The White Witch of the South Seas gs-11

by Dennis Wheatley

  Obviously shaken by the picture Gregory had drawn of Lacost, Hamie cleared his throat, spat and said, `O.K., baas. Anyways, I know yer on the level. I'll get ashore somehow an' give you the tip off.'

  Back at the Royal bure, Gregory found James and Olinda drinking rum on the rocks. James had just finished showing her over her future home and, delighted with it, she was enthusing over its suitability to such a climate and its beautiful vistas. Gregory told them about his arrangement with Hamie Baker, then asked if Commandant Elboeuf had yet put in an appearance.

  `He sent to say that he would come here after dinner,' James replied, then added with a laugh, `I don't doubt the old boy picked his time so that he could get a good swig at my old brandy.'

  As the dinner hour was approaching, Gregory knocked back the drink James had poured for him and went across to the twin bedded bure that had been assigned to him and Manon. She was seated at the dressing table, putting the last touches to her hair, and, as he kissed her on the nape of the neck, he was struck by the warm domesticity of the scene. To go to bed with a woman was one thing, to live with her quite another, and, although the room was not her own, her possessions scattered about it gave it a delightful intimate atmosphere.

  When he had shaved in the bathroom that had been built on to the bure they rejoined the others and afterwards sat down to dinner. As the Resident was expected, they did not linger over the meal, but moved to the other end of the long room for their coffee and liqueurs.

  They had hardly settled themselves there when Elboeuf was announced. Limping forward with his stick, he gallantly kissed the hands of the ladies, condoled with Olinda on her husband's death, then accepted a large ration of old brandy.

  Contrary to South Seas custom, James got down to business right away, and asked him what steps he had taken to prevent the Colons from attempting to salvage the treasure in the wreck.

  Raising his grey eyebrows, the old man replied, `None, my dear Ratu, and I have had no reason to suppose that any such steps should be taken. Monsieur Lacost arrived here on Friday last, and that evening he paid a courtesy call upon me. He told me of Senhor Maui de Carvalho's most regrettable demise, that Madame here now held the licence to salvage from the wreck that she would be arriving in Revika shortly and had asked him, in the meantime, to go ahead with the work on her behalf. When he and the de Carvalho’s were in Revika some weeks ago, de Carvalho showed me the licence he had secured in Noumea and told me that he had entered into a partnership with Lacost. So I naturally accepted Lacost's account of matters, and have not attempted to interfere with his operations.'

  `Then, Commandant, I must acquaint you with the true situation,' said James. 'There was no legal partnership entered into between de Carvalho and Lacost. The Senhora intends to make the licence over to me. Lacost is a crook and his salvaging operations are illegal. They must be stopped at once.'

  `Dear me! Dear me!' Elboeuf exclaimed with a sudden show of agitation. `While I am happy for you, Ratu, that you should have met with such good fortune, the situation now created may result in much unpleasantness. First thing tomorrow morning I will send Sergeant Marceau off with a couple of his gendarmes to the Pigalle to tell Lacost that he must desist from further salvaging and hand over any valuables that he may have already recovered. But what if he refuses?'

  `He will,' Gregory put in. `I am sure of that. So you will have to back up your order by a show of force.'

  The elderly Frenchman sighed. `I fear you are right, Monsieur. It seems that a situation has now arisen similar to one we envisaged some time ago. You will remember, Ratu, that I called upon you to enquire if I might count on your bodyguard to support my few gendarmes in the event of an illegal attempt being made to salvage any treasure in the Maria Amalia.'

  `I do,' James smiled. `And I don't mind admitting now that I was secretly amused, because your request implied my using force against mys'e1f. I have always maintained that this treasure is mine by right of inheritance, and I was quite prepared to defy your government on those grounds. But now, thanks to the Senhora, my position is fully legalised and I will give you all the support of which I am capable to prevent Lacost robbing me of my property.'

