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The Exiles of Faloo

by Barry Pain · English · Gutenberg #44718 · 360,845 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Exiles of Faloo

Author: Barry Pain


        
Release date: January 20, 2014 [eBook #44718]
                Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXILES OF FALOO ***

  THE
  EXILES OF FALOO

  BY
  BARRY PAIN
  AUTHOR OF “THE GIFTED FAMILY”

  SECOND EDITION

  METHUEN & CO.
  36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
  LONDON




  _First Published ... March 10th 1910
  Second Edition ... March 1910_




THE EXILES OF FALOO

CHAPTER I


Overhead a blue sky without a cloud; in the distance the sound of
the surf--a muffled bass which broke on the tink of the bell at the
French Mission or the scream of the parrot on the broad verandah of the
Exiles’ Club.

On the lawn in front of the verandah two natives had just finished
their reluctant work with the mower. They wore loin-cloths of tappa and
nothing else. The head-gardener wore a loin-cloth of tappa and a white
evening-dress waistcoat, the latter being the gift of Dr Soames Pryce.
The waistcoat was splendid but unclean. The head-gardener had been
inspecting the work of the others from a recumbent position. All three
passed away now along the grass path under the laden orange trees. Two
gorgeous butterflies chased one another over the lawn in the sunshine.

The plaited blind in front of the French windows was pushed back
and Sir John Sweetling appeared on the verandah. He was a man of
fifty-five, six feet in height and inclined to corpulence. On the whole
a handsome man, with a short white beard and moustache neatly trimmed,
and fearless blue eyes under shaggy white brows. The nose was perhaps a
trifle nosey. He wore a white silk shirt, white ducks, a brown holland
jacket and a panama of the finest texture.

Sir John lingered for a moment beside the parrot’s perch. He scratched
the bird’s neck, and said in an affectionate voice, “Poor old Polly.”

The parrot bent down and got to work with its beak on the perch, much
as if the perch had been a steel and the beak a carving-knife which it
was trying to sharpen. Then it sat up, drew its indecent lids over its
solemn eyes once or twice, and spoke distinctly.

“You damned thief,” said the parrot.

It was an observation which had been addressed to Sir John before, and
not only by parrots.

Sir John shook his head. “Naughty bird,” he said, “naughty bird!” Then
he came down the steps of the verandah on to the lawn. Three lounge
chairs were grouped about a small table, and Sir John took the most
comfortable of the three. On the table were books of a ledger-like
appearance, writing materials, and a bell. Sir John struck the bell
with a fat brown forefinger.

The head-gardener came out from the orange trees. After all, he was not
only the head-gardener. He smiled ingratiatingly, as if to say that
he took a personal interest in Sir John, and it would be a positive
pleasure to him to do anything for him. From a natural friendliness,
which only broke down under severe stress, all the natives wore this
air of interest in the white man and of readiness to serve them in any
way. As a matter of fact no native, with the solitary exception of King
Smith, ever did anything that he could possibly avoid. The climate is
relaxing, and the cokernut palm supplies many wants.

Sir John looked at the man doubtfully. “Well, yes, you’ll do,” he said.
“Go and tell Thomas that I want a lime-squash, no sugar, and a double
Hollands in it.”

The head-gardener repeated the order, with a careworn look beginning to
gather on his handsome, dusky face. The club-house was at least twenty
yards away, and he would have to walk every step of it. He walked very
gracefully and very slowly, a slight wind fluttering the buckle straps
of his waistcoat behind. On the verandah he paused to rest and to tease
the parrot.

“Get on, you dog,” shouted Sir John. And the head-gardener got on.

Presently Thomas appeared with the drink. At one time he had been
desk-waiter at the Cabinet Club, London. At the Exiles’ Club, in this
very tiny and remote island, he was a combination of steward and
head-waiter. He wore black trousers and neck-tie and a white jacket. He
was grey-haired, round-faced, and loose-mouthed.

Sir John let the ice clink musically against the glass. It was almost
the only æsthetic pleasure that he enjoyed. He took a long suck
at a couple of straws and then, as he fumbled for his money, said
plaintively:

“I say, Thomas, aren’t they coming?”

“Coming directly, sir. The green lizard won, and they are not racing
again, Mr Bassett having no more ready money with him.”

“Childish--utterly childish,” said Sir John, irritably.

“Your change, sir?”

“It was half-a-crown I gave you.”

“I took it for a florin,” said Thomas, quite unembarrassed. “My
mistake. Sorry, sir.”

Down the steps of the verandah towards Sir John came Mr Bassett and Dr
Soames Pryce. Mr Bassett was a very short man. His face was ape-like
and had a fringe beard of sandy grey. He was overshadowed by an immense
Terai felt hat, and was a quaint figure until you got used to him.
He occupied the honorary position of secretary to the Exiles’ Club.
Dr Soames Pryce was a man of medium height and magnificent figure--a
chest deep and broad, small waist and hips, powerful muscles, and no
spare flesh. He was clean-shaven, and his ugly, strong face suggested a
cynical Napoleon. He wore a shirt and trousers of white flannel and a
pith helmet.

“My lizard won, Sweetling,” he said, as he sank into one of the lounge
chairs.

“So Thomas has been telling me,” said Sir John, reflectively. “Wish I’d
backed it.”

“Tell you what, Bassett,” said the doctor, sharply. “You were
grumbling--said you’d never seen your browny run so badly. I’ll back
my green one against him once more for another sovereign--run it off
to-morrow morning.”

“Can’t,” said Bassett. “Killed mine--always kill losers.” His manner
was jerky and nervous. He was already turning over the volumes on the
table. “We have business of some importance to the club before us this
morning--the election of--”

He stopped short as a native waiter approached with a tray. The doctor
apparently shared the taste of Sir John in morning beverages; Mr
Bassett drank iced barley-water with a slice of lemon in it.

“Yes, yes,” said Sir John as the waiter retired. “Mr Bassett is right;
business of very serious importance. We must be getting on. I will ask
Mr Bassett to read the minutes of the last meeting.”

Mr Bassett jerked rapidly through the data of the meeting and the names
of the committee-men who attended. In addition to the names of those
now present the name of the Rev. Cyril Mast was read.

Dr Soames Pryce took his mouth away from a drinking-straw to observe,
“Mast not coming to-day?”

“I shall have something to say presently as to that,” said Sir John.

“Myself also,” said Mr Bassett, and went on with the minutes in a quick
staccato.

There were certain financial matters “examined and found correct.”
There was a history of two backed bills; in one case the secretary
would write and express regrets; in the other the committee had found
that the price charged for giant asparagus was not unreasonable.

Sir John took the formal vote that he should sign the minutes as
correct, and proceeded to routine business. Financial questions were
considered with care, and were a little complicated by the use of more
than one currency. The club was in a very satisfactory position. It had
only thirty-two members, but the subscription was high and the expenses
were small.

At last came the important business. Sir John opened the candidates’
book and spoke with a voice of deliberate impartiality:

“Gentlemen, we have a candidate up for election. He is a native of this
island, known to us all, I think, as King Smith. I see that he is
described here as John Smith, trader and chief of Faloo. He is proposed
by Mr Page and seconded by the Rev. Cyril Mast. He is supported by
Mr Bassett, Mr Mandelbaum, Mr Duncombe, Mr Clarence Mills, and Lord
Charles Baringstoke--under ordinary circumstances, I should say a
strong list. Before proceeding to discussion I will ask our secretary
to read the letters of the proposer and the seconder.”

The letters were unusually long and apologetic, but this was the first
time that a native had been proposed for membership of the Exiles’ Club.

Mr Page, in his letter, pointed out that this was no ordinary native.
He was of the blood royal, and was recognised by all the natives as
chief or King of Faloo. It was to be remembered that certainly in
the old days and in a neighbouring group of the islands white men
had not thought it beneath their dignity to take positions--and even
subordinate positions--at the court of native kings and queens.

Dr Soames Pryce gave a short contemptuous laugh; Mr Bassett glared at
him out of mean eyes and continued the letter.

Mr Page pointed out further that Smith had shown a readiness to absorb
European ideas which was without parallel in the case of a native. His
business, in which a syndicate of members of the club were financially
interested, was solid and progressive. He had shown enterprise
and talent for organisation. He spoke French well and English to
perfection. He had been of great assistance to the white men on the
island. “And of his wide and generous hospitality most of us have had
pleasant experience.”

“Good letter,” commented the doctor, briefly.

The letter of the Rev. Cyril Mast repeated much that Mr Page had said,
but contained some additional items of information. As regards the name
of John Smith, Smith was merely the Anglicised form of its owner’s
native name.

The doctor’s laugh was perhaps excusable. The native name was of four
syllables, began with “m,” ended with “oo,” and had a “k” in it.
The laugh was repeated when the Rev. Cyril Mast asserted that Smith
had received the name John upon baptism into the Church of England,
performed during boyhood when on a visit to another island.

“Name,” said the doctor.

“Order,” said Sir John. “We can discuss the letter afterwards.”

“I presume,” said Mr Bassett, savagely, “that Dr Pryce does not venture
to question the veracity of a member of the club.”

“Rot,” said the doctor.

“Order, order,” said Sir John. “Read on, please, Mr Bassett.”

He read on. The Rev. Cyril Mast pointed out that King Smith’s attitude
in religious matters was one of the broadest toleration, as exemplified
by the fact that he permitted the French Catholic mission on his
island. He had lessened the superstitious observances of the natives,
had deported the priests, and now held solely in his own person
the important power of “taboo.” In view of labour difficulties and
other difficulties with the natives it was imperatively necessary to
conciliate the possessor of this power. It was hardly too much to say
that their existence depended upon it. It would be necessary to elect
King Smith, “even if he were not the genial, open-handed sportsman whom
we all know him to be.”

There was a moment’s silence. It was for the President to speak first.
Sir John spoke with ease and fluency. He had addressed many meetings,
and soothed for the time many angry shareholders.

“Well, gentlemen,” said Sir John, “Mr Smith comes before you under
very good auspices. He is seconded by one member of the committee and
underwritten by another. Among his supporters we have noted the names
of Lord Charles Baringstoke and--er--others. But it must be remarked
that his seconder is not here this morning to speak for him. Why is he
not here?”

“He was so very drunk last night,” said Dr Soames Pryce. There was
not the least shade of moral accusation in his voice; it was a plain
statement of a cause having a certain effect.

“Nonsense!” snapped Mr Bassett.

“I assure you, my diagnosis is correct.”

“Gentlemen!” said Sir John, in mild protest. Both men apologised to the
President for the interruption. He continued:

“From whatever cause it arises it is at least unfortunate that Mr Mast
is not here; there are questions that I should have felt it my duty,
unpleasant though it might be, to put to him. However, we will leave
him and consider the candidature of Mr Smith.”

Here Sir John paused to light a cigar and refresh himself from the
glass before him.

“Now, gentlemen, I think if I may claim any virtue at all it is
the virtue of foresight. When the circumstances arose which made
it advisable for me to leave England, I had already foreseen those
circumstances and I knew that Faloo was the place. From its want of an
accessible harbour, its small size, and its position out of the usual
line of trading and other vessels, and also perhaps from a pardonable
ignorance, Faloo has been omitted by statesmen and their advisers from
treaties innumerable. It has independence on sufferance. Any European
power that claimed Faloo would be met by a counter-claim from another
power, and at present it is considered too obscure and insignificant
for diplomacy, or for sterner methods of arbitration. Briefly, it is
not worth fighting about. But I know that you will agree with me that
it is just what we require. Life is soft and easy, and the climate is
always summer. Nature has showered her gifts upon this island--gorgeous
flowers and luscious fruits, the graceful and useful palm, the orange
trees in the shade of which we sit.”

“Pardon the correction,” said Dr Soames Pryce. “The orange trees
were brought by Smith’s grandfather from Tahiti, and they were not
indigenous even there.”

“Thank you, Dr Pryce. At least I may say that this kindly and prolific
soil has, in the case of the orange trees as in our own case, welcomed
the stranger. The natives are friendly--except in some cases which I
can explain--and though their natural laziness makes it difficult to
find useful and trustworthy servants, we have managed to get along so
far by a temperate firmness on our part. For such hostility as exists
I regret to say that certain members of this club have only themselves
to thank, and I may add in confidence that Mr Mast is one of the worst
offenders. This--er--philandering with the wives and daughters of
natives is a thing that must definitely be stopped or there will be
awful trouble.”

Sir John paused for another sip, and surveyed his companions. Dr Soames
Pryce looked straight down his nose; Mr Bassett toyed innocently with a
pen-holder.

“Well, gentlemen, to make a long story short, insignificant little
Faloo precisely suits me. Personally, I ask nothing better than that I
may live the rest of my life here, enjoying--if you find some worthier
President--”

“No, no,” said the other two men.

“Well, enjoying at least my membership of the Exiles’ Club. Now I
do not want to break a tacit understanding by referring to the past
history of any of us. Some may have made mistakes, or yielded to some
unfortunate impulse; some--my own is a case in point--may be the
victims of conspiracy on the one part and misunderstanding on another.
But in any case, if ever we had to leave Faloo, where could we go? I
know of no place from which we should not promptly be sent back to our
native land, to be tried by some clumsy tribunal that on half the facts
of the case judges a man’s isolated acts apart from his motives and his
general character and his mode of life.”

“Hear, hear,” said Mr Bassett.

“Now comes my point. Our safety lies in the obscurity and
insignificance of Faloo. Make it of importance--get it talked
about--and we are lost. Now Smith’s great idea is to boom Faloo, to
extend his own trade indefinitely, and he even has dreams of finally
getting its independence formally acknowledged. This last he will
probably never do, because the island would be annexed, but if he did,
part of the price of independence would be an extradition treaty. He
has been described as enterprising, and the description is true. He
even now has a plan for blasting the reef and throwing open the harbour
for his own trading ships. He speaks often of the loss and the danger
occasioned by loading and unloading by canoes a vessel lying outside
the reef. Well, there is only room for a canoe or a small boat to
get through the reef now, and there will never be any more room, so
long as we have the whip-hand of Mr Smith. His interests and ours are
diametrically opposed. How can we admit such a man to terms of perfect
equality as would be implied by membership of this club? Why should he
ask it except as a means to push his schemes with injudicious members,
lured by the prospect of a money advantage? What would it profit us,
gentlemen, if we gained all the money in the world and lost--er--this
quiet retreat from the malicious people who are anxious to interfere
with us? Believe me, he has no love for the white man. If he permits
the French Mission it is because the French Mission is a regular and
lucrative customer and the priests help to educate him. He is genial
and hospitable; but we also are regular and lucrative customers and
much more than that. He has been of service to us; two or three times
he has sent off, with almost needless brutality, low-class English
and Americans, without a five-pound note to call their own, who have
attempted to establish themselves here. He serves us, because we do not
want that type. But he serves himself too, for they are no use to him
either. I have known Smith longer than any white man on this island,
and I know that extension of trade and the making of money is his first
aim. He’d like a regular trading fleet instead of the ramshackle tramps
he owns at present. When I came here he lived in a leaf-thatched shanty
and had hardly anything. See how far he has got on already; he means to
go twenty times as far as that. And when he’s got the money he’s on to
something else--he doesn’t talk about it, and I don’t know much about
it, but I do know that it will be something with King Smith in it
and ourselves outside. Now at present we’ve got the whip-hand of that
gentleman, and we’ve got to keep it. We’ve got the whip-hand, because
the money on which his business is run is our money and under our own
control. I have put seven hundred golden sovereigns into it, Dr Pryce
has two hundred, Mr Bassett two hundred, and other members have smaller
sums, making fifteen hundred in all. From the very beginning I took the
line that (in the absence of ordinary legal safeguards) the borrower
must trust the lender and the lender must trust nobody. We see such
books as he keeps; we practically control the bank. We know what he’s
doing. We can say ‘go on’ and we can say ‘stop.’ Smith controls the
natives? He does. He can enforce the ‘taboo’? He can. And what on earth
does it matter so long as we control Smith? It’s money that talks. And
that reminds me that I’ve been doing a lot of talking myself, though
I’ve still got one more point to raise. You don’t mind?”

“I want to hear everything you’ve got against Smith; it’ll help me to
show the other side,” said Mr Bassett.

“My own mind is still open,” said Dr Soames Pryce. “Let me hear you
both by all means. At present it doesn’t seem to me to matter a curse
whether we elect him or not. But might I suggest an interlude?”

“Certainly,” said Sir John. “The same idea had just occurred to me.” He
struck the bell repeatedly, until Thomas appeared on the verandah. A
sign gave the order, and fresh drinks were brought out.

“Now for my last point,” said Sir John. “England has not treated me
well, and it would probably treat me worse if it could get me, but I
can never forget that I am an Englishman. We white men here”--his voice
vibrated--“are the representatives of the conquering races.”

Dr Soames Pryce concealed a smile.

“We have a certain amount of prestige among the natives, and we cannot
give away prestige and keep it. Our action in electing Mr Smith would
be read by the natives as a concession made from fear. He would be
exalted, and we should be debased. A rule of the club prohibits the
introduction of any native as a guest; I have not the least doubt that
the election of a native would also have been prohibited, had it ever
been supposed that such an event was possible. Let us treat Mr Smith
with kindness and civility. He likes to exercise hospitality, and I
sometimes look in at his place and take a drink with him. But we must
not elect him as an equal. If you two gentlemen are divided in your
opinions my casting vote goes against Mr Smith.”

Sir John leaned back in his chair, removed his hat and mopped his bald
head with his handkerchief. He was convinced that the election of Smith
would be disastrous, and he had done his best to prevent it. Bassett,
he knew, would support Smith, but Sir John counted on opposition from
the doctor.

“Well, now, Mr Bassett,” said Sir John.

But Mr Bassett suddenly adopted a conciliatory and even flattering
attitude towards Dr Soames Pryce.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Better take things in their order of importance.
Dr Pryce--most popular and representative--better hear him first.”

“My mind’s still open,” said Dr Pryce. “Sir John’s been talking rather
as if the Exiles’ Club were the Athenæum and King Smith were a doubtful
archdeacon. We aren’t the Athenæum. We represent the dead-beat section
of the conquering races. As we have referred to the past I may mention
that we comprise men who have had to skip and can’t go back.”

“A little too strongly put,” said Sir John.

“I’m only saying what you’ve been thinking,” said Dr Pryce. “Poor old
Thomas messed his accounts at the Cabinet Club and he had to skip, and
it’s supposed to be the same all the way up through the members. All we
ask about a white candidate is how much he brought with him or can have
sent out to him. If he can afford it he’s a member. Our rules are easy,
but we don’t change members’ cheques, and it’s a recognised principle
with us that we believe in the money we see and in no other money. If
the cash isn’t on the table there’s no bet. That being so, ought we to
put on side? Can we carry it?”

“Certainly not. Hear hear!” said Mr Bassett with enthusiasm.

“Sir John says we’ve got the whip-hand of King Smith now. True. So we
have. So we shall still have if he’s made a member. Sir John thinks
that if Smith opens the harbour and widens the trade the island will
be grabbed and we shall be grabbed too. I should say rats!”

“Really?” said Sir John, frigidly.

“I mean, with all respect, that there’s not enough in Faloo to make any
power restless in its sleep--except ourselves, and it is not likely
to be known that we are here. As for Smith himself, he’s a clever
blackguard, but I doubt if he’s as deep as our President thinks. There
are good streaks about him. The natives get none of the filth that
he brews in the still at the back of his office--that’s traded away
under the rose to other islands. He’s got an open hand, and keeps
good whisky, and what persuaded our reverend friend Mast to get tight
on curaçoa last night beats me altogether. What I don’t like is that
while his business is financed by some of us he’s lending money out of
his share of the profits to others. Three of the men who underwrote
him have got an advance on their remittances from him--Charley
Baringstoke’s one of them. That might make awkwardness. He’s playing it
all out for John Smith too, as our President says. Well, I’m playing it
for Dr Pryce. If Bassett isn’t playing it for a man whose name begins
with B I’m wrong. Fire in, Bassett. As I say, my mind’s still open.”

Mr Bassett spoke briefly and nervously, with a sickly, ingratiating
smile, fingering at times that uncomely fringe of beard. He was sure
that Sir John had presented the arguments on his side of the question
with great skill and power. But he must confess that he thought the
greater part of those arguments had already been fully answered in a
few sentences by Dr Pryce. As for the absence of the Rev. Cyril Mast,
that was really due to delicacy and good feeling; he had felt that the
discussion of a candidate whom he had seconded could be more free and
open in the seconder’s absence. That being so, Mast might possibly have
felt free to indulge last night in the--er--lapse which Dr Pryce had
described. Certainly, the money-lending to which Dr Pryce had objected
was a serious point. But he believed that Mr Smith had only given way
from good-nature, only in a few cases, and only for small sums. He
would guarantee that an expression of opinion would be enough to stop
it. There was one matter with which Dr Pryce had not dealt, and that
was the native question. Here Mr Bassett became very impressive.

“It’s not foreign powers and extradition treaties we’ve got to fear. If
John Smith wants to blast the reef, and can give us twenty per cent.
for our money instead of ten, let him do it, and I’ve got more money
waiting for him. But we’ve got to fear the natives of this island here
and now.”

