brown arms and hands gliding in and out as they sorted. It was half-dark in there and hot-hot as hell’s cockpit. And all the time we could see those shiny, brown bodies and their black eyes that sort of slipped around in their heads – instead of their heads turning, as yours and mine would, you understand!”
Scander paused, then, visibly bracing himself, he plunged on. “Next thing I knew, Captain flung open the door. ‘At them! ‘he yelled. ‘Every one of them-in the name of Allah!‘
“Ruth cried out in the horrified stillness, and “You mean-in cold blood?” stammered Ferdinand.
“Did you . . . too?” someone gasped.
“How’d you suppose I know what I did in that hell’s shambles?” he burst out. “Only thing I can remember is watching swords and knives, all red and dripping to their hilts, slipping in and out among those shiny, brown bodies just as their hands had been slipping in and out of the spices!”
A shudder ran through his listeners, but, apparently unmoved, Scander went on as if he were reciting by rote. “They killed, and they killed, and they killed,” he deliberately pronounced. “Then I felt my head swim. I tried to get to the door-slipped-went down-” His voice broke, and he put his hand hastily over his mouth. “It was all warm and slimy down there-blood and spice mixed up together-”
“Go on,” Abel hastily interposed. “Get to the rest of it.”
“I promised myself,” the sailor said slowly, “I’d never go over this, but seeing you all so keen on this spice business-these young chaps in particular-I thought you ought to hear the other side.” He clutched his throat and swallowed hard. “That smell of warm blood and spice makes my stomach heave yet!”
“How about the spice merchant? Ever see him?” Nicolo inquired.
Scander ran his tongue around his lips before he answered. “T’ll cnmp to him in a minute. TCv the time we’d got through witn me sorting snea, we coma near a terrmie commotion all over the place and we could see the warehouse afire. ‘Here’s my chance to warn the Franji’ thinks I, and I made a rush for the house, when-down jumps Captain from a wall behind me! ‘Come on/says he, ‘you’re the man I want/and he drove me in front of him with that red, dripping blade of his at my back. I knew, then, he suspected what I had in mind.
“The moment we reached the house, we saw that others had been there before us. The place looked like the tail end of a typhoon; everything upside down, cupboards open, clothes scattered around. ‘Where is he?’ Captain kept asking. ‘Where’s the Franji?’ We looked around for a while, and then, as we went into the court, we saw something on the stairs that led to the roof – something all huddled together. ‘Go on up,’ Captain orders me, ‘till we make sure,’ and he made me stand by whilst he jabbed at it with his foot-curse him. ‘Twas a man with his arms around a woman, and a sword right through the two of them-the spice merchant and his wife. You could tell from his features that he was a Franji. She was an Arab; a real queen, poor creature, with long, black braids and big, dark eyes and slender hands.
“Well – that’s about all,” he ended, sombrely. “I stayed right by Captain, took his orders, and went back to the ship with him, quiet as a lamb. But I’d had enough. A night or tw
o after, when we were to leave Aden first thing in the morning, I slipped over the side, got ashore, and shipped with a big slave vessel bound for Egypt.”
There was a brevity in this winding up of the story that struck everyone with a feeling of something omitted.
Diaz drew a long breath. “You never heard any more of the Franj ship, I suppose?”
“Never a word, sir.”
“Did your captain try to follow you?” asked Nicolo.
“If he did, I never got wind of it. From the minute I quit him I was right on my way, and I never stopped till I saw Alexandria and knew I was in western waters. I wanted to get as far as I could from spice! And here I’ve stuck my nose right into the cursed stuff again. I hate the sight and the smell of it,” Scander spat out. “Smells like blood to me!”
“Why, man,” said Abel, “there’s always been quarrels and bloodshed over trade. What you saw the Arabs do to that European merchant is no more than the Europeans will do to each other in trade rivalry.”
“Of course,” Diaz agreed. “If anyone has doubts about what Spain, or England, or the Dutch would do to us, suppose we found the Way of the Spices first, I haven’t!”
“How about what we’d do, if they happened to be first?” Ferdinand slyly retorted.