  Elboeuf nodded. `Then, Ratu, my duty and your interests are now one. But I understand that the Colons are armed, and I am most averse to provoking a conflict. So I think it best first to send off Sergeant Marceau, as I suggested, and only concert stronger measures should they refuse to obey the order he will convey to them.'

  That having been settled, the old Resident began to talk of other matters, and would have stayed there until midnight, happily imbibing brandy, had not James, soon after ten o'clock, said that he must escort Olinda back to her yacht.

  When they had gone, Manon did her best to persuade Gregory to come to bed; but, as he was anxious to talk to James about the morrow, he resisted her blandishments. In vain she pointed out that James might take hours in saying good night to Olinda on the yacht, but Gregory insisted that, however late James got back, he must see him again before morning; so, after a last drink, she went off in a huff to their bure.

  Having settled down with a book, in anticipation of a lengthy vigil, Gregory was agreeably surprised when James returned after an absence of only three quarters of an hour. Throwing the book aside, Gregory said:

  `About tomorrow. Lacost will tell Sergeant Marceau to take a running jump at himself and we've no time to lose; so we've got to be prepared for the next act. D'you think old Elboeuf will agree to order his gendarmes to arrest Lacost and Co.?'

  James nodded, `I think he will, provided they have the backing of my body guard.'

  `Yes. But how much confidence have you in your chaps? Do you really think they will go in and fight? That is what has been worrying me.'

  `It would have worried me, too, had the question arisen this time last week,' James replied with a smile. `But not now. This afternoon I sent word to my Council of Elders that I intend to do a fire walk. When they have seen me do that, my people will follow me anywhere. It was so that I could be up early in the morning, to supervise the making of the pit, that I denied myself the pleasure of a prolonged good night to Olinda, and left her as soon as I had seen her aboard the yacht.'

  `Well done,' Gregory smiled back. `I'm proud of you, James. We'll get the better of that gang of thugs yet.'

  `Thank you. It is going to be a close call, though, because I'll have to spend twenty four hours preparing myself to go down into the pit, and I can't start my vigil until I've seen the pit made. While the work is being carried out tomorrow morning, I intend to write two letters: one giving authority over my people to Aleamotu'a while I am out of action, and the other nominating you as my representative with the Resident. So that, if Lacost refuses to comply with the old boy's orders, as it's pretty certain that he will, you can exert pressure on Elboeuf to call on the authorities in Noumea to send him support.'

  Gregory agreed these to be sound measures, and it warmed his heart to find again how, now that the young Ratu was back in his own island, he readily took decisions and assumed the leadership.

  When they had wished each other an affectionate good night Gregory went to his bure, to find Manon sitting up in bed waiting for him, in anticipation of a night of connubial bliss. But in that she was to be disappointed. Firmly, Gregory told her that the next day might prove an unusually hectic one, so he meant to get all the sleep he could; but, kissing her fondly, he consoled her by saying that he had good hopes that the future held for them many happy nights together.

  In the morning they walked down the lovely, flower filled slope of garden to the Meeting House. Outside it, James was directing the preparations for his fire walk. One gang of natives had already nearly completed the digging of a deep pit some twenty feet in diameter; another, under Aleamotu'a, was bringing up from the beach a number of carefully selected large, smooth stones, and a third had been sent to collect the best type of logs for heating them.

  James gave Gregory the letter for El
boeuf, and said he had given Aleamotu'a orders that the fire should be lit at seven o'clock the next morning. He added that he had told Olinda of his intentions before leaving her the previous night. Naturally, she was greatly concerned for him and had said she would prefer to spend the day on the yacht. He meant to ask Manon to go off and keep her company, to which he felt sure `Mrs. Sallust' would readily agree.

  As the news of the Ratu's intention had soon spread, it had created great excitement among his people. Most of the Elders and a considerable crowd had collected to watch the preparations in awed silence. The usual Ceremony of Welcome on his return to the island should have been held that day, but the Elders had accepted the reason for its postponement and were planning a great meke for the following night.