“I suppose it’s necessary for you to be in a funk of something,” said
Mr Soames Pryce.

“Order,” said Sir John. “Really, that’s rather an insulting remark.”

“Sorry. I withdraw it,” said Pryce, placidly.

“Sir John himself said that unless this--er--interference with the
native women were stopped there would be awful trouble. Mr Mast’s name
has been mentioned. Two nights ago, as he was coming home from Smith’s,
a spear went too near him to be pleasant. Doesn’t that mean something
to fear? Let me ask Dr Pryce if he were managing an insurance office if
he would accept Mast’s life?”

“If I were the physician he’d never get as far as the manager,” said
the doctor, grimly.

“Mast’s is not the only case. Mr Mandelbaum has had stones thrown
at him. Lord Charles Baringstoke has been threatened. Natives have
been found skulking round the club-house at night. Sir John says that
this--er--philandering must be stopped absolutely. But nature is
stronger than Sir John; the women are said to be attractive, and young
men won’t live ascetic lives. Even if it could be stopped now, much
of the harm is done already. The election of Mr Smith would bring the
natives round again, and in the meantime something could be done to
regularise the situation--some form of marriage which would satisfy
native susceptibilities without imposing too onerous an obligation upon
us. The help of Mr Smith in a matter of the kind would be invaluable.
If we refuse to elect him the natives will get to hear of it--they get
to hear of everything--and we stand a good chance of being burned in
our beds. I don’t say we might elect Mr Smith--I say that for our own
safety we must elect him.”

As Mr Bassett finished there was a sound a little like distant
applause; it was merely the club parrot stropping his beak on his perch
with furious energy.

“We will proceed to vote, gentlemen,” said Sir John. “You know which
way my casting vote will go if there is any difference of opinion
between you.”

“You damned thief!” screamed the parrot.

“I shall certainly vote that Mr Smith be elected,” said Mr Bassett.

“You damned thief!” screamed the parrot again.

“Well, I’m quite decided now,” said Dr Pryce.

“You damned thief!” shrieked the parrot once more. Sir John banged the
bell again and again.

“Thomas!” he shouted, “take that infernal bird inside. We can’t hear
ourselves speak. Now,” he added more suavely, “we are ready for your
vote, Dr Pryce, and the election turns on it.”




CHAPTER II


Mr Bassett had made the commonest mistake of political speakers; he
had supposed that the argument which appealed most strongly to himself
would appeal most strongly to his audience. He had appealed to fear. Dr
Soames Pryce was not a timid man, and he resented what he regarded as
an attempt to scare him.

“I vote against the election of Mr Smith to this club,” said Dr Pryce,
bluntly.

“After all you have said?” exclaimed Mr Bassett. “You surprise me very
much.”

“One moment, Mr Bassett,” said the President. “I must declare then that
Mr John Smith is not elected.”

Mr Bassett paused with the pen in his hand. “Am I to write ‘not
elected,’ gentlemen? We have all admitted that Smith is a good,
hospitable fellow, and we have business dealings with him. We might let
him down as easily as possible. May I write ‘postponed for further
consideration’? It commits us to nothing, and it’s not quite so harsh.”

“I see no objection to that,” said Sir John. “What do you think,
doctor?”

“No objection,” said Dr Soames Pryce with a yawn.

“Then,” said Sir John, as he rose, “I think that concludes our
business.”

The head-gardener and his two assistants made an incautious appearance,
and were at once commanded to carry the club-books within to the
secretary’s room. Mr Bassett said he supposed he ought to go and see
how poor Cyril Mast was getting on after last night.

Dr Soames Pryce watched Bassett’s little figure under the big hat
retreating down the avenue.

“Nice specimen of Pusillanimus Ambulans, or the Walking Toadstool,”
said Dr Pryce. “What’s next, Sweetling? I don’t mind backing my green
lizard against the clock.”

“Silly game, very silly,” said Sir John. “Still, I may as well lose
four half-crowns at that as anything else. And”--he glanced at his
elaborate presentation watch--“there’s still half an hour before
lunch.”

The course for lizard-racing had been designed and laid out by Dr
Pryce in the courtyard on the further side of the club. The course was
circular, and the boards on either side sloped inwards so that the
lizards should not climb them. A lizard attempting escape would go
straight ahead by the only path open to it, round and round the circle.
That was the rule, but there were various exceptions.

Dr Pryce produced the box of plaited grass in which his lizard was
kept, and turned it out on to the course. It made an ineffectual
attempt to climb the side, and then went straight away, looking rather
like a clever clockwork toy.

“Lay you ten shillings it doesn’t go round in thirty-six seconds,” said
Sir John.

“Thirty-four’s record. Not good enough. I’ll back him to do two rounds
in seventy-five for the same money.”

“Done. Start the watch.”

Both men put down their money and kept one eye on the stop-watch and
one on the starting-point. The lizard was round in 35.5 and going
strongly. A few feet further on it paused as if it were saying to
itself, “Let’s see--where did I put my umbrella?” Then it turned right
round and went back, presumably, to fetch it.

“Damn,” said Dr Pryce, and put the lizard tenderly back in its box
again.

Sir John laughed and slipped the two half-sovereigns into his waistcoat
pocket. “Want another?” he asked.

“No thanks,” said the doctor. “My beast’s got into one of his
absent-minded moods. He’s like that sometimes. He might beat the
record, or he might go to sleep in the first patch of sunshine.”

The club was beginning to fill up now. In the reading-room two or
three members turned over the out-of-date papers--but there is really
no date in Faloo. Little groups on the lawn in front of the house
sipped cocktails. Lord Charles Baringstoke went from group to group
with his usual plaintive, “Anybody goin’ to stand me anythin’?” Thomas
was fixing the _carte du jour_ in the frame over the dining-room
mantelpiece; the fireplace was filled with pot-roses in bloom, had
never known a fire, and did not possess a chimney. Two other English
waiters and many native servants bustled to and fro.

Sir John and Dr Pryce took their Manhattans on the verandah. “Do you
know,” said Sir John, “I almost thought you were going to elect King
Smith this morning.”

“So did I,” said the doctor. “Believe we ought to have done it too.
He’s better than that worm Charley Baringstoke, or a boozer like Cyril
Mast, or a mean badger like Bassett. Better than most of us, in fact.
It was Bassett put me off it.”

“So I noticed,” said Sir John.

“Interesting man too,” said Dr Pryce. “Has he really got these
ideas--the ambitious poppycock that you talked about?”

“If he had, would you let him make a start with them?” asked Sir John,
enigmatically.

“I would not,” said the doctor.

“I think you’re the man I want. We’ll talk about it at luncheon. Our
curry should be ready by now.”

The meal was called luncheon, but for all classes on the island
luncheon was the principal meal of the day; in fact, no regular
club-dinner was served in the evening. Most of the members were
gathered in the dining-room now, but a small table had been reserved
for the President and Dr Soames Pryce. At the next table Mr
Mandelbaum, a round-faced German of great girth, was entertaining Lord
Charles Baringstoke, who under alcoholic influence was being betrayed
into confidences. “You see,” he whined loudly, “it wasn’t so much that
I went a mucker, because of course all my people went muckers; it was
the particular kind of mucker that I went.” The German passed a fat
hand over his salient moustache and addressed him as “my poor frent.”

Sir John and the doctor conducted their conversation in more discreet
tones.

“Do you think,” said Sir John, “that the King really meant to be
elected to-day? Did he sound you?”

“He’s not on those terms,” said Pryce.

“He could have made a certainty of it if he had not let Cyril Mast get
drunk last night and had sent him up to the scratch this morning. He
could have done that. It would have been Mast and Bassett against you,
and my casting vote would not have come in.”

“Perhaps he took things too easily. But why should he get himself put
up?”

“Well, I’ll tell you my views. It was a move to blind you and
others--to make you think that he hankered for nothing but the joys of
European civilisation and the society of white men. His genial manner
and his free hospitality are a blind of the same nature. The man’s
native through and through, soul and body. He is playing the game for
his own natives, with himself at the head of them--as he is indeed
to-day--but in a position of much greater power and dignity.”

“I don’t say it isn’t so,” said Pryce. “But what do you build on?”

“Several things. I’ve known Smith a long time, and I’ve only once known
him miss a trade opportunity. He won’t sell liquor to his own natives.
He won’t let them get it. The stills and liquor-stores are taboo. He’s
after money, but he won’t do that. You’ve noticed it yourself. About
two months ago I was going along by the beach one night, and I turned
into Smith’s place for a drink. He was alone in his office, sitting
at a table, with his back to me, and working on some papers. “Hullo,
Cyril,” he said, without looking round. Evidently he was expecting
Mast. There was a tin trunk open on the floor, and it was packed with
blue-books and pamphlets--things of that kind. I went up to him and
touched him on the shoulder. I don’t think he was so pleased to see
me as he said he was. King Smith was studying the native depopulation
statistics in the different groups, and making notes on them. King
Smith had got old dailies and weekly reviews--radical rags--with
passages marked in blue chalk, spread before him. I tried to see more,
but he was very quick--shovelled them all together, threw them into the
tin trunk, and kicked the lid down. He said that he had been reading
some dull stuff, and then out came the whisky, of course.”

“I wonder now if he’d have any chance. I think he might.”

“Given that he had the money, and that he could get into touch with
English publicists--journalists or politicians of a certain kind--I
think he’d have a very good chance at first. Of course all traces of
his liquor business would be traded off or sunk in the Pacific by then.
The Little-Englanders and sentimental radicals would back him to a man.
It would be shown that he had governed well, kept the natives sober,
and was fighting for admitted independence to keep them from the
dangerous influences of white civilisation.”

“Well,” said Pryce, “they are undoubtedly dangerous--for natives.”

“There are depopulation statistics to prove it. The fact that he handed
us all over to what they are pleased to call justice would count in
his favour. His patriotic attitude would appeal. The fact that the
island is too small to matter, and that no expense was involved, would
help. If he caught the country in the right temper, with nothing of
real importance to distract its attention, the _Chronicle_ and _News_
would scream ‘Faloo for its own people!’ for a while. In the end it
would be protection--French or British--but that doesn’t matter a straw
to us. We should be done. Look here, doctor, I’ve made one mistake in
my life and I can’t afford to make another. Whether Smith’s ideas are
exactly what I say or not, he is trying to do things which will attract
attention. We can’t let him start.”

“That is so,” said Pryce. “And how do we stop him? Money comes first, I
suppose?”

“Certainly. I’ve already been into that point. Smith must never be
much richer than he is now; if he goes on with this money-lending,
he must be rather poorer. Of course, Bassett can see nothing but
twenty per cent. instead of ten, and some of the other members are
like him, but I think we can do without a dividend for a year or
two if necessary. There’s no need to show our hand. We can’t adopt
deliberately a thwarting policy. But I have an idea that when Smith
begins to be too prosperous he will lose a schooner with a valuable
cargo. A store or two may be burned down. Some new line of business,
which has been suggested by his English friends, is likely to be a
financial loss. The second point is that he must not get into touch
with the people who can help him--publicists. It would not be healthy
for us to have much written about Faloo in the London papers. Well,
he can’t get away himself--his trade and the natives tie him by the
leg. There’s no telephone or telegraph here--thank Heaven!--and our
mail arrives and leaves irregularly in one of his own schooners, which
has to go hundreds of miles with it. I fancy that if you chose to go
a cruise in that schooner something might happen to any letters it
carried which were not to the general interest. You could manage that?”

“Pleasure--at any time.”

“I may ask you to do it.”

“Look here, Sweetling, that’s all right, of course. But I fancy you’re
looking so far ahead that you’re missing the next step. The row with
the natives about their women is the next step. And although there’s no
need to get into blue funk about it, like Bassett, it may very easily
be the last step too.”

“I know,” said Sir John. “I’m going to speak to some of the men about
it. I wish you’d tackle Cyril Mast.”

“Well,” said Dr Pryce, “it’s rather difficult. You see, I’m not exactly
qualified for--er--er--stained-glass treatment myself, and Mast knows
it. For that matter, I could tell you a true story about the amiable
Bassett. However, I’ll advise discretion--if they’d only remember that
all the native women don’t come into the same category it would be all
right. By the way, you were rather down on Cyril Mast.”

“The man’s a human sink.”

“There are times when that describes him. There are also times when
he’d shock Naples and make Port Said blush. There is no act of madness
which he might not possibly commit. But he has his moments. I’ll try
to find him in a lucid interval. Good Lord! I wonder why King Smith
doesn’t give the natives their head and wipe the island clean of the
whole lot of us.”

“Excellent prudential reasons. Smith banks--has been compelled to bank
by those who financed him. His cheques require the signatures of two
Englishmen as well as his own. It is awkward at times to have a bank so
far away, but I thought it advisable that the money should not be kept
here.”

“That’s all right,” said the doctor, rising from the table. “I’ve got a
native with pneumonia down on the beach. I’ll go and look at him.”

“Half a moment,” said Sir John. “Last time a schooner came in, two
piano-cases were brought ashore. I’ve looked round, and the only piano
in the island is in Smith’s big concrete house, where he never lives,
and that piano was there ages before. Pianos? Guns, my boy. Smith’s
keeping the natives in check for all he’s worth. It’s his best policy.
But if it does come to an outbreak, you’ll find the natives armed
and Smith leading them. You can tell Mast that. If Smith gets into a
position where he finds his hand forced, and it’s a question of the
white man or the native, he’ll throw over his trade and his ambitions,
wipe out the white men, and chance it. Now, haven’t I seen the next
step? Pryce, I watch everything. I can’t afford to make another
mistake.”

“An almighty row--a big fight--and then wiped out, as you say,” said
Pryce, meditatively. “One might do worse.”

“Possibly. All the same, I’m going to spend this afternoon in
frightening the life out of Parker and Simmons and Mandelbaum and Lord
Charles Baringstoke. I leave it to you to make Cyril Mast ashamed of
himself.”

“He’s always that,” said Pryce, as he turned away.

Mr Bassett had said that he was going to see Cyril Mast; therefore it
was quite certain that he was going elsewhere. He had taken luncheon
with King Smith, had eaten baked fishes with the eternal cokernut cream
sauce and a conserve of guavas which was one of the King’s trade-items.
He had drunk with great moderation of an excellent hock and iced water.

Three sides of a square on the beach were occupied by the King’s stores
and office, with some living-rooms attached. The styles of building
were various. There was concrete, dazzlingly white in the sun. There
was timber. There was corrugated iron. There were shanties built in
the native fashion--poles planted close together for the walls, and a
leaf thatch for the roof. The King had a fine concrete house with an
excellent garden in the interior, but he rarely visited it.

Luncheon had been served by native boys in one of the living-rooms.
The King now smoked a Havannah and sipped coffee which he himself
had grown. There was surprisingly little that was native in his
appearance. He wore a white flannel shirt, white duck trousers, and
white canvas shoes, all of spotless cleanliness. His tint was very
light. He had none of the native’s love for personal decoration with
flowers and necklaces. His eyes were not like a native’s. They had not
that sleeping gentleness, and were the eyes of a master among men. No
native would have worn those shoes. The natives went barefoot as a
rule, torturing themselves with squeaking boots on state occasions or
as a concession to the French missionaries. But the King had all the
native’s inborn grace of movement, and he wore his hair rather longer
than a European’s. He looked at Bassett with that slightly cynical air
of a man who has gauged another man completely, will use him to the
utmost, and will not trust him quite as far as he could throw him.
Bassett had removed his big hat, and his indecent baldness shone with
perspiration; it gave something of the appearance of the vulture to a
head which otherwise suggested the ape.

“All I can say is that I did my best,” said Bassett, plaintively. “It
nearly came off. Dr Soames Pryce had seemed all in your favour, and
then just when it came to the voting, he went right round.”

“Ah!” said Smith. His voice was pleasing and his pronunciation was
perfect. “And was that just after you had spoken?”

“It was,” said Bassett, “and that’s what makes it so surprising.” The
King smiled. “We ought to have had Mast there. I said so.”

“Well, well, my friend,” said King Smith, “you did your best and who
can do more? Perhaps, when Sir John and the doctor have got to trust
me a little more, I may be elected. If they do not think I am yet fit
for the high honour of membership, I must wait. It is bad to force
oneself. I can wait very well. There was a time when every inch of
this island belonged to my forefathers; but I must remember that I own
comparatively little myself. I am a king by direct descent; but I must
not forget that I am a poor trader far more than I am a king. I owe
much to the white man. It is his money that has helped me to develop
the resources of my island. It is to the white man that I owe my
education. Many are kind enough to come in sometimes for a little chat
with me. Further intimacy is to be a matter of consideration--after all
it is not unnatural.”

“You seem to take it smiling,” said Bassett.

“My friend, you were, I think, what you call a solicitor. That means
a great education. I often look at you with envy when I think of the
vast number of things that you must know and I do not, and of the
things that would be easy for you to arrange and are so difficult for
me. But if I might venture to give one little piece of advice, it is
this--always take a defeat smiling and a triumph seriously. Ah, you
must take that as a joke. I cannot tell you anything you do not know.”

“It’s true enough that to be a solicitor one must pass very severe
tests,” said Bassett. “And every day of practice in a good firm means a
lesson in knowledge of the world.” He was quite unused to flattery, and
was ready to take a good deal of it.

“My friend,” said the King, “you do not drink my cognac, and it is too
good to miss. Alone I would not have got it. It comes to me by favour
of the padre.”

Bassett, who knew his physiological limitations, hesitated, filled his
glass and sipped. He expressed an opinion that the French missionaries
knew how to take care of themselves.

“Yes,” Bassett continued. “As a solicitor I met with all kinds of men.
I can generally make an estimate. I have my doubts about Dr Soames
Pryce. I have raced lizards against him; doctors know drugs and can use
them.”

The suggestion was too preposterous, and the King’s laughter was both
hearty and natural. “But I think not. It is unlikely,” he said. “The
doctor is not in any want of money, and he does not risk his position
here with all of you for a little piece of ten shillings. I do not know
much, and so I have to guess a good deal. I should guess that it was no
question of money that sent Dr Soames Pryce to Faloo.”

King Smith watched his guest with a critical eye. It was not generally
advisable to speak of the past in Faloo. Lord Charles Baringstoke was
quite shameless, and the Rev. Cyril Mast was occasionally maudlin, and
these two had chattered about themselves, but members of the Exiles’
Club were mostly discreet and reserved as to their personal histories.

“Wasn’t it money?” said Bassett, peevishly. “No. Perhaps not. Perhaps
it was something worse--something which could not be misunderstood.”

“Then these money troubles in your country--the sort of troubles that
have decided some of you to leave it--may possibly be only due to
misunderstanding.”

“That and other things. You see, you don’t know about these matters.”

“No,” said the King, regretfully, “I do not know that great world in
which you moved.”

“Well, see here,” said Bassett a little excitedly. “Suppose there is
a sum of money--a hundred pounds or a thousand, any sum you like. You
know as a business man that if you were asked for that sum one day you
might be unable to find it--though you would be able to get it if you
were given time.”

“Yes, I see that.”

“I had money belonging to clients--ladies of course. They were very
impatient, and consulted another solicitor, a jealous rival. The money
was being employed by me in a way that would ultimately, if I had
been left alone, have benefited those clients. It was not immediately
available, and delicate financial operations do not admit of clumsy
interference. The result was disastrous. I--I gave up and came here.”

“It is wonderful that you knew of this little island.”

“I had heard of it--two men that I knew had already gone out.”

“Your clients--they were not all ladies?” said the King, as he refilled
Bassett’s glass “I suppose traders like myself consulted you--clergymen
too, perhaps.”

“There are no traders like you in England,” said Bassett. “But men
of the highest business standing consulted me. Lechworthy now--I’ve
lunched with him often. A Cabinet Minister was one of my clients. I
tell you, I’d some of the very top. I daresay you never heard of the
great libel action against the _Daily Message_--well, I acted for the
_Message_.”

King Smith had listened very attentively. “That must make a
difference,” he said.

“How?”

“Men like that would be superior to a vulgar misunderstanding. They
would see, as I do, that it was a mistake--that you had acted for the
best--that your probity was not in question. It must be pleasant for
you here when the mail comes in--friendly letters from Mr Lechworthy,
who manufactures the leather goods--letters still showing his gratitude
from the editor of the _Daily Message_, or perhaps--”

“You don’t know anything, my boy,” said Bassett. He was slightly
flushed, his voice was raised, and his manner was more familiar. “The
editor of the _Daily Message_ indeed! That case cost his proprietor
close on fifty thousand. You make me laugh. No, when a man in England
goes under, nobody goes down to look for him. Lechworthy, with all his
piety, was as hot as anyone against me. The only letters I get are from
my old mother, and they’re no use.”

It was not then through Mr Bassett’s personal connections that King
Smith would be able to get into touch with the right people for the
scheme which he had in view. Cyril Mast and Lord Charles had also
boasted an influential acquaintance, and in their case, too, the thread
had been snapped. The King was not disappointed. He had found out what
he wished to know, and he had no further use at the moment for Mr
Bassett.

