_ On a very bright, hot, lusty, strongly blowing noon, a fortnight after
the events recorded, and a month since the curtain rose upon this
episode, a man might have been spied, praying on the sand by the lagoon
beach. A point of palm trees isolated him from the settlement; and from
the place where he knelt, the only work of man's hand that interrupted
the expanse, was the schooner Farallone, her berth quite changed, and
rocking at anchor some two miles to windward in the midst of the lagoon.
The noise of the Trade ran very boisterous in all parts of the island;
the nearer palm trees crashed and whistled in the gusts, those farther
off contributed a humming bass like the roar of cities; and yet, to any
man less absorbed, there must have risen at times over this turmoil
of the winds, the sharper note of the human voice from the settlement.
There all was activity. Attwater, stripped to his trousers and lending
a strong hand of help, was directing and encouraging five Kanakas; from
his lively voice, and their more lively efforts, it was to be gathered
that some sudden and joyful emergency had set them in this bustle; and
the Union Jack floated once more on its staff. But the suppliant on the
beach, unconscious of their voices, prayed on with instancy and fervour,
and the sound of his voice rose and fell again, and his countenance
brightened and was deformed with changing moods of piety and terror.
Before his closed eyes, the skiff had been for some time tacking towards
the distant and deserted Farallone; and presently the figure of Herrick
might have been observed to board her, to pass for a while into the
house, thence forward to the forecastle, and at last to plunge into the
main hatch. In all these quarters, his visit was followed by a coil of
smoke; and he had scarce entered his boat again and shoved off, before
flames broke forth upon the schooner. They burned gaily; kerosene had
not been spared, and the bellows of the Trade incited the conflagration.
About half way on the return voyage, when Herrick looked back, he beheld
the Farallone wrapped to the topmasts in leaping arms of fire, and
the voluminous smoke pursuing him along the face of the lagoon. In one
hour's time, he computed, the waters would have closed over the stolen
ship.
It so chanced that, as his boat flew before the wind with much vivacity,
and his eyes were continually busy in the wake, measuring the progress
of the flames, he found himself embayed to the northward of the point
of palms, and here became aware at the same time of the figure of Davis
immersed in his devotion. An exclamation, part of annoyance, part of
amusement, broke from him: and he touched the helm and ran the prow
upon the beach not twenty feet from the unconscious devotee. Taking the
painter in his hand, he landed, and drew near, and stood over him. And
still the voluble and incoherent stream of prayer continued unabated. It
was not possible for him to overhear the suppliant's petitions, which he
listened to some while in a very mingled mood of humour and pity: and
it was only when his own name began to occur and to be conjoined with
epithets, that he at last laid his hand on the captain's shoulder.
'Sorry to interrupt the exercise,' said he; 'but I want you to look at
the Farallone.'
The captain scrambled to his feet, and stood gasping and staring. 'Mr
Herrick, don't startle a man like that!' he said. 'I don't seem someways
rightly myself since...' he broke off. 'What did you say anyway? O, the
Farallone,' and he looked languidly out.
'Yes,' said Herrick. 'There she burns! and you may guess from that what
the news is.'
'The Trinity Hall, I guess,' said the captain.
'The same,' said Herrick; 'sighted half an hour ago, and coming up hand
over fist.'
'Well, it don't amount to a hill of beans,' said the captain with a
sigh.
'O, come, that's rank ingratitude!' cried Herrick.
'Well,' replied the captain, meditatively, 'you mayn't just see the way
that I view it in, but I'd 'most rather stay here upon this island. I
found peace here, peace in believing. Yes, I guess this island is about
good enough for John Davis.'
'I never heard such nonsense!' cried Herrick. 'What! with all turning
out in your favour the way it does, the Farallone wiped out, the crew
disposed of, a sure thing for your wife and family, and you, yourself,
Attwater's spoiled darling and pet penitent!'
'Now, Mr Herrick, don't say that,' said the captain gently; 'when you
know he don't make no difference between us. But, O! why not be one of
us? why not come to Jesus right away, and let's meet in yon beautiful
land? That's just the one thing wanted; just say, Lord, I believe, help
thou mine unbelief! And He'll fold you in His arms. You see, I know!
I've been a sinner myself!'
[THE END]
Robert Louis Stevenson's fiction/novel: Ebb-Tide
_