In the laughter that followed this sally, Diaz reached out and tweaked the boy’s ear. “You young jackanapes!” he said, with a gruffness that deceived no one.
“Well, gentlemen “– the sailor shrugged –” war’s what you’ll get, any of you who’re going in for spice, and don’t make any mistake about that. And for every hatchful, take my word, you’ll pay in blood. Way of the Spices! Way of Blood is more like it!”
“But look here,” Gama insisted, “what if we beat the Arabs at their own game?”
“How are you going to, with them running the whole trade, and the carrying, too?”
“Well,” Gama coolly maintained,” these Arab pirates aren’t invincible!”
“‘Pirates!‘” Scander shot back. “They’re no pirates, and don’t you forget that for a minute. In their own eyes they’re defenders of their faith, and it’s the Franj that are infidels and thieves sneaking in where they don’t belong and Ve no right to go!”
“I suppose it was religion made them kill that Frank-ish merchant!” Nicolo said, sarcastically.
“Well, yes”– Scander laughed a little –“religion and business, together. It’s religion with them to keep foreigners out, no matter how they do it. You have to live with them to see how ’tis,” he continued. “Now, you’ll go to your churches and mumble before images or whisper your sins to a priest, and then you’ll come out into the streets and do business, and forget all about prayers and the saints till the next time. Not but what that’s all right,” he hastily interposed. “I make out to say an Ave once ‘n a while, myself. But with the Arabs, religion’s the whole thing all the time. Take that captain of mine now; he said his prayers three times a day, and so did his crews.”
“What did you do-turn Mohammedan?” someone inquired.
“For the time being, yes.”
“Show us how they say their prayers!” Ferdinand proposed.
The sailor gave him a glum look. “I’m not so particular about reminding myself of all that, but if ‘twould amuse you –”
He dropped on his knees, arms crossed on his breast. Even Ruth left her seat, and eagerly peered over Abel’s shoulder.
“They begin by calling out, twice, God is great – this way.” His upturned face seemed to search an imaginary sky, and, with a savage fervor, “Allahu Akbar!” he cried, delivering each syllable with a sonorous precision. He bowed profoundly, forehead to ground, and as he swayed back, “Allahu Akbar!” he called again. “Allahu-”
A shriek from some distant part of the house froze the unfinished words on his lips. Everyone started up. Ferdinand jumped to his feet. Abel and Ruth exchanged frightened glances. They heard a door flung open … a rush of soft footsteps through the next room. Then-into the workshop burst the Girl-the Girl, as she had leaped from bed, black hair streaming loose, slender body rigid, eyes, as on that first night, oblivious of all but a madness of fear.
CHAPTER 9
Sugar
IN a flash Scander was forgotten. With one impulse Abel and Ruth sprang to the Girl. Ferdinand still stood, transfixed. The others looked at each other in blank bewilderment. No one saw Nicolo start up, and then immediately sit down; yet anyone who had watched him closely would have seen that his face was working with strong emotion.
But no one was heeding Nicolo. No one had eyes for anything save the astounding scene before them, more astounding than even the Girl’s appearance.
Motionless, rigid, she was staring at Scander. He, still on his knees, hands grotesquely arrested in the gesture of prayer, eyes dilated past expression, was staring back. But in their faces was recognition, terrified, yet unmistakable, recognition.
For moments that deathlike silence lasted. Then, gradually, as if moved by common impulse, those two speechless figures drew near each other. Still kneeling, the sailor crept, inch by inch, toward the Girl, as, imperceptibly, she moved toward him. In horrified fascination the others watched that slow, ghastly approach, as if spectres, meeting in some dim unknown, should so peer into each other’s faces.
The man’s lips were moving, but no words came. They saw his throat twitch, heard him make what to them were unintelligible sounds. Then, slowly, with eyes locked on the Girl, he drew himself up by inches. And now, staring into his face, the Girl answered in those same strange sounds.