The King rose. “I must go back to my work,” he said. “Stay here and
drink if you like.”

But Bassett also rose. “I have drunk enough,” he said as he peered at
his face in a scrap of mirror on the wall. He wondered vaguely if he
had been talking too much. He tried to think of something complimentary
to say. “I--I respect the way you work,” was his effort; and then
certain fears recurred to his mind. “I say, is it all right about the
native women?”

“No,” said the King, “it is not all right. But there will be no serious
trouble yet, unless further cause is given. I have been busy about it
this morning.”

“Awfully good of you,” said Bassett. “You’re a sort of protection to
the white men here. I say, you ought to have been elected, you know.”

“Remember that there may come a time when I cannot protect. The natives
here are not much spoiled. This is not Papeete.”

“That’s what I’m always saying to our chaps.”

“Say it also to yourself, my friend. I had a man here this morning who
wished to kill you. No, he will not do it. Now I must go.”

It was a very sobered Bassett that skulked back along the beach to
the club-house. He jumped perceptibly when a land-crab rattled an old
meat-tin on the stones. At the club it seemed to him that most of the
men were sulky and bad-tempered. Some slept on the verandah. The German
and Lord Charles Baringstoke bent over an interminable game of chess.
Lord Charles looked up as Bassett passed.

“I say, Mr damned Bassett,” said Lord Charles, “why didn’t you elect
Smith?”

“Oh, go to the devil!” said Bassett, irritably, and went on to his own
room. He was angry with himself, and a man in that case is always angry
with the rest of the world.

King Smith went on with his work, assiduously as a London clerk under
the eye of the senior partner. It was near sunset when he came out on
to the beach.

Down by the water’s edge stood the Rev. Cyril Mast. He was quite a
young man, and his face was that of a dissipated boy. At present he was
looking out through glasses that he could not hold quite steady.

“You look at nothing,” laughed Smith.

“See for yourself,” said Mast, in a musical, resonant voice. “Your
schooner will be in before you expected her.”

King Smith took the glasses and levelled them at the little speck on
the horizon.

“It is a schooner, but not mine,” he said. “A chance trader perhaps.
Mine can’t be here for three days. That one can’t get here to-night.
To-morrow morning we shall see. And how do you feel to-night, Cyril?”

“As I deserve to feel, I suppose. I am bad company to-night. You are
the first person to whom I have spoken to-day, and I have neither eaten
nor drunk.”

“Poor devil, come up and have a drink now.”

“No, thanks. I’m going for a swim.”

“Don’t recommend it,” said the King.

“The sharks are welcome,” said Mast.

The sun set. Light streamed out from native-built houses. In all
directions one heard the sound of singing. It mingled with the lap and
fret of wavelets on the shore. Mast swam out and back again in safety.
As he walked along the beach a native girl called to him. She stood in
the light of one of the houses, a flower of scarlet hibiscus behind her
ear; her white teeth shone as she smiled.

One by one the lights of the houses went out. The sky became gemmed
with many stars. Faloo was asleep. The King had put aside for a while
his problem--how to get in touch with an Englishman who could help him.

In the schooner that he had sighted there was such a man, though the
King did not know it--a man of great wealth, a newspaper proprietor, a
keen politician--Mr Lechworthy, who manufactured the leather goods. The
circumstances that brought Mr Lechworthy to Faloo must now be recorded.




CHAPTER III


The factories of Lechworthy & Co. covered many acres at Setton Park,
and the large village adjoining was inhabited almost solely by those
employed in the factories.

In the factories as in the offices of Lechworthy & Co. one found
the last word of effectiveness and enterprise. Time after time good
machinery had been scrapped to make way for better and to meet American
competition, and the enormous outlay involved had subsequently
justified itself. Everything connected with their business was
manufactured at Setton Park. Boxes and crates were made there. They
made every metal article required--from the eyelets of a pair of cheap
boots to the gold fittings of the most expensive dressing-case. They
made their own glue. They even made their own thread.

Lechworthy & Co. were good employers. They paid fair wages, and in
the treatment of their workwomen went far beyond what the Factory Acts
required of them. Allotments, cricket fields, libraries, recreation
halls abounded. Lechworthy & Co. had themselves seen to it that the
least paid woman in the packing or lining departments could obtain an
abundant supply of pure milk for her babies at a price she could easily
afford. The sanitation was excellent, and the delightful air of the
country--for the tannery was at a judicious distance--made town-workers
envy their more fortunate comrades at Lechworthy’s. Thrift was
compulsory and automatic. The man who grew old and past work, or who
broke down from illness in the company’s service, found ample provision
made for him from funds to which his own savings had contributed,
augmented by the company’s generosity. Such a man need not leave Setton
Park; there was a cottage for him, and it was not called an alms-house;
medical attendance was provided free for him. The conditions still
prevailed which were established when Lechworthy turned his business
into a Limited Company. The ordinary investor had never been given a
chance to put a penny into the concern. Lechworthy had by far the
largest holding, and the other shareholders were men of a like mind,
personal and political friends; men of substance, and, it was averred,
of nice conscience. The company earned an excellent dividend, in spite
of its philanthropical ideas.

It was not of course to be expected that Lechworthy & Co. would
entirely escape criticism. The man who has political friends has
also political enemies, and the political enemy is not always too
scrupulous in the way in which he inquires into his opponents’ private
business. A part at least of the raw material which the company
purchased had been subjected to comment. Their attitude towards any
smaller manufacturer was characterised as merciless--he was absorbed
into Lechworthy’s, or he was frozen off the face of the earth. The
scheme of compulsory thrift was commented upon even by those who
did not deny a value to compulsory virtues. It was said quite truly
that any man who voluntarily left the company’s service, or who was
dismissed for misconduct, thereby sacrificed all that he had been
compelled to put by. It was answered as truly that every man who
entered the service knew upon what conditions he entered it, and that
the company had a right to guard itself against disloyalty, defection
and disorder, by all the means in its power. In view of the fact that
Lechworthy had always proclaimed freedom of religious and political
opinions, it was held to be remarkable that ninety per cent. of his
work-people shared his political views, and that while every shade of
dissent was represented among them, it was hard to find a member of
the Church of England and impossible to find either a Catholic or an
Agnostic. If this were mentioned to Lechworthy he said merely that he
had been fortunate, or that he supposed that like attracted like. He
was sincere, and had strong convictions; he was also shrewd and knew
that strong convictions depend amazingly little upon argument. Many a
workman of Lechworthy’s had professed for mercenary and time-serving
reasons a religion which had afterwards become real to him--not as the
result of a cool reasoning analysis, but by sheer force of habit and by
the unconscious effect of example. Now and again a discharged servant
of the company asserted bitterly that he had been discharged for his
political or religious views, but the head of his department always
had another story to tell, and the evidence of discharged servants
is always--and quite properly--discounted. A more serious charge
was that he had kept on servants whom he should have discharged. Mr
Bruce Chalmers, the Conservative candidate, had attempted to address
a meeting of the men in their dinner-hour. Lechworthy’s young men
had smashed up the motor-car, and hurled stones and mud at himself,
his wife, and his supporters. Mrs Bruce Chalmers had been seriously
injured, the police had come to the rescue, and several of these
fervent young men had been imprisoned without the option of a fine.
But their situations were still waiting for them when they came out,
and in some of the worst cases promotion rapidly followed. Lechworthy
maintained that he had told Chalmers that if he addressed the men he
would do so at his own risk, and that those who provoked a breach of
the peace should not complain if the peace were broken. If, as he
supposed, the law had punished his men sufficiently, it would have been
unnecessary and unjust for him to punish them further. Those who knew
that two words from Lechworthy would have prevented the outbreak, or
knew what Lechworthy’s attitude would have been to a workman who had
been fined for drunkenness, did not think the defence satisfactory.
For the rest, the selection of books in the free library at Setton
Park provoked a sneer, the blacking out of all the racing news in the
reading-room papers seemed a little childish, and the absence of a
rifle-range, when gymnasia, swimming-baths, and cricket fields were
liberally provided, was taken as an instance of the short-sighted
methods of professed lovers of peace.

At the age of sixty Lechworthy determined to retire from the board of
his company. He had relinquished the position of managing director some
years before. He was not so young as he had been--it was his favourite
observation--and other men could be found to take his place on the
board. He was an active Member of Parliament and he was the proprietor
of the _Morning Guide_. The paper did not pay, and Lechworthy did not
run it to pay; he said more than once in public that he ran it in the
service of Christ. Incidentally, it was of some use as an organ of
his political party, and a most enthralling hobby for himself. While
in England he was quite incapable of leaving the editor alone for two
days together. The same doctor who had recommended him to retire from
the board of Lechworthy & Co. had suggested a prolonged holiday in
some place where it would be impossible for him to see a copy of the
_Morning Guide_.

The occasion of his retirement had of course to be marked. Sounded upon
the subject, Lechworthy had objected to the service of gold plate or
to his full-length portrait by the most fashionable and most expensive
artist. He did not want for money, or for the things that money can
buy, and he said that he thought the talented artist might find some
more pleasing subject. He knew too, that subscriptions would come from
many who could ill afford to give them, and that idea was repellent
to him. But he consented to receive an illuminated address, to which
his employees might affix their signatures. The address swelled itself
to a book, every leaf of the finest vellum, magnificently bound,
majestically expressed. The title-page declared as follows:

     _To_ WILBERFORCE LECHWORTHY, ESQUIRE,
  JUSTICE OF THE PEACE AND MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
            FOR SOUTH LOAMSHIRE,
      ON THE OCCASION OF HIS RETIREMENT FROM
                THAT BUSINESS
      WHICH HIS GENIUS AND HIS UNTIRING INDUSTRY
    HAVE WITH THE BLESSING OF THE ALMIGHTY
                CREATED.

The presentation of this rather portentous volume was to take place
on a Saturday evening. On the afternoon of that day every employee
of the company was invited to tea by Lechworthy. A number of vast
marquees were erected for the purpose on the cricket-field; and the
return match between Setton Park and the Hanley Wanderers was in
consequence postponed. The _Evening News_ headed its paragraph on
the subject: “LECHWORTHY PACKING--WHO MADE THE PORTMANTEAU?” But the
paragraph itself dealt seriously with statistics supplied by the firm
of caterers, informing the curious how many hams or how many pats of
butter had been thought sufficient. The Setton Park Band performed
on the occasion. The antique show of Punch and Judy was to be seen
freely, and swings were prevalent. Wilberforce Lechworthy went
from one marquee to another, joined in the audience that witnessed
the flagrant immoralities of Mr Punch, and chatted with the crowds
that waited for their turn at the swings. He displayed a king-like
memory for faces and the geniality of a headmaster on Speech-day. The
presentation of the address took place some hours later in a hall
which, though it was the largest at the company’s disposal, could not
provide seating accommodation for one third of its workers. Heads of
departments had tickets, and seniority of service counted. For those
who were of necessity omitted, Mr Lechworthy had provided a fine
display of fireworks. Inside the hall the Bishop of Merspool was in
the chair, Mr Albert Grice, M.P., was ready to speak, and the address
was to be presented by Mr Hutchinson, supported by speeches from Mr
Wallis, Mr Salter and Mr Bailey. In spite of this, either from altruism
or from want of thought, several of the privileged workmen offered
their tickets freely to comrades who had otherwise to be content with
the display of fireworks; nor were these offers invariably accepted.
Some observations by the Bishop on the influences of religion in our
commercial life occupied five lines in the papers next morning,
concluding, “The presentation then took place.” The _Morning Guide_
was more explicit and gave nearly a column. It reported the Bishop, Mr
Grice, and Mr Hutchinson; it summarised Mr Wallis and Mr Salter, and
asserted that Mr Bailey (who had spoken for twenty-five minutes) “added
a few words of graceful eulogy.” All it said of Mr Lechworthy was the
bald statement that he returned thanks. Thus, indeed, had Mr Lechworthy
directed.

None of the papers noted the presence on the platform of Miss Hilda
Auriol, the niece of Mr Lechworthy, nor can it be pretended that she
constituted an item of public interest. But, for the idle purposes of
this story, something must be said of her, even if, in consequence, it
become necessary to suppress any detailed account of Mr Bailey’s words
of graceful eulogy, or of the Bishop’s rediscovery that it is better to
be good.

Wilberforce Lechworthy, childless and a widower, had been glad to adopt
Hilda Auriol, one of his married sister’s very numerous family. At the
age of six he professed to have detected in her a decided character.
She was now twenty-three, and her uncle was very fond of her, but she
was perhaps the only person of whom he was much afraid. Let it not
be supposed that her temper was either sour or dictatorial. She was
sunniness itself, and her criticism of life--including her uncle--was
fresh and breezy. Her perspicacity detected and her soul abhorred
anything that was specious and plausible; in practical politics and in
the conduct of a great modern business the specious and the plausible
have unfortunately their place, and Wilberforce did occasionally say
things after which he experienced a momentary reluctance to meet his
niece’s eye. She had a sense of humour and she was by nature a fighter.
Her uncle himself was not a keener politician, and it was perhaps
fortunate that in most respects their politics were identical. If she
had asserted her independence she had not lost her femininity; she did
take much thought as to the wherewithal she should be clothed, and she
liked admiration. And she got it. If she had not already refused six
offers of marriage, it was merely because she had not allowed six men
to go quite as far as they had intended. Heart-whole, she had not yet
met a man who much interested her, nor was she trying to arrange the
meeting. She paid no great attention to athletics, but she could swim
a mile, could sit a horse, and was a really good shot with a revolver.
Of the last item her uncle had not entirely approved. “Why not?” said
Hilda. “It’s a question of instinct. Instinct wouldn’t let me play
football or smack a policeman’s face, but it does let me learn to
shoot and want to vote.” She explained that she was only ready to use
violence if it were not her own violence but the violence of the other
sex. “For instance, when young Bruce Chalmers had the cheek to try to
address your men, I would not have thrown stones myself, but--if I had
been there--I would have encouraged the men who did throw them.”

“For goodness’ sake don’t say that,” said her uncle. “It was a
lamentable occurrence, and it was most unfortunate that it was a woman
who was hurt. It has done us more harm than good.”

Hilda laughed. She had a rather disconcerting laugh.

At the presentation she had looked charming. In the afternoon she had
made friends with a dozen babies and played games with them, and she
still wore her afternoon dress. But she looked fresh, cool, unruffled,
delicately tended. Her mutinous little mouth remained firm and quiet,
but a wicked brightness came into her eyes whenever a speaker achieved
unconscious humour--and this was a calamity which occurred to most of
the speakers. On the other hand, when Mr Grice recalled “an intensely
amusing anecdote related to me by an old Scottish lady,” Hilda sighed
gently and seemed to be thinking of far-off sad things. To such an
extent may feminine perversity be carried.

Mr Grice, Mr Hutchinson and Mr Wallis were all directors of the
company, and returned to London in Mr Lechworthy’s special saloon
carriage. The express stopped at Setton Park by arrangement to pick it
up. The Bishop had already spread his ecclesiastical wings in another
direction. Supper was served at a little flower-decked table in the
carriage for the party of eight. The three who have not already been
mentioned were Lechworthy’s elderly unmarried sister, who was nervous
and good-natured; Burton, his secretary, who had obligingly taken a
short-hand note; and Mr Harmer, quite recently of Corpus, Oxford, and
at present a leader-writer on the _Morning Guide_. Mr Harmer wore at
first the air of a man who had got the little party together and meant
to be kind to them, even if they did not quite reach his level. Later
he had a brief conversation with Hilda Auriol, to whom he wished to
say complimentary things; Hilda, metaphorically speaking, smote him
between the eyes, and thereafter he wore the air of a dead rabbit.
Yet she addressed her uncle’s secretary as Tommy, and went into fits
of laughter over his excellent but irreverent imitation of the Bishop
of Merspool, done for her private delectation. She was polite and
charming to Mr Hutchinson and Mr Wallis, who admired her intensely;
and to Mr Grice, who admired her quite as much as a married and
middle-aged Member of Parliament had any business to do. Altogether, it
was a cheerful little party. Mr Lechworthy, his sister and his niece
did not touch the dry champagne to which the others did justice; but
Mr Lechworthy’s ginger-ale, taken in a champagne-glass, presented a
colourable imitation of festivity. At the moment of the cigarette, Miss
Lechworthy and her niece retired to rest with instructions that they
were not to be called before London.

In the little saloon, when the supper-table had been cleared, the
men sat round and chatted, Mr Harmer alone being taciturn--which was
unusual with him. If the conversation was now more serious it was quite
optimistic. Mr Grice removed a faded malmaison from his button-hole,
jerked it into the outer darkness, and remarked that it must be
difficult for a man of Mr Lechworthy’s splendid energy to get himself
to take a holiday at all.

Mr Lechworthy was smoking the briar pipe which he permitted himself
after dark. His figure was lean, and at this late hour of night did not
show any sign of fatigue. He sat upright. His hair was grey, but he had
no tendency to baldness. He did not wear spectacles or false teeth. He
certainly seemed for a man of his age unusually strong and healthy. But
he made his customary observation that he was not as young as he had
been. He spoke of his holiday plans.

“Let me see,” said Mr Wallis. “I suppose you go to Sydney first?”

“Sydney and then Auckland. Might go on by one of the Union boats from
there. But I want to get a little off the usual lines, and I think
that I should do better to buy or hire a schooner there. I know very
little about such things, but I have friends at Auckland who would help
me. I’m fond of sailing.”

“You’re to be envied,” said Grice. “No business, no House of Commons.
Nothing to do but enjoy yourself.”

Lechworthy fixed his rather fanatical eyes on him. “Nothing to do but
enjoy myself? That would be a poor kind of life, Grice. No, no. Let me
use my holiday as I have tried to use politics, journalism, and even
the business with which I have just disconnected myself--to the highest
service of all.”

“Quite so,” said Hutchinson. “The rest--the gain in health and
strength--will be valuable to you, because they will enable you to
resume that service.”

“Yes, yes. True enough. But I had thought of something beyond that. A
voyage without an end in view would not greatly interest me, and even
if one does not work one must at least have some sort of occupation.
Our friend, Mr Harmer, will laugh at me, but I am proposing to write a
pamphlet--it may even be a little book.”

It should surely be abhorrent to a leader-writer to laugh at
his proprietor’s ambitions. Mr Harmer did not laugh. He left
his taciturnity and his brandy-and-soda to observe that he was
convinced that Mr Lechworthy already possessed materials for a dozen
books--interesting books too. If there was any difficulty about getting
the thing into literary shape Mr Harmer would only be too happy, etc.,
etc.

“Thank you very much. If I don’t ask you, it won’t be because I don’t
know your capabilities in that way. But, you see, Mr Harmer, I’m not
going to try to do anything literary. I couldn’t. And if you did it
for me under my name, I should be wearing borrowed plumes. Tell you
what I’m going to do--I’m going to make notes of the different missions
in the islands I visit. I can only touch the fringe of the subject,
of course. Goodness knows how many inhabited islands there are where
I’m going--Eastern and Southern Pacific--and I shall only have six or
eight months there. Still I want to wake up our people about South Sea
Missions. The ordinary man knows nothing about the islands. What could
you, Tommy, for instance, tell us about them?”

“I dunno,” said Tommy, reflectively. “I read some yarns about them when
I was a kid. All coral and cokernuts, ain’t they?”

“Ah! There are human souls there too. Yes, and I’m told that in one
group at any rate Roman Catholicism is rampant. There’s work to be
done.”

“Well,” said Grice, “if we hadn’t been fools enough to let the French
slip in and grab what they wanted--”

“Grice, my friend, let us be proud that in one instance, at any rate,
this country has not done all the grabbing. I’m not going to suggest
that we should add one square foot to our possessions. We have too
much--territorially, we’re gorged. No, let us see rather what we can do
to spread the true religion in place of the false. That’s what I feel.
If I can do one little thing for the cause of true religion, then my
holiday won’t be entirely wasted.”

“No, indeed,” said Mr Wallis, who suddenly felt that his cigar and the
glass in front of him had been inappropriate.

Mr Lechworthy’s fist descended solemnly on the table before him.
“True religion--that’s the only thing. I’ve kept it before me in my
business. I’ve tried to show that it is possible to treat the workman
as a brother, to consider his soul’s eternal salvation, and yet to make
a fair profit. I’ve dared to bring practical religion into journalism.
_The Morning Guide_ loses me so much every day, so much every year.
The money’s set aside for it--to produce a paper which will never
print a divorce case or an item of racing news--a paper in which every
_feuilleton_ clearly and distinctly enforces a good moral--a paper
which will be the sworn foe of this blatant self-styled imperialism. In
the House I venture to say that I belong to the religious party. You’ll
find little religion among the Conservatives--and what there is, is
largely tainted with ritualism. Unprofitable servant that I am, little
though I have done, I have at least kept my faith and carried it into
my life.”

