Part 3 (1/2)

”Flog us first, and roast us afterwards.” I repeated mechanically the words of William Bludger. ”Why, you must be mad; they are more likely to fall down and wors.h.i.+p us,--_me_ at any rate.”

”No, Capt'n,” replied William; ”that's your mistake. They say we're both Catharmata; that's what they call us; and you're no better than me.”

”And what are Catharmata?” I inquired, remembering that this word, or something like it, had been constantly used by the natives in my hearing.

”Well, Capt'n, it means, first and foremost, just the off-scourings of creation, the very dust and sweepings of the shop,” answered Bludger, who had somehow regained his confidence. To have a fellow-sufferer, and to see the pallor which, doubtless, overspread my features, was a source of comfort to this hardened man. At the same time I confess that, if William Bludger alone had been destined to suffer, I could have contemplated the decree with Christian resignation.

”I speak the beggars' patter pretty well now,” Bludger went on; ”and I see Catharmata means more than just mere dirt. It means two unlucky devils.”

”William?” I exclaimed.

”It means, saving your presence, two poor coves, as has no luck, like you and me, and that can be got rid of once a year, at an entertainment they call the Thargeelyah, I dunno why, a kind o' friendly lead. They choose fellows as either behaves ill, or has no friends to make a fuss about them, and they gives them three dozen, or more, and takes them down to the beach, and burns them alive over a slow fire. And then they toss the ashes out to sea, and think all the bad luck goes away with the tide. Oh, I never was in such a hole as this!”

Bludger's words made me shudder. I had never forgotten the hideous sacrifice, doubtless the Thargeelyah, as they called it, that greeted me when I was first cast ash.o.r.e on the island. To think that I had only been saved that I might figure as a victim of some of their heathen G.o.ds!

Oh, now the thought came back to me with a bitter repentance, that if I had only converted all the islanders, they would never have dreamed of sacrificing me in honour of a mere idol! Why had I been so lukewarm, why had I backslidden, why had I endeavoured to make myself agreeable by joining in promiscuous dances, when I should have been thundering against Pagan idolatry, holy water, idols, sacrifices and the whole abominable system of life on the island? True, I might have goaded them into slaying me; I might have suffered as a martyr; but, at the least, I would have deserved the martyr's crown. And now I was to perish at the stake, without even the precious consolation of being a real martyr, and was to be flogged into the bargain.

I gave a hollow groan as these reflections pa.s.sed through my mind, and this appeared to afford William Bludger some consolation.

”You don't seem to like it yourself, Capt'n; what's your advice? We're both in the same boat; leastways I wish we _were_ in a boat; anyhow we're both in the same hole.”

There was no denying this, and it was high time to mature some plan of escape. Already I must have been missed by my attendants, my gaolers rather, who would have returned from their festival, and would be looking for me everywhere.

I bitterly turned over in my mind the facts of our situation; ”ours,”

for, as a just punishment of my remissness, I was in the same quandary as a drunken, dissipated sailor before the mast.

If William had but possessed a sweet and tuneful voice (often a gift found in the most depraved natures), and if I had been able to borrow a harmonium on wheels, I would not, even now, have despaired of converting the whole island in the course of the week. As remarkable feats have been performed, with equal alacrity, by precious Messrs. Moody and Sankey, and I am informed that expeditious conversions are by no means infrequent among politicians. But it was vain to think of this resource, as William had no voice, and knew no hymns, while I had no means of access to a perambulating harmonium.

”I'll tell you what it is, sir,” said Bludger; ”I have a notion.”

”Name it, William,” I replied, my heart and manner softened by community in suffering and terror.

”Well, if I were you, sir, I would not go home to-night at all; I'd stop where you are. The beggars won't find you, let them hunt as they like; they daren't come near this place, bless you, it's an 'Arnt;” by which he meant that it was haunted.

”Well,” said I, ”but how should we be any better off to-morrow morning?”

”That's just it, sir,” said Bludger. ”We'll be up with the first stroke of dawn, nip down to the harbour, get on board a boat, and be off before any of them are stirring.”

”But, even if we manage to secure a boat,” I said, ”what about provisions, and where are we to sail for?”

”Oh, never mind that,” said Bill; ”we can't be worse off than we are, and I'll slip out to-night, and lay in some prog in the town. Also some grog, if I can lay my hands on it,” he added, with an unholy smile.

”No, William,” I murmured; ”no grog; our lives depend on our sobriety.”

”Always a-preaching, the old tub-thumper,” I heard William say to himself; but he made no further reference to the subject.

It was now quite dark, and we lay whispering, in the damp hollow under the great stone. Our plan was to crawl away at the first blush of dawn, when men generally sleep most soundly; that William should enter one of the unguarded houses (for these people never stole, and did not know the meaning of the word ”thief”), that he should help himself to provisions, and that meanwhile I should have a boat ready to start in the harbour.

This larcenous but inevitable programme we carried out, after waiting through dreadful hours of cold and s.h.i.+vering anxiety. Every cry of a night bird from the marsh or the wood sent my heart into my mouth. I felt inconceivably mean and remorseful, my vanity having received a dreadful shock from the discovery that, far from being a G.o.d, I was to be a kind of burnt-offering.