Slowly he looked around. “I – I – didn’t tell all – all of the – Aden story. She –” he jerked his head toward the Girl –“she was on the steps, too – huddled up alongside of those –”
Ruth was first to understand. “Child! Child! Were they your father and mother?”
The Girl shuddered as if something had struck her. Ahel snatched up the cloak hanging on his chair and threw it around her. The gesture seemed to make her suddenly aware of the presence of others besides Scander. They saw her eyes drop and the colour rush to her neck and face. Gently Abel pressed her into a seat, and then he turned and looked deliberately around the table.
“Bartholomew – all of you – for this child’s sake we – Ruth, Ferdinand, myself – have kept her a secret. Where she came from, who she is, her name, her language, no one of us has known.”
“She came one night, months ago, after you’d all gone,” Ruth breathlessly added. “She just stepped in here out of the dark. That’s all we know-and that now she’s ours.” She moved nearer the Girl, with a protecting little caress.
“What?” cried Scander. “Stepped in here, did you say, ma’am?” He turned to the Girl and began to speak rapidly in the language of their first meeting, when Abel gently stopped him.
“She understands Portuguese, now, you know-and we all want to hear your story!”
“Well, then,” Scander took him up, “how in heaven’s name, did she get here, when I’ve been thinking she was dead-or worse?”
From where she sat between Abel and Ruth, the Girl looked amazedly up at him, and above the folds of the dark cloak her face was like shadowed ivory.
“That’s what I thought about you,” she whispered, “that when you rolled into the sea –”
“Just a minute, mates!” Scander wheeled around. “You’ve heard two ends of a story with the middle chopped out. You see, there was a big night’s work between where I left off – with the spice merchant and his wife dead on the stairs – and took up again with me on my way to Egypt. As I was telling you, this child was lying alongside of them, and we thought she was dead, too, till we turned her over. I never could figure how she escaped alive. What did save you?” he asked the Girl.
In a voice that was barely audible, she said, “We had started up the stairs to the roof when – when – men rushed into the court. For a minute they didn’t see us, and my father pushed me into a closet under the stairs
. Then there were shouts and running. I heard my mother scream out to my father that she wouldn’t leave him. And then – then –” she paused, struggling with herself –“there was no more noise. It was – all – quiet. I crept out – and I found –” Her face dropped to her knees. “I didn’t want to hide any more,” she sobbed out. “I wanted to be seen! I lay down beside them – to wait –”
Abel threw back his head, as if in need of air. Nicolo’s hands, clenched on the table, were white at the knuckles. Ferdinand kept his eyes on the ground. Diaz pulled at his beard, and Abraham and Gama turned away. Over the Girl’s bowed shoulders Ruth openly wept.
“I’ll never forget,” Scander solemnly declared, “how she looked when we found her. Just like what she said – waiting’! I thought of course Captain would make an end of her, and, quick as a flash, I whipped out my knife to get him first. You could have knocked me over when he said, quiet-like, ‘She’ll bring a good price.’ And to make a long story short, we took her down to the slave market.”
“You mean” Nicolo fiercely demanded, “that you stood by, and saw her – sold?”
At his voice the Girl raised her eyes, and looked directly at him. Instantly she dropped them, but Nicolo had caught the signal: yesterday’s meeting was to be still a secret!
“Yes,” the sailor admitted, “in a way I did. My eyes saw her sold, but inside of me I knew, while they were haggling over her price and counting coin, that – that, somehow, I was going to do something about it. All the time Captain and I were going back to the ship I couldn’t see anything but her: the only white thing among those naked, black cattle with their big, white teeth and lips”– he held thumb and finger apart –“that thick! … I couldn’t get her out of mind! ‘What’ll come of saving her, suppose I could?’ says I to myself. ‘Nothing,’ says myself back, ‘but a sword up to the hilt somewhere in me. Go on, and forget her.’ What’d I do with her, suppose I could buy her? thinks I. Anyway, I didn’t have the price – and I walked on with Captain. All the while something inside me was snickering: ‘Haven’t the price? ‘I could hear it jeer. ‘What’s the matter with the price your captain just took for her?’”
Spice and the Devil's Cave Page 7