There were a few seconds of silence. Then somewhere at the back of the
saloon a fool of a servant opened a bottle of soda-water. It went off
with a loud and ironical pop. The gurgle of the fluid seemed to utter
a repeated tut-tut. But Mr Lechworthy was unperturbed. Gliding easily
into another subject, he began to talk about cameras. His book or
pamphlet, whichever it might be, was to be profusely illustrated. Mr
Wallis, an amateur photographer of some experience, was lavish with his
advice. Later, a possible title for the book was discovered. Mr Grice,
who had been a little sleepy, grew suddenly alert again and almost
disproportionately enthusiastic. “A magnificent and noble enterprise
that could only have occurred to yourself, Lechworthy,” was a phrase
that possibly overstated the facts. Tommy Burton slept peacefully--poor
Tommy Burton--much in love with Hilda Auriol and condemned to perpetual
cheerfulness and brotherhood.

       *       *       *       *       *

Thus it happened that the schooner which Cyril Mast had sighted bore
with it to the island of Faloo Mr Lechworthy and his niece. He had
never intended to take Hilda with him at all, but then Hilda had
always intended to go. Faloo had never been part of his programme, and
all that the skipper could tell him about it was that it was wrongly
charted; but Hilda had caught a glimpse of it in the evening light and
decided that she must spend an hour or two there. It was immediately
discovered that the ship needed oranges and taro, and that Faloo might
as well provide them. Lechworthy still had a will of his own, but then
the captain knew so much more and Hilda cared so much more, and the
sweet content of the South Seas had settled down upon him. He had eaten
peach-flavoured bananas and he was learning the mango. The expressed
juice of the fresh lime, mingled with ice and soda-water, seemed to him
the best drink that had ever been found. As to the missions--well, he
was getting a general impression (which bothered him a little, because
it was not quite the impression that he had meant to get), and he would
fill in the bare facts later. He had taken many photographs and would
develop the rolls of film as soon as he could find the time--unless he
came upon somebody who would do them for him.

At dawn the _Snowflake_ lay in a dead calm just outside the reef. Cyril
Mast took a good look at her. The snowy decks, the brilliant white
paint and the polished metal showing a hundred bright points of light
in the sunshine, told that this was no ordinary trader. Had the retreat
of the exiles been discovered at last? No, for the ship to come in that
case would be something sterner than this pretty toy. In a few minutes
he had changed his clothes; and now his collar, his necktie and his
waistcoat proclaimed his calling. He could manage a canoe excellently
himself--it was his favourite pastime when sober--but now his dignity
demanded that a couple of natives should propel him out through the
opening in the reef to the schooner’s side. The natives--as curious
as Mast--were eager for the work. At the moment the mad idea which
Mast subsequently carried out had not yet entered his head. All that
he wanted was to find out what the schooner was, and if possible to
get some break in the accursed monotony of his island life. He wanted,
pathetically, to exchange a few civilities with some white man who
did not know too much about him--to catch a glimpse of the outside
world that had been closed to him. That was why he wore the starched
dog-collar that was so uncomfortable, and the frayed black alpaca
jacket, and the waistcoat of clerical cut. He had not worn them for
ages; but he meant now, for an hour perhaps, to get back to the old
time, before certain events had made Faloo the only place in the world
for him.

Already there were many natives on the beach, adorned with wreaths and
necklaces of flowers, wearing holiday clothes. It might be of course
that the schooner was merely waiting for a wind, but perhaps a boat
would come ashore and there would be much festivity. Possibly some
order had come to them from King Smith, for a few of the natives who
would have launched their canoes were restrained by the others; and the
two men who had taken Cyril Mast out did not attempt to go on board. Of
King Smith himself nothing was to be seen. The white men still slept
peacefully in their bedrooms at the club, or in their own houses. The
schooner was Cyril Mast’s own discovery; none of the others knew of its
arrival.

On the deck of the _Snowflake_ Mr Lechworthy came forward with hand
outstretched.

“I don’t know your name, sir,” he said, “but I am glad and proud to
meet you. Missionary enterprise is a subject in which I take the
deepest interest. My name’s Lechworthy--you may have come across it in
connection with my business.”

Cyril Mast stammered his own name. He was astounded. He, the pariah,
the outcast, had been mistaken for a missionary. This man of wealth
and position was admiring his heroic self-sacrifice. And that beautiful
girl with the laughing eyes--

“Permit me, sir, to present you to my niece, Miss Auriol.”

Miss Auriol took one glance at his pimply, blotchy complexion, and in
great charity remembered that there was a complaint called prickly heat
and that a prolonged sojourn in the tropics must be unhealthy for a
European. She chatted freely. They expected to sail again later in the
morning, but were sending a boat ashore to see if they could get some
fresh fruit. Her uncle and she had thought of going in the boat and
getting an hour, perhaps, in Faloo.

As she spoke, Cyril Mast made up his mind. He would act the part that
had been given him. The deception could not be kept up for any length
of time, but it might be managed for one hour. It was simple enough
to call the club the mission-house. Few if any of the members would
be about at this hour, and he could manage to get breakfast served at
a table on the lawn outside the house. An hour in which to see this
beautiful English girl--

He found himself speaking rapidly. They must certainly come ashore and
have breakfast at the mission-house. His canoe would pilot their boat.
It would be the greatest pleasure for him to show them something of the
island. See, that was the mission-house there among the orange trees.

Hilda Auriol and her uncle agreed that it looked charming; the
invitation was at once accepted. Preparations for their departure and
the arrangements for their return were made at once. Cyril Mast’s
canoe flew over the water, the schooner’s boat following. Speaking
partly in the native tongue and partly in English he explained to the
crowd on the beach that the ship was “Mikonaree.” He would take the
“Mikonaree” and his daughter up to the club, where they wished to go.
The others--they must entertain them as best they could--would be going
up to the stores to buy things and the King would direct what was to be
done.

On their way up from the beach to the club-house Mr Lechworthy asked if
Mr Mast had been long on the island.

“Four years.”

“And never a holiday?”

“No,” said Mast, who every moment felt more like a real missionary,
“no, I have needed no holiday.”

“Rather lonely, I should think,” said Hilda.

“Well, one has one’s work. There are other white men on the island
too--traders and planters. You may possibly see some of them up at the
mission-house.”

Lechworthy began on the subject of his book--his projected work on the
missions of the South Seas. A native girl ran up with a necklace of
flowers for Hilda. Mast began to talk more easily and fluently, falling
into the part that had been assigned to him. He described King Smith,
that prodigy among natives, with accuracy and with some humour. He
was sketching the French Mission for his guests as they entered, with
exclamations of delight, the beautiful garden of the Exiles’ Club.
Somewhere at the back of his head Mast was wondering why King Smith had
not appeared. The arrival of a schooner constituted a great event. What
could he be doing?

Just at present the King sat in his office, deep in thought. Another
event had happened which made the schooner’s arrival of comparatively
little importance in his eyes. It was the first sign that his power
might not hold back the native outbreak, and it had come before he
expected it. In the early morning, while it was still dark, the King
as he lay awake had heard a scream--brief, agonised. It seemed to be
fairly near--a hundred yards or so away. He had lighted a lantern and
searched the scrub at the back of the stores. There he had found the
dead body of a white man with a native knife sticking in his throat.
The white man was Duncombe, and no complaint against him had ever
reached the King’s ears. It was a private revenge, and might not end
there.

The King decided and acted quickly. Already the body was buried out
of sight, covered with quicklime in a shallow grave. Hundreds of the
natives were in a state of angry ferment, held back by the King with
difficulty; if they saw that the first step had already been taken,
it would be impossible to hold them back at all. The King himself had
been the grave-digger and had kept his own counsel. Duncombe would be
missed at the Exiles’ Club that day. On the morrow his friends would
be anxiously searching for him. Meanwhile, the King would have found
out the assassin and would have used the strange gift with which
the natives credited him. He would talk to the man seriously in the
melodious native tongue, and say that he wished for his death. No other
step would be necessary. The man would go back to his hut, refuse food,
remain obstinately silent, and presently draw a cloth over his face and
die. In what way the death was caused the King could not have told you,
though once before he had used this gift. Modern science may choose
between an explanation by hypnotic suggestion, or a blunt denial of a
fact which has been credibly witnessed and reported.

In a few days the strange disappearance of Duncombe would be forgotten.
The King felt sure that for a while at any rate no further provocation
would come from the white men. The natives would quiet down again, and
their King would be free to follow the line of his own ambitions.

For the moment nothing else could be done. The King roused himself
and went out to look at the schooner. Word had already been brought
to him that this was not a trader. His interest was no more than
idle curiosity. He did not know that already there reclined in a
lounge-chair on the lawn of the Exiles’ Club the man for whom he had
been seeking. Lechworthy proposed to enjoy his hour or two in Faloo;
he also did not know. He did not know that he was destined to remain
in Faloo for days, and to meet with incidents that were but little
enjoyable.




CHAPTER IV


The Rev. Cyril Mast left his guests for a few minutes on the lawn,
while he went into the club to order breakfast. The hour was early, but
not unusually early, and the Exiles’ Club never closed. For a few hours
after midnight the staff was much diminished, and only one of the white
servants was on duty, but even then a member could always get anything
he wanted. At least two-thirds of the members had bedrooms at the club.

But to-day the club did not wear its air of morning freshness. The
soiled glasses and laden ash-trays of the night before were left still
on the little tables on the verandah and in the hall. Not enough
windows had been opened, and the sour smell of stale cigar-smoke
poisoned the place. Even the Rev. Cyril Mast, who was by no means
particular, noticed it. A reluctant native servant was sent to find
Thomas, and failed; a minute later Thomas arrived of his own volition
from the bedrooms, looking hurried and worried. His quick eye noticed
Mast’s clerical clothes.

“I say, Thomas,” said Mast, “this place is in a hell of a mess.”

“Yes, sir,” said Thomas, and gave a rapid order to two native servants.
“Very sorry, sir, but it’s all the schooner.”

“How do you mean?”

“It’s made so many of the gentlemen unusually early. Quite a little
excitement, when we first heard about it, sir. Seems it’s just a
chance visit from some missionary, but it’s meant more for us to do
here--gentlemen requiring baths and breakfasts. Three orders to give at
this moment.”

“Do that first, and then I can talk.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Thomas, and called down the speaking-tube.
“Drinking cokernut, large gin, ice and dry biscuit to Lord Charles. Got
that? Right. Tea and boiled eggs, Mr Bassett. Got that? Right. Those
two lots in the bedrooms at once. Coffee, two pork chops and stewed
pineapple to Mr Mandelbaum downstairs in twenty minutes. Yes, that’s
all. Now, sir, I’m ready.”

“I have two guests from the schooner--one of them is a lady--and I want
breakfast for them in the garden. And, look here, Thomas, they’re here
for only an hour or so, and we’ve got business, and if possible I don’t
want to be interrupted by any of the gentlemen. Put the table in some
secluded corner. See?”

“Certainly, sir. Sir John and Dr Soames Pryce are out already, sir, but
they will probably have gone to the beach, and I think there’s no other
gentleman down yet.”

As they settled the details of the breakfast more windows were opened
and a strong, fresh breeze blew in from the sea. Under the eye of
Thomas the native servants moved more quickly and order began to be
restored.

“You manage those beggars pretty well,” said Mast.

But Thomas was pessimistic. Four gallons of methylated spirits had been
stolen from the club stores, and for the life of him he couldn’t find
out which of his boys had got it. It was his belief that the only man
who could really manage them was King Smith.

The Rev. Cyril Mast had been careful to place chairs for his guests
where the orange-trees screened them from any view of the house. Mr
Lechworthy was perfectly contented to stay where he had been put. He
was quite happy, and he promised himself that presently he would
acquire valuable material for a sketch of a Protestant mission on one
of the smallest, the loneliest, and the most beautiful of the South Sea
islands. Meanwhile he had risen very early, and he had some ability for
the five-minute snooze. His head went back and the brim of his black
felt hat shaded his eyes. But Hilda Auriol had sighted a big parrot,
swaying on its perch in a patch of sunshine, and it was her wont to
make friends with all tame birds and beasts.

She went up and spoke to the parrot. The bird gave a husky cough,
imitated the act of expectoration, and began to say the three worst
things it knew. Then it sat blinking and thinking in silence. As Hilda
passed the verandah, the French windows of the card-room were flung
wide open, and she caught one glimpse of it--precisely as it had been
left the night before. She returned and roused Mr Lechworthy.

“There are at least sixteen missionaries here, uncle, which seems a
good many for such a small island. The sixteen play cards, drink, and
teach a parrot bad language. I don’t think I like them.”

Mr Lechworthy was much startled. “What do you mean, my dear?”

Hilda told him precisely what she had seen--the card-room with the four
tables, at all of which play had taken place, and the other tables
piled with glasses, gazogenes, and tiny decanters. She pointed out the
parrot, and once more the bird became clearly articulate and quite
reprehensible.

“I cannot understand it,” said Mr Lechworthy. “The thing’s
incomprehensible. I must see into this--there may be something which
I shall have to put a stop to. I ought not to have brought you here,
Hilda. You must leave me and get back to the boat at once.”

Hilda laughed. “Oh, no. We’ll see it through together. Here comes our
host.”

“Well, he shall have his chance to explain. He spoke of other white
men--traders and planters. They may be responsible. It is impossible
to believe that a minister of the true religion would--No, he will
explain.”

Hilda and her uncle went forward to meet Mast. They stood now in full
view of the house and close to the entrance to the garden. Mast was
voluble in his apologies. He was sorry to have kept them so long, but
he was afraid his native servants were not very intelligent. He feared
that breakfast would be rather primitive when it did arrive. But they
would have it in a spot from which one of the loveliest views in the
island could be obtained.

Mr Lechworthy smiled pleasantly. He and his niece preferred to live
quite simply, and it was most kind of Mr Mast to entertain them in any
case. “While we are waiting for breakfast, perhaps you will show us the
mission-house. We should particularly like to see that--the church,
too, that you built for the natives.”

Cyril Mast made three different excuses in three different sentences.
Lechworthy watched him narrowly, and drew one or two correct
conclusions. His pleasant smile vanished, and beneath their heavy brows
his eyes looked serious.

And then Bassett’s curious little figure appeared on the verandah. He
had hurried through his breakfast and was hastening down to the beach
to find out what he could of the schooner. But he was scarcely outside
the doors before the wind, blowing now with increasing force, caught
up his big felt hat and whirled it into the bushes. Bassett chased
his hat, and for the moment did not notice the little group by the
orange-trees. But Lechworthy’s quick eye had already recognised him.

“That man over there--is he also engaged in missionary work?”

“Yes. In a sense, yes,” stammered Mast. “He--”

“It will be interesting to talk to him about it. I happen to know him,
and I will call him. Bassett!”

Bassett was startled and turned sharply. He came very slowly across
the lawn, much as a dog comes to his master for punishment. What on
earth was Lechworthy doing in Faloo? Was he, too, flying from justice?
That would explain the arrival of the schooner and the fact that he
was evidently on friendly terms with Cyril Mast. But Bassett had to
put that notion aside. Knowing Lechworthy, he knew that it was not
possible. And Bassett was very much afraid. What did Lechworthy mean
to do? Well, he must put the best face on it he could. A defence that
would be torn to rags in court might seem plausible enough in Faloo.

“Good-morning, Mr Lechworthy,” said Bassett. “This is a great surprise.
Morning, Mast.”

“Bassett,” said Lechworthy, “Mr Mast, whom I had not met before,
brought us here from my schooner. He has told me that you are
associated with him in his missionary work here. Now you, Bassett, I
have met many times before, and I know your history.”

But it was not Bassett who answered; it was Cyril Mast, whose face was
white and twitched curiously.

“This is my fault, Mr Lechworthy,” said Mast. “I had not meant to
represent myself to you as a missionary. But you made the mistake, and
I was tempted to go on with it.”

“Yes,” said Lechworthy, quietly. “I don’t think I see why. You hardly
seem to be enjoying a practical joke.”

“Don’t you? For four years I have not spoken with a decent white man
or woman. We are all the same here--and we’re here because there’s
no other place left. If you had known about me--the truth about
me--you would not have spoken to me at all. That’s all. Don’t ask me
any questions, please. I’m going to leave you now. Get back to the
schooner at once; any of the natives on the beach will find a canoe for
you.”

Without a word to Bassett Mast raised his hat and turned away. He went
up the steps of the verandah and into the club-house.

“I think,” said Hilda, “that his advice is good. It’s blowing hard now,
and the _Snowflake_ can’t lie where she is--with the reef on her lee.”

“Yes, my dear, we will go. But I must have a few words with Mr Bassett
in private. Go on ahead of us a little.”

And now Bassett found his tongue. “You must not pay any attention to
what Mast said, Mr Lechworthy. Mast is a good fellow, but he suffers
from fits of morbid depression in which he believes himself to have
done horrible things--the life here is very lonely, you know--no
amusements of any kind--nobody to speak to.”

Lechworthy thought of the card-tables. “Bassett,” he said, “it’s not
about Mast but about yourself that I wish to speak. Many have looked
for you and have not found you. I have found you unwittingly--I think
because I was sent to find you. You are a thief, Bassett. You are a
murderer, for one of those poor women whose property you stole took
her own life.”

“I am absolutely innocent, Mr Lechworthy. I have a complete
explanation. You--should be careful, sir. I have seen men shot dead on
this island for saying less than you have said to me.”

“Do not try to frighten me, Bassett. I am ready for death when God
wills, and death will come no sooner than that. You are coming back
home with me, Bassett. You’ve fled to the far corner of the earth, and
it’s no use; your sin has found you out. You are coming back to take
your trial, and, if need be, your punishment. Do that, and I will help
you by all the means in my power. I will help you to make your peace
with man and to something better--your peace with God. It’s the one way
to happiness. You’ll find no way here. Turn back for nothing. Come now,
this moment.”

Even as he spoke Bassett had made his plan. Hilda, a few yards in front
of them, turned round. “Which way?” she called.

“The little track to the right, if you please,” called Bassett, “it’s
the shortest.” Then he turned to Lechworthy. “I will come,” he said.
“I put myself in your hands unreservedly.”

The little track to the right was very narrow and led through thick
scrub, damp and odorous with the scent of the frangipani bushes. Hilda,
well on ahead, fought her way through a tangle of lianas. Behind her
came Lechworthy, crouching and going gingerly, serenely happy. Behind
him at a little distance came Bassett, his hat under his arm, sweating
profusely, the revolver which he had taken out from his pocket held
clumsily in his shaking right hand.

And some way behind Bassett, going far faster than any of them, and
unseen by any of them, came the lithe figure of King Smith.

Just as Bassett fired the King’s club came down heavily on his head.
Hilda turned with a cry, as she heard the report, and struggled back
again to her uncle. Mr Lechworthy had at last found a place where he
could stand upright and ease his aching back. He held his black felt
hat in his hand, and examined the bullet-hole in the rim with a mild,
inquiring benevolent eye.

“You are not hurt, uncle?”

“Not in the least, my dear, thanks to this gentleman.”

“Get up,” said King Smith to Bassett.

Dazed, rubbing his sore head with one hand, Bassett staggered to his
feet. He looked from one to the other bewildered. In this wind, that
gave a voice to every bush, he had not heard the approach of King
Smith. And now his revolver lay on the ground, and the King’s foot was
on it, and it was the King who spoke in a way that Bassett had not
heard before.

“I have finished with you. Go where you like and do what you like. And
a little before midnight you will die.”

It was the definite sentence of death, and Bassett knew it.
Half-stunned as he was, he could still lie and make a defence.

He began an explanation. He had taken out the revolver to draw the
cartridges and stumbled. The thing was a pure accident. But of course
King Smith was not in earnest. He could not sentence a white man to
death like that. He would be elected to the white men’s club in a few
days. The white men were his partners in business, and--

The King cut him short. “It is to the King and not to the trader that
you speak now,” he said, as he picked up Bassett’s revolver. “Do not
compel me to shoot you where you stand. It is better that you should
have a few hours to arrange your affairs. Shortly before midnight,
remember.”

Bassett turned away in silence. Certainly the white men would act
together and stop an outrage of this kind. He must see Sir John and Dr
Pryce at once.

The King was transformed immediately from a stern judge into a
courteous man. He made many apologies to Lechworthy. He brought news
from the _Snowflake_, from which he had just returned. The wind had got
up so suddenly that there had been no time to send for Lechworthy; the
schooner had run for the lee of the island.

“I think, Mr Lechworthy, that the English have a proverb that it is an
ill wind which blows nobody any good. I confess that I am very glad to
get this opportunity of speaking with you. You can help us very much
in this island if you will. Of course my palace in the interior will
be entirely at the disposal of yourself and your niece. A guard will
be placed there, and I can guarantee your personal safety. I will do
my best for your comfort. And in a day or two, when the hurricane has
blown itself out, you shall go on your way again if you will.”

“We owe you our lives, sir,” said Mr Lechworthy with some dignity. “And
now we must thank you for your hospitality as well. It is as though God
had sent you to save us. We shall come to you willingly and with the
utmost gratitude.”

“Yes, indeed,” said Hilda.

“Perhaps,” said the King, “you will do me a greater service than
anything I am able to do for you. Now, if you will follow me back to
the next clearing, some of my people will be waiting for us.”