  By eleven o'clock, the work on the pit was completed and, escorted by a large, silent crowd, James returned up the hill to start his twenty four hour vigil. Gregory then took Manon off to the yacht, where they found that Olinda had passed a sleepless night and was making herself ill with worry that, although James had done the fire walk successfully on Beqa, here he might fail and become, instead of a paladin, the laughing stock of his people.

  Gregory, too, was secretly harassed by that fear; but he strove to reassure her and could honestly report that James showed no trace of fear himself. On the contrary, he appeared perfectly calm and confident. Olinda being in such poor shape, Gregory would have liked to remain with her throughout the day, but it was essential that he should learn the result of the warning that had been given to Lacost; so, at midday, he went ashore again, leaving Manon to do her best to distract Olinda 's mind from James' coming ordeal.

  From the harbour, Gregory drove out in James' jeep to the Residence, a large French style Colonial villa built back in the nineties, and lying some way outside the town. On the broad veranda he found Elboeuf enjoying his morning Amoer Picon, and presented James' letter to him. The old Resident welcomed him courteously,, sent a boy to make a Planter's Punch which, when offered a drink, Gregory said he would prefer, then said:

  `It take it you have already heard from Sergeant Marceau that his mission proved unsuccessful?'

  `No,' Gregory replied. `If you sent him up to the bure, I missed him, as I left it over two hours ago. But I'm not surprised. What happened?'

  `He went out to the Pigalle with two of his men about nine o'clock. Lacost would not even let them go aboard and flatly refused to abandon his operations.!

  'Then we shall have to resort to force. As the law is on our side, I assume that, backed by the Ratu's body guard, you are willing to order your gendarmes to board the Pigalle?'

  The old man hesitated for a moment, then he said, `I suppose we now have no alternative, but I am far from happy at having to give such an order. After all, the Colons have weapons and they are desperate men. There are six of them with, in addition, a native crew; and they will have the advantage of being able to fire on my people from the cover provided by their yacht; whereas Marceau has only six men, and they would have to attack in open boats.'

  Gregory nodded. `I appreciate the danger they will run, but they will 'have the support of about fifty warriors, so the Colons are bound to realise that they will be overcome by weight of numbers. The odds are that after a few shots have been exchanged they will surrender.'

  `Theoretically,. Monsieur, your argument is sound. But I have little faith in the courage of the Ratu's men. They are not warriors in the true sense. Unlike their forbears they have never taken part in tribal wars, and are untrained. Even a few shots might scare them into turning tail and abandoning my men:

  That might well have been the case yesterday,' Gregory replied, `but I have good reason to believe that tomorrow they will show a different mettle.' He then told the Commandant about the fire walk that James intended to undertake, and of his conviction that it would bring out in his men the fanatical devotion and courage that they had inherited from their ancestors.

  After expressing astonishment at the Ratu's daring, Elboeuf said, `Personally, I am an agnostic, so have no belief in occult powers. It is, of course, true that Draunikau is still widely practised in the islands and that if a native believes that the curse of death has been put upon him he will pine away and die. I have known many such cases; but that is attributable to self hypnosis. The tales one hears of dead men being raised from their graves and imbued with new life as zombies, of fakirs lying on beds of nails without becoming scarred, walking through fire, yet remaining unburned, and so on, fall into a very different category. All of them are based on clever trickery, and I have no doubt that the islanders of Beqa long ago devised some means of deceiving onlookers. If they passed their secret on to the Ratu he may succeed in fooling his people. Otherwise, I fear he will be bitterly disillusioned and suffer a grave humiliation.'

  Gregory, too, on considering the matter again that morning, had been subject to serious misgivings. He did not, for one moment, doubt that James had performed the fire walk on Beqa, but he could not help wondering if he had been able to accomplish it only because the Chief had either hypnotised him into a deep trance in which he would not be conscious of pain or, unknown to him put some powerful drug into the last meal he had had before beginning his fast. Were that so, without such aid he must fail, which would have a most disastrous effect both on his own mentality and his prestige with his people. But to have raised such questions with James could only have undermined his confidence in himself so, the die having been cast, Gregory had decided that he must now let matters take their course, and he countered Elboeuf scepticism by asserting that `faith could move mountains'.

