Part 27 (2/2)

”It's truth. It's G.o.d's truth. That's why the American doctor couldn't do anything. Our people can do that. I've seen it done. I thought you were safe because you were a white man.”

”I haven't an enemy.”

”Bananas.”

”What's he want to pray me to death for?”

”You ought to have fired him before he had a chance.”

”I guess if I ain't got nothing more the matter with me than Bananas'

hoodoo I shall be sitting up and taking nourishment in a very few days.”

She was silent for a while and she looked at him intently.

”Don't you know you're dying?” she said to him at last.

That was what the two skippers had thought, but they hadn't said it. A s.h.i.+ver pa.s.sed across the captain's wan face.

”The doctor says there ain't nothing really the matter with me. I've only to lie quiet for a bit and I shall be all right.”

She put her lips to his ear as if she were afraid that the air itself might hear.

”You're dying, dying, dying. You'll pa.s.s out with the old moon.”

”That's something to know.”

”You'll pa.s.s out with the old moon unless Bananas dies before.”

He was not a timid man and he had recovered already from the shock her words, and still more her vehement, silent manner, had given him. Once more a smile flickered in his eyes.

”I guess I'll take my chance, girlie.”

”There's twelve days before the new moon.”

There was something in her tone that gave him an idea.

”See here, my girl, this is all bunk. I don't believe a word of it. But I don't want you to try any of your monkey tricks with Bananas. He ain't a beauty, but he's a first-rate mate.”

He would have said a good deal more, but he was tired out. He suddenly felt very weak and faint. It was always at that hour that he felt worse.

He closed his eyes. The girl watched him for a minute and then slipped out of the cabin. The moon, nearly full, made a silver pathway over the dark sea. It shone from an unclouded sky. She looked at it with terror, for she knew that with its death the man she loved would die. His life was in her hands. She could save him, she alone could save him, but the enemy was cunning, and she must be cunning too. She felt that someone was looking at her, and without turning, by the sudden fear that seized her, knew that from the shadow the burning eyes of the mate were fixed upon her. She did not know what he could do; if he could read her thoughts she was defeated already, and with a desperate effort she emptied her mind of all content. His death alone could save her lover, and she could bring his death about. She knew that if he could be brought to look into a calabash in which was water so that a reflection of him was made, and the reflection were broken by hurtling the water, he would die as though he had been struck by lightning; for the reflection was his soul. But none knew better than he the danger, and he could be made to look only by a guile which had lulled his least suspicion. He must never think that he had an enemy who was on the watch to cause his destruction. She knew what she had to do. But the time was short, the time was terribly short. Presently she realised that the mate had gone. She breathed more freely.

Two days later they sailed, and there were ten now before the new moon.

Captain Butler was terrible to see. He was nothing but skin and bone, and he could not move without help. He could hardly speak. But she dared do nothing yet. She knew that she must be patient. The mate was cunning, cunning. They went to one of the smaller islands of the group and discharged cargo, and now there were only seven days more. The moment had come to start. She brought some things out of the cabin she shared with the captain and made them into a bundle. She put the bundle in the deck cabin where she and Bananas ate their meals, and at dinner time, when she went in, he turned quickly and she saw that he had been looking at it. Neither of them spoke, but she knew what he suspected. She was making her preparations to leave the s.h.i.+p. He looked at her mockingly.

Gradually, as though to prevent the captain from knowing what she was about, she brought everything she owned into the cabin, and some of the captain's clothes, and made them all into bundles. At last Bananas could keep silence no longer. He pointed to a suit of ducks.

”What are you going to do with that?” he asked.

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