“There’s just one thing,” said Hilda, hesitatingly. She had never
spoken to a King before, and she was rather shy about it.

“Yes?” said the King, smiling. “The schooner? It will be quite safe.”

“I’m afraid,” said Hilda, “that I meant--er--clothes.”

“I foresaw that,” said the King. “Everything in that way that could be
got together in the few minutes that we had to spare has already been
brought ashore in my canoes. If there is anything further that you
would like, another canoe will go out to the schooner as soon as it is
practicable.”

“Thanks so much,” said Hilda, fervently.

They retraced their steps to the clearing, for the path by which
Bassett had taken them led only into the scrub. Many natives were in
waiting, full of smiles and excitement. To one group after another the
King gave rapid yet careful directions. Some sped inland and others
down to the beach. Presently some twenty of the native boys were racing
on bicycles up the road to the King’s house. Soon only two of the
natives remained, two girls of surpassing beauty, chosen by the king
from many aspirants. The King turned to Hilda.

“Miss Auriol, these two girls wish to be your friends, and to do
everything that you want while you are on the island. They will be in
attendance upon you while you are at my house, if you will let them
come. They are of my kin, and they speak a little English. If you will
have them, you will make them very happy.”

Hilda had already been watching the girls with frank admiration. “Oh,
yes, please,” she said eagerly. “There is nothing I should have liked
better.”

Tiva and Ioia flew to her side at once. Hilda made in them pleasant
discoveries of shyness, _naïveté_, curiosity, the utmost friendliness,
and a delicious sense of humour. Their questions were many and amazing,
their broken English made her laugh, and their laughter echoed her own.
Even in the short descent to the beach, these fascinating people made
her forget how near she had been to tragedy. The beautiful island of
Faloo that had begun to be dark and hateful to her took up its charm
again.

Behind the group of girls walked Mr Lechworthy in placid converse with
the King.

“Events happen quickly here,” said Lechworthy. “A bogus missionary--a
meeting with an absconding solicitor, whom I knew in his better
days--an attempt to murder me--my escape, for which I thank you, sir,
and, unhappily, the sentence of death.” He hesitated, and then ventured
to point out that in England an attempt to murder was punished less
severely.

To the ignorant native the English practice seemed to be illogical and
to put a premium on bad shooting. But he did not raise this point. He
said that he had never pronounced sentence on a white man before,
though the white men in his island had done much wrong. This was not
the only offence that Bassett had committed, and it was necessary that
he should die. “Here, you see, I am the King and the law--and my island
is not England. It is all different. You will see later.”

There was a pause, and then the King said, “I already know something
of you, Mr Lechworthy. I read your speeches at the time of the South
African war, and an article about you which appeared a year or more
ago in a paper called the _Spectator_. I have your pamphlet about
Setton Park, and I have many copies of the _Morning Guide_ containing
articles signed by you. I cannot tell you with what joy I found it was
you that the _Snowflake_ had brought. You, perhaps more than any other
Englishman, can help us here.”

“Every minute, sir, I become more surprised. Here, many hundreds of
miles from civilisation, I find a native king who speaks English like
an Englishman, procures and reads the English papers, even knows
something of such a seventh-rate politician and busy-body as myself.
But, sir, with the best will in the world to help you in any way that
my conscience permits, I don’t see what I am to do.”

“If you are kind enough to permit me to dine with you to-night, I will
explain everything.”

They had reached the beach, and once more the King changed the subject.

“You breakfasted at the Exiles’ Club? No? I thought perhaps that might
be so. Well, it is all ready here.” The King led the way to a broad
balcony of his unofficial residence, well sheltered from the wind. “You
will be more comfortable at my house inland--here there is not much.”

Certainly, the plates and cups were of various patterns and had seen
service; the forks and spoons were not coated with a precious metal,
and the use of the Union Jack as a cloth to the low breakfast-table
could only be excused by those who saw that a compliment was intended.
But Mr Lechworthy drank the best coffee he had met in the islands, and
devoured in blind faith delicious fruits of which he did not even know
the names. “Also very good,” he murmured at every fresh experiment.
King Smith had business needing his attention elsewhere, and it was
Tiva and Ioia who waited upon his guests. Nominally these two girls
did not breakfast, but Tiva ate sugar when she happened to come across
it, and Ioia drank coffee out of Hilda’s cup when Hilda had finished
with it. In the intervals they learned the word “Hilda,” and exchanged
the story of the robber-crab for hints on hair-dressing. Of their own
toilette they spoke with an innocent freedom, utterly open-air and
natural, which to some European girls might have been disconcerting.
But Hilda had picked up the right point of view, an invaluable
possession to the traveller anywhere. She had talked and played with
native girls in Tahiti and other islands, but she had found nothing so
charming as Tiva and Ioia.

“When shall we go on to the palace?” Hilda asked.

“Sometime--plenty quick,” said Tiva. The answer was not precise; but
then to Tiva the question was idle, for what on earth does time matter?

“I wonder,” said Mr Lechworthy, “if you could tell us anything about
this palace? It must be an interesting place.”

Mr Lechworthy inspired the girls with some awe. It was quite clear to
them that he was a very great chief indeed, and possibly King Edward
VII. Never before had King Smith received any white man in this way.
Wherefore Tiva hid her face in Hilda’s shoulder. Ioia said thoughtfully
that the palace was a “plenty-plenty big house.” She had thoughts of
adding a few picturesque inventions--it was so hard for her not to give
everybody everything they wanted--but she refrained. It subsequently
transpired, in talk with Hilda, that neither Tiva nor Ioia had ever
seen the King’s official residence. It stood in a big garden, hidden by
trees, and the whole place had been taboo to all native women. A few of
the native men had charge of it, and no one else had been allowed to
enter. This would be changed now. Tiva and Ioia were to reside there as
long as Hilda remained, and it was clear that they looked forward with
delight to this privilege and, possibly, to the satisfaction of their
curiosity.

King Smith himself announced that all was now ready for the drive to
his house in the interior. There were two light, well-built buggies,
with island ponies harnessed to them. Hilda and her two attendants
went in the first vehicle, followed by the King and Mr Lechworthy.
The luggage had already gone on, borne on the heads of natives. The
drive was along a wide, white-powdered road, bordered on either side by
groves of palms. Glorious bougainvilleas made streams and splashes of
colour. The tall utu scattered its graceful plumes of rose and white.
Sheltered though the road was, the travellers could hear the roar of
the wind, and now and then a soft thud, as a nut heavily-husked thumped
to the ground.

As they went, the King told Lechworthy all that he wished to know about
the Exiles’ Club.

“But how can you permit it, sir--this lazar-house, this refuge for the
worst scum of Europe polluting your beautiful kingdom?”

“I have not only permitted it, I have even--in vain--tried to become a
member of the club. I have done even worse. My friend, if a man wishes
to escape from a prison, he will use good tools, if he has them, to
break through the walls. And if he has not good tools, he will use
anything that comes to his hand--rusty iron, old nails, anything. And
he will use them even if they hurt his hand and put a festering wound
in it.”

“Yes, sir, I see what you mean. I will not judge hastily. To-night, I
think you said--”

“To-night I tell you everything. You will find much to condemn, much
that is hateful to you. But you love liberty and you will help my
people in spite of all. Then I shall no longer need the bad tools, and
I shall put them down. And as for the festering wound in my hand, I
shall burn it with a little gunpowder and in time it will be made whole
again.”

Lechworthy, watching him as he spoke, was conscious that he had found
here a master among men, clear in purpose, indomitable in pursuit of
it. But where was the man’s Christianity? What were his political
purposes? Was there no danger in being drawn into them? Well, that
night he would see. He had already found that the King could be
inexorable, and that it seemed impossible to procure postponement of
the execution of Bassett even by one single hour.

Bassett himself was horribly frightened, but he did not believe that
the sentence of death would be carried out. For the moment King Smith
was angry; later in the day Bassett would see him again, or would get
Sir John to do it for him. He would persist, of course, that the shot
was accidental. Besides, King Smith might be pleased to say that he did
not speak as a trader, but he still was a trader, and on the trader
the members of the Exiles’ Club could bring very stringent and serious
pressure to bear. If the King still persisted--well, it was easy enough
for him to pronounce sentence, but he would find it impossible to carry
it out.

In the hall of the club Mr Bassett found the Rev. Cyril Mast and Lord
Charles Baringstoke. The latter was shivering in pale blue pyjamas and
an ulster; he had not yet bathed, neither had he brushed his yellow
hair. The two men were getting on well with a bottle of doubtful
champagne.

“Hullo, Mr damned Bassett,” said his lordship. “You’ve got a lot of
blood on your collar. Somebody been crackin’ your egg for you?”

Bassett took no notice of him. He turned upon Mast and swore hard at
him. So choked was he with rage that he could hardly articulate. He
repeated himself over and over again. Had Mast gone clean out of his
mind? What had he done it for? What had he brought Lechworthy there
for? Lechworthy of all people! He stormed and spluttered his abuse.

“Lechworthy was my guest and you can mind your own business,” said
Mast, sullenly, and refilled his glass. “If you swear at me again, I’ll
hit you.”

“My business?” screamed Bassett--but he did not swear this time. “Why,
wait till you’ve heard. We’re done--every man of us--and all the result
of your folly. You haven’t seen King Smith, but I have--and he means to
take my life to-night. Oh, what’s the good of talking to you boozers?
Where’s Pryce? Where’s Sir John?”

“Ask the waiter,” said Mast.

“Look here, old friend, I’ll tell you. Pryce and Sir John went out
to find Duncombe,” said Lord Charles. “Duncombe’s been stopping out
all night. Naughty, naughty! And won’t he catch it from Sir Jonathan
Gasbags? Jaw, jaw, jaw! Lordy, I had some of it yesterday! I say,
Bassett, has anything really been happening? Because, if so, I should
like to be in it. Why, there they are!”

Sir John and Dr Soames Pryce entered from the verandah. Mast and
Bassett both began to speak at once, angrily and in a high voice. Lord
Charles Baringstoke gave a quite good imitation of a north-country
pitman encouraging a dog-fight. The noise was terrific. Members came
out from the reading-room to see what was happening. Servants paused on
the stairs to watch.

Sir John’s walking-cane came down with a crack on the table before him.
“Silence!” he roared. And he got it.

“Now then,” he said severely, “is this a club or a bear-garden?
You--members of the committee--behaving like this? Now, Mr Bassett.
Now, sir, I’ll hear you first. And don’t shout, please.”

“A most serious thing has happened, Sir John. I fear that we’re done
for. I must see you and Dr Pryce in private about it. And the whole
thing’s due to the damned folly of this man Mast.”

The champagne bottle whizzed past his head, missing him by a
hair’s-breadth and smashing on the opposite wall. Mast would have
followed up the attack, but he met a quick fist with the weight of Dr
Pryce behind it; the lounge-chair on which he fell collapsed under him,
and he lay sprawling on the floor.

“You all seem very excited,” said Dr Pryce, cheerfully. “I would
suggest, Sweetling, that you and Mr Bassett go off to his room, and
I’ll join you there in a minute.”

“Very well,” said Sir John. “Come on, Mr Bassett. This must be
discussed quietly.”

“Get up, old cockie,” said Dr Pryce, extending a hand to Mast. “Made
up your mind to bring disgrace on the cloth this morning, haven’t you?
You’ve been drinking too much. Go and lie down for a bit--you can’t
stand it, you know.”

“You’re a good chap, Pryce,” said Mast. “Perhaps I can stand it and
perhaps I can’t. But I’m going on with it for this day anyhow. Thomas,
I say, where’s Thomas?”

“Go to the devil your own way then,” said Pryce, and followed Sir John
and Mr Bassett.

Lord Charles Baringstoke turned to the on-lookers. “Seem very cross,
don’t they?” he said. “Now is anybody going to stand me one little
brandy before I go up to bathe my sinful body?”

In the secretary’s room Bassett’s story was told at length. Sir John
listened to it with gravity and Dr Soames Pryce with a sardonic
smile. In the main Bassett stuck to the facts, but he lied when he
said that Mast was drunk when he brought Lechworthy to the club. “I
left Lechworthy with King Smith, and he can’t have got back to the
_Snowflake_. So I suppose that he’s with the King now.”

“Most likely,” said Sir John, drumming on the table with his nails.
“See, Pryce? Remember what I said? Well, the King’s got into touch at
last. Lord knows what Lechworthy was doing here, though.”

“Yes,” said Pryce. “That is so. The illustrious visitor will stop at
His Majesty’s official residence. That is why we met that gang of boys
cycling up there.”

“It was the worst of luck,” whined Bassett. “If King Smith hadn’t come
up just at that moment I should have saved the situation. You see that,
of course.”

“No, I don’t,” said Sir John.

“Bassett, my poor friend,” said Dr Pryce, “you’ve made every possible
blunder. I can’t think of one that you’ve left out. I’m not going to
argue about it, but it is so. So don’t brag about saving situations.”

“You express my own opinion,” said Sir John. “And the consequences of
your blunders, Bassett, are likely to be serious.”

“Anyhow, the consequences are serious. The most serious of all is that
my life is threatened.”

Dr Pryce laughed.

“You’ll pardon us if we don’t think so,” said Sir John. “But you can
cheer up, Bassett. Threatened men sometimes live long. Remain in the
club. It will be well guarded to-night. Every precaution will be taken.
Smith simply can’t get at you--short of a general attack on the white
men by the natives, and he won’t risk that. It wouldn’t suit his book
at all just now. Meanwhile, you appeal to Lechworthy.”

“Surely he’s the last man in the world to--”

“He’s the only man who’s likely to have much influence with King Smith
just now, and he won’t approve of irregular executions. If he asks to
be allowed to take you back to England, he’ll probably get you. And
it’s better to go than to die--also, you can probably give him the slip
somewhere or other on the way.”

“Yes,” said Bassett, rubbing his chin. “There’s that. There’s always
that.”

“Look here, Bassett,” said Dr Pryce, suddenly, “we shall want four
or five good men to patrol outside from sunset to midnight--sober men
who can shoot and know when to shoot--Hanson and Burbage are the right
type. Go now and find them.”

“I’ll do it at once. Shall I bring them here?”

“No. Just get their names. I’ll talk to them later.”

“And, I say, wouldn’t it be a good thing if we elected King Smith a
member now?”

“Might as well offer a mad buck-elephant a lump of sugar. You go and
find those men.”

“Now,” said Dr Pryce, as soon as Bassett had gone.

“Smith will tell Lechworthy everything. Lechworthy goes home with our
names in his pocket. Therefore he must not go home.”

“Certainly. Nor must other people go home with similar information.”

“They must not,” said Sir John. “Therefore we must get a man on board
the _Snowflake_. That ship must be lost with crew and passengers. Our
man may be able to save himself or he may not. It’s a devilish risky
business. Still, money will tempt people.”

“I wouldn’t trust a paid man on that job,” said Pryce. He reflected
a minute. “My lot’s thrown in with the sinners. Tell you what,
Sweetling--I’ll do it myself.”




CHAPTER V


The societies that are to be permanent grow without plan, much as a
coral island grows. The schemed Utopia never lives; it leaves no room
for compromise and becomes pot-bound; it guards with wise foresight
against numberless events which never happen, and the unforeseen event
blows in upon it and kills it.

The Exiles’ Club had never been planned at all. The first of its
members to arrive at Faloo--Sir John Sweetling--had not the slightest
intention of starting such a club. He was a man of considerable ability
and he had been clever enough to see that the smash of his tangled
operations was inevitable, and that any defence would be wasted
speciousness. Recalling to himself a voyage which he had once made
as a young man, he left before the smash came and while he still had
considerable means at his disposal, even if he had no legal claim upon
them. A chance of that early voyage had shown him Faloo, and it was
his intention to lie concealed in Faloo for two or three years and then
under a different name to resume his business career in San Francisco.

He found himself hospitably received by the priests of a small French
mission and by the King of the island. With the former he never became
on intimate terms, and he took occasions to tell them more than once
that he was by education and conviction a member of the Church of
England. But he found the King interesting--in his ambitions and
energetic character, as well as in his education and appearance,
totally unlike any island native of whom Sir John had ever heard.

Sir John noted, too, that the island had considerable natural
resources, and that these were capable of development; labour was in
any case cheap and plentiful, and, if he worked in with the King,
forced labour would also be available. The King was a poor man, owning
nothing but the land which he had inherited, within sight of wealth but
unable to reach it for want of the knowledge and capital without which
it was impossible to trade. Sir John had always assimilated quickly and
eagerly any kind of business knowledge, and he had picked up a good
deal of useful information about the island trade; his capital was safe
and at his command. Before long he had entered into a partnership with
the King, and had purchased from him land and plantations in one of the
most delightful spots in the island.

Of natural and inherent vice Sir John had very little. Crimes of
violence and passion were distasteful to him. A love of money and
position had drawn him gradually into a career of gross and abominable
fraud, but it is doubtful if he ever saw it as fraud himself--technical
error, committed with the best intentions, is how he would have
characterised it. In the days of his prosperity at home he had been
rather a generous man. A church in a London suburb boasted a pulpit of
coloured marble, which had been the gift of Sir John Sweetling, and
the munificence of the donor had been the subject of a complimentary
reference in a sermon; nor would it be safe to say that at the time he
made this presentation, though it was practically paid for with stolen
money, he was altogether a hypocrite. He loved decency and order. He
was always anxious that the proper form should be observed. He loathed
that slackness of fibre which leads men to unshaven chins or made-up
neckties. His orderly characteristics remained fairly constant, even in
a soft and enervating climate, although in other respects, as we have
already seen, circumstances and the Exiles’ Club considerably modified
him. At the time of his arrival at Faloo he did not realise that he was
cornered. He prepared a return to the outside world.

He was soon convinced that not in two or in twenty years would it
be safe for him to show himself. He had trusted friends in England
who knew at least where letters could be addressed to him, and they
kept him informed. At his own request he was sent copies of what
the Press had to say about his disappearance. He read it all with
amazement and with extreme but temporary depression. These writers, it
seemed to him, were actuated by spite and expressed themselves with
virulence. They ignored facts which should have told, more or less,
in his favour. They credited him with no honest desire to restore
money, had his speculations been more successful. They put the worst
constructions on these “technical” lapses. In the case of a prospectus
they seemed to be unable to distinguish between deliberate lies and an
overstatement incidental to a sanguine temperament. He had never said
to himself, “Let us steal this money”; he had merely said, “Let us
make this investment look as attractive as we can.” And does not every
tradesman try to make his goods look attractive? Is there any close and
ungarnished accuracy about the ordinary advertisement? Sir John felt
angry and sore at the view which had been taken; but he put his San
Francisco scheme aside.

And then gradually were interwoven the cords which bound him to Faloo
for ever. Two men, who had been personal friends of Sir John’s and
associated with him in business, skipped their bail and joined him
at Faloo. It was natural and convenient that the three men should
live together, and their house was the nucleus of the building which
afterwards became the Exiles’ Club. Through them came a further
widening of the circle. The secret was kept for the discreet, and
among them was a city solicitor. He knew when to talk about it. He had
among his clients families of the highest respectability, and all such
families have their black sheep. The Colonies might prove inhospitable
and America too inquisitive, but there was always Faloo--for people who
could afford to get there and to live there. To Sir John belonged the
prestige of the explorer and pioneer; it was to him that the new-comer
came for advice, and occasionally for investment. Sir John sold part
of his interest in the island trade to a syndicate, and part of his
land to the white community, taking in each case such profit as his
conscience allowed. His abilities, too, were admitted. He was a born
organiser. It pleased and amused him to undertake the work of providing
European luxuries in an almost unknown island hundreds of miles from
anywhere. His judgment was unerring in welcoming any desirable addition
to the fraternity and in arranging for the speedy deportation of the
undesirable. Men with no money or education were as a rule excluded.
“We want gentlemen here,” said Sir John, and struck the right note at
once. But he saw the usefulness of that ex-waiter from the Cabinet
Club, and Thomas had no trouble in making good his position on the
island.

The position of director and adviser rather pleased Sir John; the
position of President of the Exiles’ Club pleased him far more and
sealed him to Faloo. It was a chance suggestion which led to the
formation of the club. Six men sat over their Sauterne and oysters one
evening and listened to the music of the surf. Presently one of them
(nobody afterwards remembered which one) said, “Sort of little club of
exiles, ain’t we?”

There was a moment’s pause, and then Sir John, already with a foretaste
of the presidential manner, said, “Well, gentlemen, it rests with you.
I’m ready to put my money down if you others are. The thing can be
done, and done well. Club-house and grounds, decent service, everything
comfortable and in order. Why not?”

They discussed it during the greater part of that night, and they all
worked very hard at it during the month that followed, planning and
superintending the construction of the only two-storied building on the
island. Sir John had always been a great gardener, and Blake, one of
the earliest arrivals, had made a hobby of his workshop. The special
knowledge proved very useful. Sir John was told that English turf was
impossible. “We shall have our lawn just the same,” said Sir John. And
ultimately, at great trouble and expense, they did have it.