  When he had finished his drink the Commandant pressed him to stay on to lunch. As he now had twenty four hours to fill, he gladly accepted:’ Having spent most of his life in the South Seas, the old man was a mine of information about the natives and their customs, and his cook produced a Lobster Americaine, followed by a rum omelette that could not have been bettered outside France; so for a very pleasant couple of hours Gregory was able from time to time to put out of his mind his anxiety about James.

  On returning to the Royal bure, he found that Aleamotu'a had mustered the body guard and was endeavouring to instil a war like spirit into it. They were a fine looking collection of men, with muscular bodies, holding themselves very upright and, including their great puffs of crinkly, black hair, averaging not less than six foot three in height; but their weapons left much to be desired. Only eight of them were armed with comparatively modern repeating rifles; the rest had shotguns, and a few only ancient muzzle loading muskets. Nevertheless, laughing and chattering, they were entering into the spirit of the game like happy children.

  After two hours napping on his bed in the bure still faintly redolent of Manon's seductive scent, Gregory went down to the harbour; for it had occurred to him that, with James in seclusion, it was very probable that no arrangements had yet been made for the body guard to carry out a sea borne attack on the Pigalle.

  At the small police station he introduced himself to Sergeant Marceau, whom he found to be a paunchy little man with a ruddy face, close cropped hair and an indolent manner the last, no doubt, having been acquired during years spent in a tropical backwater where there was little serious crime to occupy him.

  Having given Gregory a personal account of his abortive mission that morning, the Sergeant went on to say that he hoped his master, the Resident, would not order an attack on the Pigalle, as he had only six men and no faith at all in the native auxiliaries who were to support them. However, it transpired that his small arsenal was considerably larger than Gregory had expected. It contained one heavy machine gun, four Sten guns, a rifle and pistol for each man, and several dozen hand grenades and tear gas bombs.

  Much comforted by this, Gregory suggested that the gendarmes should go armed with the machine weapons,, and grenades, and loan the surplus rifles to members of the Ratu's body guard. Marceau proved most reluctant to hand over any of his weapons to the natives, but finally agreed t
hat to get the best value out of them it would be wise to do so.

  For transport he could provide only one motor launch which was used for occasional anti smuggling patrols. He added that the Ratu owned several large war canoes, but they were chucked up in boathouses and it was so long since they had been used that it was certain they would prove unseaworthy. Brushing aside the idea of canoes, Gregory declared that they must commandeer other motor craft, of which there were several in the harbour. To that Marceau agreed and they left the office together, the Sergeant to make the necessary arrangements and Gregory, feeling that there was no more he could do, to go off in James' speed boat to the Boa Viagem.

  Down in the saloon, he found that Manon had inveigled Olinda into playing a game of six pack bezique, but on Gregory's appearance she impatiently pushed the cards aside and enquired anxiously for news. He could tell her only that Lacost had defied the police and that, since a little before midday, James had gone into seclusion.

  By then it was time for a drink, and Gregory decided that the kindest thing he could do for Olinda would be to get her good and high, so that she would, at all events, sleep a good part of the night.

  Going to the bar, he compounded a killer cocktail, putting into each of three large goblets good measures of cordial Medac, green Chartreuse and brandy, then filling them up with champagne. As the wine disguised the strength of the spirits with which it had been loaded, both the girls enjoyed the drink without suspecting its potency, and happily accepted a second ration. To Olinda he gave the mixture as before, but did no more than flavour the champagne for Manon and himself. Manon, meanwhile, had switched on the record player and Olinda had become perceptibly more cheerful. Shortly before dinner was due, Captain Amedo came in to enquire if there was anything he could do for her and she invited him to make a fourth.