The club never had any other President than Sir John. If Smith, as the
white men called him, was the hereditary king of the natives, Sir John
was by common consent the symbol of authority for the white men. Lord
Charles Baringstoke had not a respectful manner, and frequently alluded
to Sir John Sweetling as Jonathan Gasbags, but he would never have
dreamed of opposing his annual re-election to the presidency.

Customs grew as convenience demanded, and rules were made as they
were wanted. The rules were kept almost invariably by every member
of the club; a reprimand from Sir John was sufficient to prevent the
repetition of any lapse, and the feeling of the majority of members
was always against the transgressor. At first sight this may seem
extraordinary. There was but one man in the club who was not wanted by
the police. It included men like Lord Charles Baringstoke, who did not
possess, and never had possessed, any moral sense. There were others,
like Cyril Mast, who had killed what was good in them and become
slaves to the most ignoble indulgences. There were members who seemed
for ever on the verge of an outbreak of maniacal violence, and there
were some who were at times sunk in a suicidal melancholy. It might
have been foretold that such a club would be doomed to destruction by
the riot and rebellion of its own members. But that forecast would have
proved incorrect.

It is, after all, a commonplace that when anarchy has removed all
existing laws and government, the construction of a fresh government
and new laws will next have to occupy its attention. Those who had
rebelled against an elaborate legal system, bore with patience the
easier yoke which was devised for their own special needs, and often at
their own suggestion and instigation, in the island of Faloo. Too high
an ideal was not set for them. Every form of gambling was permitted,
except gambling on credit. Among the exiles there was neither bet nor
business unless the money was in sight. Intoxication was frequent with
some of the members, and was not condemned, but it was recognised
that its propriety was a matter of time and place. As ritual survives
religion, etiquette survives morality, and no member of the Exiles’
Club would have committed the offence of tipping a club servant; nor
would he have stormed at a waiter however bad the service might have
been, but would simply have backed his bill. There was no definite rule
against profanity, and its use was common enough, but there were two or
three men in the club--one of them murdered his own mother--in whose
presence the rest kept a certain check on their tongues. The principle
was generally accepted that the life of a member, so far as it
concerned other members, began with his arrival at Faloo. Confidences
were not sought; if, as rarely happened, they were volunteered they
were not welcomed, lest they should demand confidences in return.
Briefly, the men, troubled no longer with a complex civilisation, had
made for themselves their simple conditions of life, and such law as
was involved by those conditions they respected.

Two other considerations made for the permanence and well-being of the
club. Few of its members were habitual criminals; they were mostly men
who had ruined their lives with one thing, and in other matters had
been normally respectable, and even over the worst men in the club
the climate seemed to exercise a curiously quieting and mollifying
influence. Secondly, it was very generally realised that Faloo was the
last station, the jumping-off place. There was nothing beyond it, and
there was no other chance.

Sir John had already stated at the election meeting some of the reasons
which bound him to Faloo. It may be added that he thoroughly enjoyed
his position. The society in which he lived was small, but it held
itself to be the superior society of the island, and it bestowed on him
the first place. He had been the great man of his suburb, and he found
it to be almost equally satisfactory to be the great man of Faloo. The
exploitation of a native king was work which was quite to his taste,
and at the same time it was easy work. Shrewd and educated though the
King was, he showed himself quite native, and pathetically ignorant at
first in matters of business. Sir John had but to say that this or that
was common form, or the usual European practice, and the King accepted
it at once. But the King learned quickly, and at a later period he had
about taken Sir John’s measure, as Sir John himself was aware.

Nor had Sir John any delusions about his fellow-members. His manner was
genial; he would gamble and drink (in moderation) with the sinners. But
in his heart he despised most of them. They had never had the great
idea and the Napoleonic collapse. Their weakness and not their strength
had been their ruin. It was not their mind but their body that had run
away with them. Sir John had not lived the life of an ascetic, far from
it, but his tastes were in favour of a decent reserve and a sufficient
moderation. From no man will the slave of the flesh receive more hearty
contempt than from the man of the world; and in the difficult task of
his reclamation it may be that the sneer of the worldling has sometimes
effected more than the tears of the spiritual.

Yet even in his contempt for many of his fellow-members he found
some source of gratification. He liked to wonder where on earth they
would have been without him, and to feel his sense of responsibility
increased. From their depth he could contemplate with the more
satisfaction his own eminence.

But there were a few members whom Sir John could regard with more
respect. Bassett, for instance, had worked admirably for the club,
and had shown something of Sir John’s own talent for organisation. He
had now lost his head in a crisis and acted, Sir John considered, like
a fool. However, he would get a good scare--Sir John doubted if the
King had really intended more than that--and would not be likely to
act on impulse again. Then there was Hanson, a quiet man and an ardent
chess-player. He had character and ability, and Sir John hoped that he
would one day replace the Rev. Cyril Mast on the committee. Mast had
a gift for public speaking, and owed his election to it, but Sir John
found him quite useless. Probably the man whom Sir John liked most,
respected most, trusted most and understood least was Dr Pryce.

The men were as different as possible. Dr Pryce had never shown the
slightest interest in the working of the syndicate which financed
Smith, although he was a member of it. He had been approached by Sir
John on the subject, had put down his money without inquiry, and
apparently had never thought about the subject again. In an ordinary
way Sir John would have taken this as evidence that the man was a
fool, but Pryce’s rather various abilities could not be doubted. The
doctor’s contempt for vain assumption sometimes wounded Sir John, who
habitually called his own vain assumptions by prettier names. Pryce
never pretended to be any better than his fellow-members, nor had
he that not uncommon form of perverted vanity which made a man like
Mast pretend sometimes to be the greatest of sinners. Sir John had
a sufficiency of physical courage for ordinary uses, but Pryce had
shown himself on many occasions to be absolutely reckless of his own
life. This had occurred not only in such forms of sport as the island
afforded, but more frequently in the practice of his science; the
island offered drugs that were not in the pharmacopœia, and Pryce,
in his enthusiastic study of them, did not stop short at experiments
upon himself. It was a great thing, Sir John felt, to have an able and
qualified doctor in the club, and with his customary generosity he
suggested that a consignment of drugs and apparatus from London for the
doctor should be charged to the club account. Pryce replied that his
little box of rubbish was paid for already, and changed the subject.

The present crisis in the club’s affairs brought out strongly the
changes in Sir John’s character. The cornered rat was showing fight.
Sir John contemplated the destruction of the _Snowflake_ and all aboard
her without the faintest feeling of remorse. But Pryce’s careless offer
to undertake the work did not satisfy him.

The man who scuttled the _Snowflake_ in mid-ocean would probably be
committing suicide; Sir John had no doubt about that. And Pryce was too
valuable to lose. Why, Sir John himself might be taken ill at any time.
There was a queer form of island fever, as to which he was nervous. The
King himself had suffered from it.

And on further consideration Sir John doubted the feasibility of the
scheme. By this time Lechworthy probably knew all about the Exiles’
Club, and would see for himself the danger that he represented to them;
Bassett’s attempt to murder him would have illuminated the question.
Under the circumstances it was unlikely that he would allow any member
of the club on board the _Snowflake_, unless possibly his religious
feelings were involved and that member played the part of a repentant
and converted sinner. And Sir John knew that Pryce would not do that.

“We’ll think about it, Pryce,” he said finally. “There may be some
other way. Something may turn up.”




CHAPTER VI


The King’s house was built bungalow fashion. The rooms were large and
lofty, and opened on to a broad verandah; the furniture was scanty
but sufficient, and much of it was of native workmanship; only in the
bedrooms did the Auckland-imported suites reign supreme. The walls were
hung with printed cloths or matting woven in intricate and elaborate
designs. In every room banks of flowers gave audacious but splendid
colour, and young palms yielded a cool green relief. The garden was
not less lovely because many of its natural features had been left
unaltered. The little stream that leaped from the crag into the pool
twelve feet below had fallen, just there and just so, long before
the exiles had come to Faloo, long before the King’s grandfather had
died--of alcohol and excessive passions. The white paths curved and
twisted through innumerable shrubberies, and lost themselves in deep
cool shade. Here and there were broad stretches of tufty unmown grass,
and long hedges of hibiscus aflame with scarlet.

Hilda was principally fascinated by all that was native. The extremely
fine work of the matting on the walls interested her, the great garden
enthralled her. To Tiva and Ioia it was more remarkable that for the
first time in their lives they had seen themselves reflected in a
full-length mirror; this wonder of civilisation adorned the wardrobe in
Hilda’s room. Mr Lechworthy, attended by King Smith, noted with great
satisfaction that his room possessed a spring mattress and a tin bath,
and that his Bible, his camera and his clothes had arrived safely.
Even as he examined them a letter was handed to him which a messenger
from the Exiles’ Club had just brought. It was an agonised letter from
Bassett, repeating that he had fired by accident, proclaiming the
deepest repentance for his past life, expressing his desire to return
with Lechworthy to England and there to stand his trial. Lechworthy
handed it to King Smith.

“Yes,” said the King, when he had read it. “There is no truth in it at
all.”

“None, I am afraid. I note his account of the accident varies in one
particular from what he said before.”

“There was no accident. I saw the man’s hands.”

“And yet, sir, I ask you once more to give me that man’s life. I cannot
stand the idea of a British subject being executed like this--at a
few hours’ notice, without trial, guilty in many ways but not of the
capital offence. He may not be fit to live but he is not fit to die.”

“Great Britain has nothing to do here; if she had Bassett would not be
here.”

“True enough, sir. I know it. I’m not saying that he is not amenable to
the law of this island, made and administered by yourself. I am merely,
as your guest, asking for a favour. How can I dine with you to-night,
smoke my pipe and have my talk with you in peace, if I know this poor
wretch is perhaps at that very hour being executed?”

King Smith smiled. “Very well,” he said. “To-night I am going to ask
you to save the lives of many of my race--I might even say the race
itself. This worthless thing--this Bassett--I will give you. You will
take him home and see that he stands his trial?”

“Certainly. On that I insist. He must take his punishment.”

“Write to him that you have saved his life, but that this is
conditional on his surrendering to the man who will await him at the
gates of the club enclosure some time before midnight. He can bring his
personal belongings with him; you see I give him time to get his things
together, and to clear up his business as secretary of the club. You
may say further that he will not be ill-treated, but that he will be
kept in custody until you choose to sail.”

“Thank you, sir, from the bottom of my heart. You have taken a great
weight off my mind. I will write to him precisely in those terms. May I
have a messenger?”

“There are many men here,” said the King, “and they are here only as
your servants, to go where you like and to do what you wish. They
understand that.”

The King was deep in thought as he drove back to his business residence
on the beach. There he became busy. He remembered to send up to his
big house the preserved asparagus which would be wanted for dinner. He
examined with care a still that was then working. He saw the overseer
from his plantations inland. He calculated the number of bags of copra
that would be ready for his next schooner. He settled a dispute between
two natives as to the ownership of a goat. But he gave no orders for a
man to be at the gates of the club enclosure shortly before midnight,
nor did he give, nor had he given, any orders whatever about Bassett.

In the afternoon, up at the palace, Tiva, Ioia and Hilda explored the
garden, and the native girls discovered with joy the wide pool into
which the waterfall plashed. They begged Hilda to come for a swim
with them. The idea was certainly alluring, but for two reasons Hilda
demurred. One was the presence of a patrol of athletic-looking natives
with rifles on their shoulders, but this reason was disposed of at once.

“We speak him,” cooed Tiva. “He go pretty dam quick.” And it was so.

The other reason vanished before the resources of the rather fantastic
wardrobe which Ioia had brought with her. Two hours later Hilda sat on
the verandah with her wet hair loose. She had considered herself fairly
expert in the water, but Tiva and Ioia quite eclipsed her; there had
seemed to be absolutely nothing which they could not do, and they did
everything with the most beautiful ease and grace. Hilda rather wished
she had been a sculptor. The two water-nymphs now sat at her feet--Tiva
in a loose salmon-coloured robe, with a gold bangle on one arm, and
Ioia in a similar robe of olive-green surmounted by a barbarous kimono.
The bangle and the kimono were Hilda’s gifts. The hurricane had passed
as quickly as it had come, and far away before her Hilda could see a
sea of marvellous sapphire, foam-streaked, trying to be good again.

Lechworthy spent much of his time that afternoon in his room alone.
Then he roamed the garden, camera in hand. He took three snapshots of
the armed patrol, and he took them all on the same section of film.
But, not yet aware of this little mistake, he was in a placid and
even sunny temper when he came on to the verandah for tea. Tiva and
Ioia, commanded by Hilda, took tea with them; Ioia tried most things,
including tea-leaves, which she ate with moderation but with apparent
enjoyment. Then the two sang--a beautiful voice and a correct ear are
part of the island girl’s natural inheritance--and Hilda and her uncle
listened. The song was in the native tongue and for the most part
improvised, and perhaps it was just as well that the listeners did not
understand it. It was wholly in praise of Hilda, but it praised her
with a wealth of detail unusual in European eulogies.

Bassett at the Exiles’ Club received Lechworthy’s reply to his letter
shortly after the luncheon hour. Bassett himself was unable to eat
luncheon; he was sick with fear. He grew worse every hour. His nerves
had broken down. Sir John and Dr Soames Pryce had taken all possible
means to safeguard Bassett’s life, for that night at any rate. Every
member in whom reliance could be placed was ready to help. From ten to
twelve Bassett was to remain in the secretary’s room. There would be a
guard outside both window and door. All over the club garden a watch
would be kept. To protect him from poison his food and drink were to
be tasted by native servants. Preparations were made to deal with any
sudden outbreak of fire.

“Can’t you pull yourself together a little?” said Dr Pryce, utterly
weary of him.

“Everything you’ve done’s no good,” said Bassett. “I know King Smith,
and he does what he says. You can’t stop him.”

“Don’t be a fool, Bassett,” said Sir John. “King Smith is a man and he
cannot do miracles. You probably will never be safer in your life than
you will be to-night. For that matter, your letter to Lechworthy may
get you off altogether.”

Bassett began to weep. He was a humiliating, distressing, repellent
spectacle. Dr Soames Pryce ordered brandy to be brought, and forced him
to take a stiff dose.

He then became sullen and morose. He said that he wished he had not
taken the brandy. Drink was the curse of more than half the men in the
club, and he thanked God he had never given way to it. Then he became
suspicious of the revolver which had been given him. How was he to know
it was all right? Finally he exchanged weapons with Sir John.

The arrival of the letter from Lechworthy did nothing to inspirit him.
He read it aloud.

“There you are, you see,” said Sir John. “Sentence commuted. Aren’t you
ashamed of yourself for behaving in this way? I told you Lechworthy
would get you off.”

“Get me off?” said Bassett. “Do you mean to say you can’t see that
this thing’s a trap? A little before midnight I’m to hand myself over
to some man at the gates. He takes me away. Oh, yes! Good-bye all! How
long afterwards do you suppose I shall be alive?”

“Do you think Lechworthy would trap you in that way?”

“How should I know? He’s got no particular reason to love me, has he?
But what’s most likely is that Lechworthy himself has been deceived by
King Smith.”

“That won’t do, Bassett. The deceit would be found out next day. King
Smith, on the contrary, is most anxious to do all that he can to please
Lechworthy and to win him over. What do you think, Pryce?”

“That is so. The letter is quite genuine. Bassett will hand himself
over to the man, and--”

“I will not,” screamed Bassett.

“You will,” said Pryce. “You will be made to do it. You see the
situation that way, Sweetling, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. Listen to me, Bassett. You have asked the King to
spare your life, and offered in return to hand yourself over to
Lechworthy. He spares your life, and imposes a condition which amounts
to what you offered--he is merely making certain that you do hand
yourself over to Lechworthy. What do you think will happen when the
King finds that he has been fooled and that you have broken your word?
My friend, in that case he would get you, even if it were necessary to
set all the natives on us to-night, as he could do. He would get you,
and I fancy he would adopt barbarous ways of killing you. Therefore,
you will be at the gates shortly before midnight--even if you have to
be carried there.”

“It comes to this,” said Bassett, “that I’m betrayed by you two.”
His shoulders shook, the nails of his yellow hands beat the table
convulsively, his thin lips twitched sideways and upwards.

“Bassett,” said Dr Soames Pryce, “try to behave a little more like
a man, won’t you? This sort of show isn’t--it’s not very pretty,
you know. I give you my word of honour that I believe your life’s
safe if you’ll only do what the King tells you. You’ll have to go on
board the _Snowflake_, of course, but you’ll get a chance to give
Lechworthy the slip long before he gets to England. Then you’ll come
back here--you’ve got the money to do it with. If it’s any consolation
to you, I may tell you that I shall probably be on the schooner
myself--private business of my own--and I’ll see that you get your
opportunity.”

“You on board too? How? What business do you mean?”

“I think I said private business of my own.”

“I see. Something I’m not to know about. Another conspiracy against
me, eh? Here, give me that brandy.” He nearly filled his tumbler with
it, and drank it in quick, excited ugly gulps. He rose to his feet
and shook a skinny fist. “You two fools! Do you think I can’t see?
Smith has bought you. All the jabber about protecting me was a farce,
and Lechworthy’s letter was a put-up thing between you. If I go, I
die. If I stay, I die. Pretty thing, ain’t it? You swindled me over
the lizards, Pryce, and thought I didn’t know. But, my God, I haven’t
got a friend, and I know that! You needn’t look so angry, Sir John.
You’ve been bowled out before. You’re used to it. Well, all right. I
go to-night. Good-bye all! I’m off to my own room--special leave from
King Smith to pack the shirts I’ll never wear. Good-bye! We’ll meet in
hell.”

He flung himself out of the room, across the hall, and up the stairs.
Lord Charles Baringstoke was seated in the hall, drinking through a
straw a mixture of _crême-de-menthe_ and crushed ice. He observed Mr
Bassett, and he turned to Mr Sainton--the member who was paying for the
drinks.

“See our Mr damned Bassett? Well, you know, I ain’t the champion gold
cup at the beauty show myself, but I never did know anyone look quite
so blessed ugly as that chap does. Might use him to test iron girders,
eh? Mean he might grin at them, and if they’d stand that, they’d stand
anything.”

In the room which Bassett had just left Sir John Sweetling controlled
his rage with difficulty.

“Look here, Pryce,” said Sir John. “We’ve done the best we can for the
man, but this lets me out. If I see him again before he goes I--I can’t
answer for what will happen.”

Dr Soames Pryce rolled a cigarette. “The beauty of being a doctor,” he
said, “is that you can’t lose your wool with your case--whatever he,
or she, does or says. Bassett, under pressure, has become a case. And,
as I don’t think it safe to leave him alone, I’ll hop upstairs after
him. See you presently.”

On the stairs Dr Pryce heard the report of a revolver. He arrived just
ten seconds too late.

       *       *       *       *       *

The King and Mr Lechworthy dined alone that night. Hilda discovered,
rather suddenly, that she was absolutely worn out with the long day.
Tiva and Ioia, watching her, spoke one or two sentences together in
the native tongue. Then Tiva explained to Hilda in English that she
and Ioia had spread their sleeping-mats on the verandah just against
Hilda’s window. If Hilda wanted them at any time in the night she had
only to go to the window and speak, and they would be with her at once.
Hilda thanked them, but she was sure she would not need them. She left
with her uncle her apologies to the King.

Mr Lechworthy’s dress was just precisely what he would have worn in
the evening in London. The King wore a tropical evening suit of white
drill; he had ridden up from the office and changed his clothes at the
palace. The two men dined early--a brief and tasteful dinner composed
principally of native dishes. And then Lechworthy filled his pipe, and
they took their coffee on the verandah, and talked long and seriously.

It was of the death of the native races that the King spoke--and of
his own ambition, that Faloo should become a refuge for them from the
deadly effects of civilisation, that in the future no white man should
ever be allowed to set foot there. Let Great Britain undertake just
that work of protection and close the island definitely to all but the
natives. Let her say that neither British nor French nor German, nor
any other white man, might land there. King Smith said that he knew
little of the conditions that might be demanded, but if Great Britain
wished him to renounce his title of King he would resign it willingly;
if tribute were wanted, he would see that it was paid punctually. All
he asked was Great Britain’s guarantee that in Faloo the island people
should be left absolutely to themselves, to live their own life in
the old way, and so to escape the racial destruction that was coming
swiftly upon them.

He laid before Lechworthy the pictorial evidence of travellers and the
unimpassioned figures of the statistics. Everywhere in the islands,
as civilisation advanced, the native race died out. The King made no
attack upon civilisation, wasted no time in idle epigrams. Civilisation
might have all the merits and all the advantages, but it had been
proved in cold history that the island races could not accept it. In
childish and rather pathetic good-will they had tried to accept it, and
in consequence many had died out and the rest were dying.

It was not merely a question of drink. It was true, of course, that
alcohol, which harmed the habituated European, quickly demoralised
and killed the unhabituated islanders. But there was hardly a part
of civilisation that did not help to kill him. Civilisation called
him from the open air into houses where he was poisoned and stifled.
It clothed his partial nakedness with European stuffs and pneumonia
followed. It gave him things to learn for which his mind was unfit, and
he became obtuse and devitalised. Nature had spared him and put him in
places where food and such shelter as he needed might be had free or
for a minimum of labour; civilisation put a stress upon him and paid
him in luxuries that were bad for him. Tinned meat and multiplication
tables, gin and geography, feather beds and tight boots, worry and
hypocrisy, everything worked together for bad for the islander.
Civilisation increased his needs and sapped his powers. He went down,
down inevitably, in his struggle with it.

“Excuse me, sir,” said Lechworthy. “What you say is true; I have heard
something of this before, though far less than you have told me. But
your own case hardly supports your argument.”

“I know it. I admit that I am quite exceptional. Heredity may have
something to do with it. There is a legend of white blood in my family,
a long way back. It may be so or it may not--such inter-marriages do
not generally have a good result. But my grandfather died of drink, and
my father was a very great friend of the missionaries. So perhaps I
was born--what is the word?--yes, perhaps I was born immune. There are
no missionaries here now, except the two French priests, and they do
nothing; you see, they have grown old and very, very fat.”

“Your father then--he was a convert?”

“The missionaries thought so, and he did what they liked; you see, he
was a good friend to them, and they taught him. My father could read
English, and he spoke it too, but not very correctly. He was a kind
man, but he was not very much converted, I think. He began to teach me
when I was quite young, and always I wanted to learn more. It was he
who showed me what the white man is doing in these islands. So it is
very many years since I first thought that Faloo is not a great island,
and had been left over, and perhaps I might in time secure it so that
it should be the last home of my people, lest they all died. And I have
gone on thinking it always; it is for that that I have done good and
also bad things.”

“But you speak English remarkably, sir. You did not learn it from your
father alone.”

“Oh, no. For nearly ten years the Exiles’ Club has been here, and I
have been the friend of the white men just as my father in his time was
the friend of the missionaries. The men of the Exiles’ Club came to me,
and there was always whisky and cigars and whatever they wanted. So
they would sit and talk with me. That Mr Cyril Mast came very often.
Most days he is very bad and also drunken. But he is beautifully
educated, and he told me much about England. Sometimes Sir John
Sweetling, who started the club, would talk about your financial world,
though it was mostly on our joint business he came to see me. This
Bassett also talked. Even Lord Charles Baringstoke--”

“What? Is that young scamp here?”

“Yes, and even from him I have learned something. But the best man of
all of them is Dr Soames Pryce. He is very able and he is different
from the others. When I was ill with an island fever he came to see
me and he gave me medicines, and very soon I was well again. But when
I would have paid him he told me to go to the devil. I think it was
because he has sometimes drunk whisky with me, but not so often as I
should like, for I think he knows very much, and he is the only one
whose word I altogether believe.”

So far Mr Lechworthy had expressed no opinion; he was rather miserly
with expression until he had well weighed his subject. But he had
already formed his opinions. Firstly, the King was simple and sincere.
He spoke plainly and without hypocrisy. He had not shirked the fact
that his father was not really converted to Christianity, or that he
himself had been a boon companion of these blackguards at the Exiles’
Club. He had never emphasised the point that he wanted nothing for
himself and everything for his people; he had treated this attitude as
a matter of course, and, had not dwelt upon it. Secondly, the project
of Faloo for the people of Faloo, with their independence supported by
Great Britain, appealed to him greatly. We had done enough grabbing for
unworthy ends. We had become a byword in that respect. It was a great
thing to save a race; it was an idea which might arouse an enthusiasm,
and that in its turn might become useful in practical politics. The
missionary question presented to his mind the only difficulty at
present. However, he would hear the whole story.

The next chapter of that story dealt with Smith’s start as a trader.
It went back to the time of Sir John Sweetling’s arrival at Faloo; two
other white men had followed him there within the year. He narrated his
dealings with Sir John and with the syndicate which was subsequently
formed. The financial control of the business was practically shifted
to a distant island, where there was a bank with a cast-iron method
and a Commissioner who could enforce agreements. The King, young and
inexperienced, had signed the instructions to the bank and had signed
the iniquitous agreements. He had put the noose on his own neck.

But one hold on his partners he retained, or the noose would have been
drawn tight long before. They lived at Faloo, and there was probably
no other part of the globe where they could have lived with the same
safety and comfort. They were in consequence largely dependent on
the King of Faloo; he alone could control the natives. Consequently,
concessions were made to him on points where he had insisted. The
dangerous but remunerative contraband trade had been a case in point;
he had refused to allow any native of Faloo to buy liquor; he had even
safeguarded the native servants employed at the Exiles’ Club. After one
week--in which the King had left the club without any native servants
at all--its members learned wisdom.

In the actual conduct of the business he had not had to complain of
much interference. He was free to settle all the details of it and to
do all the work of it. It was called his business--not their business.
But his partners’ veto came in from time to time, and gradually he
had realised that he was held back. Trade was not to be extended. The
reef was not to be opened up. He was never to be rich enough to buy
out his own partners and to be independent of them. Here and there he
could tempt one of the investors by an appeal to his cupidity--Bassett
had been such a man. But the more important interest, represented by
Sir John, had stuck always to the same policy--to keep a control over
King Smith, and to prevent Faloo from developing a trade of sufficient
importance to attract outside attention. For instance, the amount
of copra that might be exported was not regulated by what could be
produced and sold, but by a decision of the King’s partners; and they
had no wish to bring the great soap-making firms down on Faloo.

And then the idea had come to him that he might be able to split up
the white men, create differences among them, and perhaps form a party
of his own. It was with this view that he had persuaded some of them
to support his candidature for membership of the Exiles’ Club, and
had lent money to some of the remittance men and had refused it to
others. “And perhaps I might have done something with that, but in the
meanwhile, without intending it, the white men have split up my own
people. There is now a certain number of natives who are acting without
any order from me, and even against my order. They have no hostility
towards me, and they act secretly because they are all afraid of me.
Their aim is to kill all the white men on the island. They killed one
last night--I buried him early this morning. I will tell you how that
has come about.” And the King narrated, with more detail than need be
given here, the trouble about the native women.

“I have only kept my people in hand up to this point by promising them
that a day should come when not one white man would be left on the
island if only they would be patient. If they used violence, then my
plans would be spoiled--they would be punished--the men-of-war would
come--the whole island would fall into the white man’s hands. And,
Mr Lechworthy, even if you had not come I should have kept my word,
for when a man wants only one thing, and wants it very badly, he must
get it in the end. But I no longer have the whole of my people in
hand. There must be some--I think they are few--who have not enough
patience. I cannot blame them in my heart, although as soon as I find
them I shall kill them. I cannot, I say, blame them in my heart, for
there are wrongs which drive a man mad, and these are just the wrongs
of which the white men have been guilty. That then is the position
here--a section of my people is in secret rebellion against me, and it
is to the Exiles’ Club that I owe this. And look--I have but to give
one brief order, and in an hour the club would be burned to the ground
and every white man in it would be murdered. There are times when I
have been tempted. But I always knew that it was not so that I should
make the Faloo of my dreams--not in that way that I should gain the
friendship and the help--the indispensable help--of Great Britain.”

He paused a moment, drank from the long glass before him, and lighted
another cigarette.

“There is the story, Mr Lechworthy. I have worked for a good thing,
but it is as I said: I have used a bad implement and it has hurt my
hand, and perhaps I must burn the wound with a little gunpowder before
it will be whole again. You can save us all, if you will. You are a
politician and a friend of politicians of high Cabinet rank. You own a
newspaper. You can arouse public feeling, and you can direct it. You
know how these things are managed. Perhaps to-morrow you will decide.
To-night I cannot remain much longer for I have to fetch this man
Bassett--if he is still there.”

“If he is still there?”

“Yes. He is a suspicious man and his nerves are very feeble. He
may have distrusted your letter. He may have run away. He may
have--anything may have happened.”

“I see. Well, I have done what I could. There is one little point
which I would mention to-night. These agreements with your partners
are so unjust, and contain such evidence of bad faith, that I think I
could get them set aside. But all that would take time, and there is
a quicker way. The terms on which you can buy them out are unfair and
extravagant, but even so the amount of capital involved is--well--it is
not to me a very large sum. I offer to buy them out and to become your
one partner in their place. I wish to do this.”

“I accept it with gratitude,” said the King, “provided that you
understand this: if ever Faloo is closed, except to its own people, the
trade will stop absolutely. It would then be unnecessary and a source
of danger. The island itself provides all that a native wants.”

“Very well,” said Lechworthy, “I have no objection. My capital would
then be returned to me. I am anxious to make it possible for you to
drop--the implement that has hurt your hand. And as for the rest, I
can tell you my position in a few words. I am ready to help you by
all the means in my power; this idea of the refuge for the race, the
island where it may recuperate itself, appeals to me immensely, and
I think I can make some political use of it too. But, sir, I have my
conscience. I may shut the door against the white man and his dangerous
civilisation, but I dare not shut it against the gospel of Christ.
There, we will speak of this to-morrow.”

“I shall be here early in the morning. Good-night, Mr Lechworthy.”

At five minutes to twelve the King reined in his horse at the gates of
the club compound. Dr Soames Pryce stood there alone. It was too dark
to see the expression of his face, but his voice sounded sardonic.

“You have come for your prisoner, King Smith?”

“I have.”

“He has escaped you. He shot himself this afternoon. You found the
man’s breaking-point all right. Do you want evidence of his death?”

“I take your word for it. You know, I suppose, that he had his chance
of life. My guest, Mr Lechworthy, wrote a letter--”

“Yes, I know. And the only man who disbelieved in the letter was
Bassett. He disbelieved in everybody and everything. Extreme fear had
made him insane. By the way, it was I who stopped your election to this
club, and now I want you to do me a kindness. Damned awkward, isn’t it?”

The King smiled. “That is not the only association you have had with
me. What is it you want?”

“I remember no other association. Oh, yes, I gave you a few pills once,
didn’t I? Well, I can tell you what I want anyhow. The fact is that
this place is becoming a bit too hot for my simple tastes, and I want
to clear out. Duncombe’s missing; we’ve had men out all day looking
for him and he can’t be found.”

“I had nothing to do with that.”

“Very likely. I don’t accuse you. Still, it happened. Bassett was
sentenced and reprieved, and ended by shooting himself. Cyril Mast is
boozing himself mad; we are trying to sober him down enough to read
the service over Bassett. Every night we find natives, who’ve got no
business here, skulking about this place. It’s possible that some of
them will hurt themselves. The pot’ll boil over presently, and there
will be general hell. I’m a quiet man, and I’d sooner be away. I wish
you’d put in a word for me to this Mr Lechworthy. If he had room for
Bassett he’s got room for me. I’ll pay my passage, or work it as doctor
or anything else, whichever he likes. You might put in a word for me.”

“But why bother Lechworthy? One of our own boats will be going out
again in a few days’ time.”

“Thank you. If I wanted to be poisoned with the stink of copra, and
eaten alive with cockroaches, I’d go by it. The _Snowflake’s_ a sound
clean boat, and I prefer it. The inside will drop out of your schooner
one of these days. She’s all right for trade, but she’s slow, rotten
and nasty.”

“Very well,” said the King. “I’ll speak to him about it. But of course
the decision will rest with him.”

“Of course. Thanks very much.”

They said good-night and parted, the King riding on to the office on
the beach, and Dr Pryce returning to Sir John in the club.

“How goes it?” asked Pryce.

“Mast is sober now, but he’s pretty shaky. It seems that his bit of
a row with Bassett is disturbing him, and he’s been weeping. I say,
Pryce, our men are simply going to pap.”

“Everything else ready for the burial?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll give Mast one stiff peg to steady him, and we’ll start away.
By the way, it was as I thought, it was the King himself who came to
the gate.”

“Then you spoke about the _Snowflake_?”

“Of course. He’ll see Lechworthy about it.”

“Do you think he smells a rat?”

“There are some men who smell rats and then shout about it, and they
don’t generally make fortunes as rat-catchers. Smith’s not that sort.”

“You mean?”

“I mean that I don’t know whether he suspects or not. I should imagine
that he’s watching out, and so am I, which makes it quite interesting.
Now I’ll go and see if I can straighten Mast’s backbone a bit.”

The King certainly had not accepted Pryce’s statement that he was a
quiet man and wished to run away from fear of a native uprising; but
Pryce might have had other reasons of which he did not wish to speak,
and the real reason did not occur to the King at all. But he was
suspicious and on his guard. He had very much to think of and many
questions to ask himself. What line would Sir John take when he found
that he and the other partners were to be bought out? Would Lechworthy
be obstinate on the question of white missionaries for Faloo? If this
were arranged, would Lechworthy be able to bring the scheme to a
successful issue? Who was it that had murdered Duncombe?

To this last question the King had a simple means of finding the
answer. Knowing the native mind as he did, he knew that the murderer
would be driven to make some demonstration of triumph and satisfied
revenge. He would do it secretly, probably very late at night, but
he would find himself driven to do it. Stealthily and on foot the
King went from one native house to another, wherever he suspected the
criminal might possibly be.

It was some hours later that he stood outside a little shanty and
listened to the man who was singing within. The singer was drunk--drunk
on methylated spirits stolen from the stores of the Exiles’ Club. The
King entered.

It was just at this time that away at the palace Hilda Auriol managed
to raise herself a little in bed. “Tiva! Ioia!” she called and fell
back again. In an instant the two girls entered through the windows
from the verandah.

“I--I think I am very ill,” moaned Hilda.




CHAPTER VII


Bassett was buried by lantern-light a little after one in the morning
in a far corner of the club grounds. His was the fourth grave there,
and not one of the four men had died in his bed. The Rev. Cyril Mast
read the service sonorously, with dignity and self-control, for Soames
Pryce had seen to him, and Soames Pryce was a clever doctor. The
roughly-made coffin--a wooden framework with thick mats stretched over
it--was borne by members of the club, and it was they who had dug the
grave and afterwards filled it in. No native had ever been allowed to
have anything to do with the interment of a white man.

Most of the members were present at the funeral, but not all. Lord
Charles Baringstoke was not there, but he expressed his regrets
afterwards, leaning against the wall in the card-room with a cigarette
in one side of his loose mouth.

“I’d always meant to see the beggar planted, but, you see, I didn’t
know when the thing was going to start. So we’d one rubber to fill in
time. Then, just when the lights went past the window, we were game
and twenty-eight, and it looked like our only being five minutes late
anyhow; but I got my spades doubled and the little slam up against me,
and then they made an odd trick in hearts, and we were finally bust
on a dam-silly no-trumper of my partner’s. Still, I’m sorry you know,
though it couldn’t be helped. Everybody going to bed? One more little
drink--what?”

Already on the screen in the hall there was a notice calling an
emergency meeting of the members in the afternoon for the election of
an honorary secretary who would also be a member of the committee.
Neither Pryce nor Mast had cared to undertake the secretarial work.

Standing by the screen, Sir John Sweetling, in conversation with some
of the more responsible members of the club, pronounced the panegyric
upon Bassett. “He never, or very rarely, drank; he liked business,
and he kept the books well.” Sir John paused a moment in thought, and
added, “And he wrote an excellent hand.”

“And paid nodings for it,” said round-eyed Mr Mandelbaum. “But zen it
put him in ze know.”

It was long before Sir John could get any sleep that night. His mind
was still active and anxious. The old questions still bothered him.
What compact, if any, had been made between King Smith and Lechworthy?
Was it just possible that the King had not given the Exiles’ Club
away? If he had, which seemed almost certain, would Pryce be able to
carry out what he had undertaken? Would Pryce be able to save himself
when the _Snowflake_ was scuttled or burned? And then there were
many worries in connection with the club. Who could be found to take
Bassett’s place? What could be done about Cyril Mast, whose folly was
the cause of all that had happened? Some advantage might be taken of
his repentance.

It seemed to Sir John that he had only been asleep for a few minutes
when he was awakened by a loud knock at his door. It was just daylight.
Sir John was rather startled. He glanced at his revolver on the table
by his bedside and shouted “Come in.”

“Sorry to disturb you,” said Dr Pryce, as he entered. He was dressed,
and he sat down and laced his boots as he talked. “But I’ve got to be
off. A letter was brought to me ten minutes ago from Lechworthy. His
niece is ill--seriously ill, I should say, and he wants me at once. He
seems to have sent the letter through the King--at any rate Smith’s
waiting for me in a buggy outside.”

Sir John was wide awake and out of bed by now. He thrust his feet into
a pair of soft red leather slippers. He was quite a good figure of a
man, but his tendency to corpulence was more noticeable in his yellow
silk pyjamas, and one gets untidy at night. “But this is a new move,
Pryce,” he said. “This secures your passage on the _Snowflake_.” He
peered into the looking-glass and used two hairbrushes quickly. Then he
suddenly wheeled round, with the brushes still in his hands. “By God!
it settles everything. You needn’t go near the _Snowflake_. Don’t you
see?”

“Thought you’d come to it. You mean that I poison the girl and her
uncle. Smith has to come back to us because he has no one else. The
skipper and crew will know nothing, and will be told a tale. That’s it,
eh?”

“Of course, though it needn’t be put quite like that. The best of
doctors cannot save every patient. Lechworthy would be distracted,
and a sleeping-draught might be necessary--and a mistake might occur.
That’s the way I’m going to put it--to Smith, to the men here, to
everybody. You can trust me.”

“Absolutely. But you’re in too much of a hurry. I’m not going to do it.”

“Why not? Because you’re called in as a doctor? Man, our lives are at
stake. Let’s be frank. I won’t face a trial and penal servitude to
follow. Would you? You were ready to do much worse than this. It isn’t
a time for--”

“I know,” said the doctor. He had finished with his boots now, and
stood upright. “It’s not exactly a point of professional etiquette. The
thing simply isn’t sport. It’s too easy and too dirty.”

“But this isn’t reasonable. You’re willing to sink the _Snowflake_
and--and all that’s implied in that.”

“Willing to try. The scuttling of a schooner is not too easy. Teetotal
millionaires can afford luxuries, and you may bet there’s a good sober
skipper and a picked crew on board the _Snowflake_. They will be
awake. If I were caught cutting a pipe, or fooling with the sea-cocks,
or doing something surgical to the boats, I think--well, objections
would be raised. Also, the problem of the one survivor takes some
thinking out. It’s likely there would be too many survivors or none at
all. It’s blackguardly enough, but still there is an element of risk
about it. As for the other thing, well, to cut it short, I won’t do it.”

“Then I must leave it,” said Sir John. “I think you’re missing a
chance, but that can’t be helped. When do you return?”

“Can’t say. To-night perhaps, if the patient doesn’t need me. Well,
good-bye, Sweetling. Get ’em to elect Hanson secretary if you can. If I
can’t come I’ll write.”

Sir John crept back again into bed. He did not mean to break with
Pryce, and he had shown less anger than he felt. He was not really
surprised at Pryce’s prompt and definite refusal. He had dealt with
many bad men--some worse than the doctor--and he was a bad man himself;
and he had come constantly on the bad thing that the bad man would not
do. He had found the distorted sense of honour in men who had done
some dishonourable things. He had found generosity in thieves and
tender-heartedness in a murderer. Even as the good sometimes fall, so
do the bad sometimes rise.

And, after all, the summons of Dr Pryce to the palace to attend
Lechworthy’s niece was all to the good. He would be in the position of
a spy in the enemy’s camp. Probably, by the evening, he would return
with news of the relations of Lechworthy and the King. Uncertainties
would be cleared up, and it would be easier to see what to do. And yet
another point occurred to Sir John. Suppose that Pryce saved the life
of Lechworthy’s niece, Lechworthy’s gratitude would be unbounded, and
he would be ready to do anything to show it. Pryce would refuse money,
but he might ask Lechworthy to leave the Exiles’ Club alone, to refrain
from policeman’s work, to do nothing which would give the secret away.
Thus thinking, Sir John fell asleep again.

He rose late, breakfasted in his room, and then sought out the Rev.
Cyril Mast.

“I want you,” said Sir John. “Pryce has been called away, and we are
the only two on the committee for the moment. Come to the secretary’s
room.”

“Very well,” said Mast, dejectedly, and followed him.

The two sat at the table facing one another. Mast’s red-rimmed eyes
fell on the little glass of small shot with which Bassett had been wont
to clean his pens. He could recall the nervous jabbing movement of
Bassett’s hand as he did it. Bassett’s three cork penholders lay in a
tray before him.

“You can say what you like,” said Mast. “Whatever you say I deserve it.
I ought never to have brought the Lechworthys here. I couldn’t foresee
that Bassett would come out and Lechworthy would recognise him. It was
all wrong, though.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Do you never feel sometimes that you’d like to talk to a few decent
people who didn’t know your history? I’ve been nearly mad. And--well,
it was you who began it.”

“Indeed? And what had I got to do with it?”

“You didn’t mean it, and you’ll probably laugh at it. It was about a
fortnight ago, and we’d just finished a committee meeting after dinner.
There were Pryce, Bassett, you and I sitting out on the verandah.
Bassett kept jigging about in a wicker chair that squeaked horribly,
and you said you’d give us some better music than that, you remember?”

“Yes, I remember. What about it?”

“You pulled out that swagger presentation watch of yours--the one that
plays the tunes--and set it going. The night was quite still, and I
sat listening to the tinky-tink of ‘Home, sweet Home.’ That brought
back Histon Boys to my mind--village where I was, you know. Old chaps
hobbling out of church, bad with rheumatism; they used to touch their
hats to me then. They didn’t know. I was welcome anywhere in the
village. I dined with the farmers and played tennis with their pretty
daughters. People walked in from the next village, three miles away, to
hear me preach on Sunday evenings. Yes, it won’t seem much to you, but
I’ve lost it all, and I can never have it again or anything like it.
Why, if I showed myself in Histon Boys now, they’d set their dogs on
me. That infernal tune made me think, and thinking drove me mad.”

“I’m not concerned with your sins, Mr Mast. Being a parson you repent
’em, and being what you are, you repeat ’em. You spend your time in
alternate sobbing and soaking. But I’m concerned with your follies,
because they’re dangerous. You showed yourself a dangerous fool in
the matter of the native women. You’ve showed yourself still more
dangerous in bringing Lechworthy here. Lechworthy’s hand-in-glove with
the King. Lechworthy may sail for home with a list of our names in his
pocket-book.”

“I realise all that,” said Mast. “If there’s anything I can do about
Lechworthy I’ll do it. I don’t care what it is.”

“Remember you’ve said that. I may take you at your word later. At
present that matter is in the hands of a stronger man than you are.
Lechworthy’s niece is ill, and Dr Pryce is attending her. Something may
be worked that way.”

“I don’t see how.”

“Don’t you? Well, there are more ways than one of paying the doctor who
saves the life of somebody to whom you’re devoted. But don’t bother
about that yet. At present that’s in Dr Pryce’s hands and mine. You’ve
made an unlimited offer, and I think you were right to make it--you’ve
risked the skins of every man in the club, and you ought to be ready
to risk your own skin to save them. Probably it won’t come to that, but
if it does I’ll tell you. Meanwhile there’s another thing to settle.
Who’s to be secretary?”

“Mandelbaum says he would take it if a small salary were attached. He
has asked me to propose that.”

“We can’t pay a salary and I wouldn’t take Mandelbaum if he paid to
come in. He must find somebody else to propose that nonsense. You can
tell him I said so if you like. Mandelbaum doesn’t happen to be one
of the things I’m afraid of just now. The fact is, Mast--and you’re
a good deal responsible for it--we are getting too disorganised and
demoralised here. I don’t want to turn the place into a Sunday-school,
but I will have some decency and order. And I want a strong committee,
because in consequence of this Lechworthy incident it may be necessary
for the whole club to take action as the committee directs. Pryce is
all right, but you admit your own weakness. You were elected, because
you had the gift of the gab, and you can make it useful to us. I want
you to propose Hanson. Bassett was never a strong man, and that fat
German who flatters himself that he’s worth a salary is no better.
Hanson is the man. He’s steady and he knows things.”

“I’ll do my best for him,” said Mast. “I must not canvass, of course.”

“It’s no good; it would work the other way. But if you get a chance
between now and luncheon of getting your knife into Mandelbaum’s
election, don’t miss it.”

“I see,” said Mast. He was glad that he was to make a speech; it was a
thing that he did well.

“And don’t forget--you owe a debt to the club, and you’ve told me that
you’re ready to pay when I call on you.”

Sir John was satisfied with this interview. The Rev. Cyril Mast would
be a second string to Sir John’s bow. The second string was not of the
strongest, and probably would not be wanted. But if, for example, some
further divergence occurred between the views of Sir John and those of
Dr Pryce, Sir John thought he might find that second string useful.

The meeting that afternoon was brief and without excitement. Mast
proposed Hanson in a short but admirable speech. Mast, with the
appearance of a dissipated boy, had on public occasions the elegant and
sonorous delivery of a comfortable archdeacon. His prepared speeches
had point and a dry wit that was quite absent from his ordinary
conversation. Mandelbaum withdrew, in a few pathetic words that caused
much amusement, and Hanson was elected unanimously.

The new secretary was a quiet and reserved man of middle age. Eight
years before he had been a prosperous Lancashire manufacturer. Then
for a week he had gone mad; and as his madness did not happen to be
of a certifiable kind, he was now paying for it with the rest of his
life in exile. He was the best chess-player in the club and perhaps
the best all-round shot; with the revolver Dr Soames Pryce was in a
class by himself. Hanson spent four hours every day over chess. He used
work where the Rev. Cyril Mast used whisky, and he had not let himself
slip down even in a climate where all occupations are a burden. If
you talked to him, he was pleasant enough, and you found him rather
exceptionally well-informed; but you had to begin the talking. He was
melancholy by nature, but he had realised it and did his best to keep
his melancholy to himself. The work of the secretaryship was a godsend
to him.

Sir John had never before sought the society of the Rev. Cyril Mast,
but now he meant to keep in touch with him. It was not only because,
if it should happen that there was a violent and desperate thing to
be done, he felt that he could make Mast do it. Sir John appreciated
keenly the trappings of civilisation; he wished things to be done
decently and in order. He could not make the Exiles’ Club in Faloo
quite like the London clubs of which he had ceased _ipso facto_ to be
a member, but he worked in that direction. He respected--almost in
excess of its merits--the Baringstoke family, but when Lord Charles
Baringstoke entered the public rooms of the club in pyjamas and a
dressing-gown, Sir John resented it. Public opinion in Faloo was not
strong enough to stop drunkenness, but there were limits, and the
limits had of late too frequently been exceeded. There had been noise
and brawling, and worse. Mast had been a bad offender; his conversation
with some of the members was one stream of witless and senseless filth,
and in his hours of intoxication he had been beyond measure bestial
and disgusting. Yet it had been said that Mast had his moments, and he
had shown some ability, though with little judgment to direct it. Sir
John began to think that association might effect something, for Mast
like most weak men took his colour largely from his company. He did
not dream of reforming Mast, for the man was congenitally vicious; but
he thought he might effect a temporary break in the dreary see-saw of
swinishness and sentimentalism that made up the man’s life, and this
would help to stop the growing disorder in the club.

So he complimented Mast on his speech, and Mast, like any spaniel, was
delighted with a little attention from the man who had chastised him.

“I’ve something else I want you to do. I’m sending a couple of servants
to pack up all Bassett’s effects. You might superintend that--see that
there’s no pilfering and that everything is properly sealed up. And, by
the way, I’ve ordered a grilled chicken at nine to-night, and reserved
our last bottle of Chambertin. I should be glad if you’d join me. I
daresay Pryce will come in later.”

Mast accepted these proposals with alacrity. He was conscious of some
faint glow of self-respect--or of vanity, which so often serves the
same purpose.

Late in the afternoon Sir John received a note from Dr Pryce, brought
by a messenger. It contained little more than a request that his
clothes might be sent him, and the statement that he would write on the
morrow if he could find time.

Over the grilled chicken that night Sir John was rather absent-minded.
He did not seem in the least inclined to say anything further about
Mast’s excellent speech, although he had the opportunity.

“And when do you expect Dr Pryce?” Mast asked.

“Not to-night after all. I’ve heard from him, of course. The poor
girl’s really ill. But still we must hope for the best. Pryce has
wonderful skill and experience. Shall we--er--join them in the
card-room?”

In one corner of the card-room Hanson, the new secretary, was giving
Lord Charles Baringstoke a game of chess. There was nobody in the club
whose play gave Hanson more trouble. Hanson played like a scholar; his
opponent played like a demoniac with occasional flashes of inspiration
and was generally, but not invariably, beaten. To-night, for instance,
he looked up triumphantly from the board.

“Well, old cockie?”

“Yes,” said Hanson, “that is so. I’d given you credit for something
better, and when you unmasked, my position was hopeless. Serves me
right. Quite interesting though.”

“Tell you what. My game’s improving?”

“No, Charles,” said Hanson, “it’s clever but unprincipled, and always
will be. Still, it’s always suggestive. Now let me see if I can’t wake
up a little.”

“I say,” said Sir John bitterly from the card-table where he was
playing a difficult hand, “is chess a game that requires so much
conversation?”

“Sorry,” said Hanson.

“We’ve made papa quite cross,” said Lord Charles Baringstoke as he
arranged the pieces. He was not allowed to win again that night.

Mast played very sober bridge with very bad luck. He could not hold a
card.

“I’m a perfect Jonah to-night,” he said after his third rubber, as he
paid his loss.

“Yes,” said Sir John, genially, as he gathered the money, “we shall
have to throw you overboard. Come along now. We were very late last
night. Bed’s not a bad idea.”

The Rev. Cyril Mast followed him meekly.

       *       *       *       *       *

The King drove furiously, but Dr Pryce was not a nervous man. When
they arrived at the King’s house, Lechworthy was pacing the verandah
anxiously, awaiting them. Dr Pryce was presented to him, but very
little was said, for the doctor wished to see his patient at once, and
went off to her room.

Nearly an hour had passed before he reappeared on the verandah.

“Well, doctor,” said Mr Lechworthy, eagerly. “I have been much
alarmed--needlessly, I hope. What is the matter with my niece?”

“I don’t know the name of it,” said Dr Pryce. “I’ve seen it several
times here--never in Europe.”

“She is seriously ill?”

“Undoubtedly. But Miss Auriol has a fine constitution, and if we can
fight through the next thirty-six hours, recovery is likely to be very
rapid. Unfortunately, those two native girls, with the best intentions,
have been playing about with native remedies.”

“And they are useless?”

“They are very much worse than that. However, it won’t happen again,
and now that I have talked to them, Tiva and Ioia may be quite handy.”
At the moment Tiva and Ioia were frightened out of their lives, weeping
tears of bitterest penitence, and wishing they were dead.

“Yes,” said Lechworthy, “you will be able to use them as nurses.”

“A nurse who can’t take a temperature isn’t much use to me at present.
I shall be nurse and doctor too. But they can do little things under my
direction--fetch and carry and so on--and they’re willing enough.”

“I feel a terrible responsibility in having brought Miss Auriol here. I
had hoped, doctor, that you would be able to give me better news.”

“Perhaps, that will come to-morrow. Meanwhile, there are things I must
see to. Is Smith still here?”

For the moment Lechworthy did not understand that it was of the King
that Pryce spoke in this unceremonious way. “The King?” he said. “Yes,
he wished to see you.”

“Thanks. I’ll go and find him.” He paused a moment. There was something
in the plucky, self-controlled wretchedness of the old man that
appealed to him. “There is no immediate danger,” he said. “If there
were, I would tell you. I am going to remain here, and in one point
I want to prepare you. Miss Auriol is ill now, but she will be worse
this evening. I expect a further rise in temperature, and there may
be delirium, and in consequence some noise. But you must not let that
upset you too much--it’s foreseen and I shall be ready to deal with it.
If she gets a good sleep afterwards, I shall be quite satisfied.”

“Thank you very much for telling me. Indeed--I wish I could thank you
better for all you’re doing for us. It is good of you to have come and
to devote so much time to us. I feel it--far more than I can express at
present.”

“My time here is of little value. You understand then--I cannot say
that Miss Auriol is out of danger, but there’s room for hope. I’ll do
my best, Mr Lechworthy. Go and see her for a few minutes now, if you
like. After that, I would rather she were left alone, unless she asks
specially for you and begins worrying.”

Mr Lechworthy was almost aggressively cheerful during the few minutes
that he spent with his niece. Her room was pleasantly cool, and so
darkened that he could only just make out the pale face and the mass
of hair on the pillow. Mr Lechworthy expressed the opinion that Pryce
seemed to be an able doctor and would put her right in no time.

“And how do you get on with him, my dear?”

“I think,” said Hilda, faintly, “that he is the very gentlest man I
ever met.”

“Good,” said Mr Lechworthy. “You like him then. That’s right.”

Hilda’s estimate of Dr Pryce would probably have excited some mirth
among his friends at the Exiles’ Club. Lechworthy, as he resumed his
notes on South Sea Missions, found himself puzzled by Dr Pryce. Somehow
or other Lechworthy had expected to see a furtive, very polite, shaky
little man, one who would try to ingratiate himself--something like
Mast or Bassett. He found that he could not fit Dr Pryce into any
reasonable idea of the fugitive from justice.

Meanwhile Pryce had found the King asleep in a long chair in the
garden. The King had spent less than one hour in bed, and at such
times he slept when he got the chance. But he was awake and alert
almost as soon as he heard Pryce’s voice.

“And what is this illness?” he asked immediately.

“The same that you had--and your boss man on the plantations.”

“Good,” said the King. “Then you must cure her.”

“You, like your plantation boss, are a man and a native; Miss Auriol
is a woman and a European. I got on to your case at once; here, before
I arrived, Miss Auriol had been made to swallow a mess of boiled
leaves--of a kind that might have poisoned a woman in good health.
She has the disease in a worse form than you had it. I could give you
horse-medicine; I should kill Miss Auriol if I gave the same doses to
her. Well, I don’t expect you to understand. But you can understand
this--on the whole, the probability is that Miss Auriol will die.”

“You stop here?”

“Of course.”

“My servants, my house, myself--all are at your disposal. I am no more
King here: here the doctor is King. All that you say will be done. But
Miss Auriol must not die. I have given my word that you can save her
and that you will save her.”

“Then you’re a fool,” said Dr Pryce, bluntly.

“Why? I was ill--it was the same thing. You saved me--so you save her
too. She must not die. It means too many things. If she dies, other
people will die. You will die, Dr Pryce.”

“Shall I?” said Pryce, smiling. He took his revolver from the case at
his belt, held it by the barrel, and handed it to Smith. “Catch hold of
that, will you? Thanks. Now then, you can either put a bullet through
my head or you can take your words back. You shall do one or the other.
Refuse and I leave you to do the doctoring.”

The King examined the revolver, and handed it back again.

“I apologise,” said the King. “But I have not slept much, and so I
judge badly. You must excuse me. Perhaps I wished, too, to make a test.
You will take no notice. It is--”

“I’m in a hurry,” said Pryce. “I want fresh milk for my patient. I’d
like cow’s milk, but that can’t be got. Goats?”

“Yes,” said the King. “I had yesterday to decide the possession of a
goat. It was a goat in milk, valuable because the milk could be sold to
the Exiles’ Club. Shall I have some milk sent up?”

“How far away is the goat?”

“About a mile.”

“Then have the goat driven here, and driven very gently. I’d like to
vet the beast first. If she’s healthy, then with a little modification
the milk will do. Have you an ice-machine here?”

“Yes.”

“I shall want a good deal of ice to-night probably.”

“I will see to that. Is there anything else?”

“I may want some brandy later, and if so I want the best I can get. You
used to have some--”

“Of the genuine old cognac that the French padre gave me. There is
still one bottle left. It is at my office. I will send a messenger for
it.”

“Right. See about the goat first, please.” Dr Pryce turned back to the
house.

There he found the tear-stained Tiva waiting for him. In her hand she
held a plant with small yellowish-white flowers. Dr Pryce had sent her
to get it.

“See,” she said eagerly. “All right?”

“Yes, that’s all right,” said Dr Pryce, taking the plant. “You’re a
good girl, though a fool in some respects. You can go back to Ioia now.
And, remember, you do not enter Miss Auriol’s room, unless she rings
that little bell by her bedside.”

In addition to doing much of the work that usually falls to the nurse,
Dr Pryce had also to be his own manufacturing chemist. Two cases of
drugs and apparatus, that he had brought with him, had been placed
in a room near Hilda’s. Dr Pryce unpacked what he wanted. There was
oxygen to be made and stored, and the dangerous virtue of those
yellowish-white flowers to be extracted.

The King was kept very busy on the beach that afternoon and evening.
His schooner had come in, and brought stores of all kinds, some for the
Exiles’ Club and some for the King himself. There was a bag of letters,
and there was money for Lord Charles Baringstoke. Two messengers had
come down from the palace by his direction, but they had brought little
news; the case was going on much as had been expected--that was all Dr
Pryce would say. At ten o’clock, as no messenger had come for the last
four hours, the King mounted his horse and rode up to the palace.

“I’m glad you’ve come, sir,” said Mr Lechworthy. “Indeed, I was on the
point of sending for you.”

“Miss Auriol is better?”

“I--I don’t know. At sunset it was terrible--one heard her moaning
and screaming. Dr Pryce had told me it would be so, but still it was
terrible. For the last two hours he has been in her room and everything
has been quite quiet.”

“He dined with you, I suppose.”

“No. He came in for a minute, and took a cup of coffee. That was all.
I can’t tell you the things that that man has done to-day. He has done
everything--even to the preparing of such food as she has been allowed
to take. If she recovers, it is to Dr Pryce, under Providence, that she
owes her life.”

“But why does he remain so long? Why does he not come and tell us?”

“I don’t know. I hope, of course, that she is asleep.”

“If she is asleep, then all is well, and he need not remain.”

“Yes,” admitted Mr Lechworthy. “But I have very great confidence in
that doctor. We had better not interfere.”

“Here he comes,” said the King.

“I heard nothing.”

“A door opened and shut softly.”

Dr Soames Pryce came out on to the verandah where Lechworthy and the
King were seated. His coat and waistcoat were off. With his left hand
he rubbed his right forearm. His smile was slightly triumphant.

“Well, we’ve got through all right, Mr Lechworthy. Had a bit of a fight
for it too. Miss Auriol has been asleep for nearly two hours and is
still asleep.”

“Then why have you left us without news?” asked the King.

“This another of your little tests?” sneered Pryce.

“Do you want me to apologise again for that? I will if you like. I
was a fool, and I know it now. I asked that only because I did not
understand. I did not think it would annoy you.”

Mr Lechworthy looked from one man to the other. He did not understand
to what they referred.

“All right, old chap,” said Pryce. “I couldn’t come before because Miss
Auriol had hold of my right hand when she went to sleep, and I didn’t
want to wake her again. Simple enough, isn’t it?”

“I’m afraid she’s given you a cramp in your right arm,” said Lechworthy.

“It wouldn’t prevent me from holding a knife and fork,” said the doctor.

“That’s good,” said the King. “We will have supper together.” In
another second he would have clapped his hands.

“No noise,” said Pryce, quickly.

“Right. I will go and fetch servants myself.”

Lechworthy also rose and went through the French windows. Dr Pryce
stretched himself at full length in a chair and closed his eyes. He was
rather more worn out than he would have admitted.

He opened his eyes again as Lechworthy came back on to the verandah
with a glass in his hand. “I’ve ventured,” said Mr Lechworthy. “Supper
won’t be ready for a few minutes. Whisky-and-soda, eh?”

“Good idea,” said Pryce, taking the glass. “All the same, I don’t want
you to run about waiting on me.”

“But my dear doctor, I can’t even begin to--”

“Miss Auriol’s a prize patient,” interrupted Dr Pryce. “Good
constitution, good pluck, good intelligence. By the way--”

King Smith came out to tell them that supper was ready.




CHAPTER VIII


Lord Charles Baringstoke stretched himself in a lounge-chair on the
verandah. It was eleven in the morning, and he had the tired meditative
feeling of one who has risen too early. The parrot, who had been
sitting for some minutes motionless on its perch, swayed backwards and
forwards, considering its repertoire. It produced a plausible imitation
of the drawing of a cork.

“Yes,” said Lord Charles Baringstoke, wearily, “that’s rather what I
think myself.”

Mr Mandelbaum waddled out to survey the morning. Between his fingers
he held a cigar, slightly bloated and rather doubtful, and in these
respects curiously like its proprietor.

“Well, my young frient,” said Mandelbaum, “I make myself a good
breakfast zis morning.”

“Gross feeder--what? I say, ain’t Soames Pryce ever comin’ back?”

“Ask ze Herr Zecretary. I am noddings here. Do you want pills?”

“No. You see, it’s rather a rum funny thing. You know that lizard of
mine--you backed him once.”

“And lost my money. I hop’ he is dead, zat lizart.”

“Yes, he’s dead all right, but that ain’t it. I was exercisin’ him
yesterday, when the boy brought me a glass of sherry and angostura with
a fly in it.”

“Fly? Vot fly?”

“Just a plain fly, and I hadn’t ordered it. But I fished it out and
chucked it to my lizard, who took it in one snap.”

“Vell, vell, vot about it? If you veesh to gomplain zat your drink hat
som’ flies--”

“I did the complainin’ at the time, thanks. I don’t let a thing of that
kind go past me. But what I mean is that the lizard started off round
the course like a flash of light. Cut the record all to rags. Did two
rounds and a bit, and then he died, you know. But I’ve got another
lizard, and I can get another fly and some more sherry. And I’ve got
some money just now, and Soames Pryce has got a lizard that he thinks
can’t be beaten. So that’s how it is, you see.”

“I see, my young frient. Dope.”

“Well, puttin’ it coarsely, dope. And good.”

“Ve borrow a lizart and try him again,” said Mr Mandelbaum,
thoughtfully. “Perhaps zat vos only a chance. Ach, here is Sir John!”

The neatness and freshness of Sir John’s attire made the other men look
untidy. Sir John had been distressed to hear of the carelessness of one
of the native waiters the day before, but at the same time he thought
it would have been better if Lord Charles had not thrown the glass in
the boy’s face. Glassware was so 

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