There they are, he said. And this isnt Gabera. Then what the hell is it?
Though the surf still roared and across the shoal flung its spray and upper wash over them, the wind died down and the stars came out. Shoreward came the sound of oars.
What have you had? an earthquake? Griffiths called out. The bottoms all changed. Ive anchored here a hundred times in thirteen fathoms. Is that you, Wilson?
A whaleboat came alongside, and a man climbed over the rail. In the faint light Griffiths found an automatic Colts thrust into his face, and, looking up, saw David Grief.
No, you never anchored here before, Grief laughed. Gaberas just around the point, where Ill be as soon as Ive collected that little sum of twelve hundred pounds. We wont bother for the receipt. Ive your note here, and Ill just return it.
You did this! Griffiths cried, springing to his feet in a sudden gust of rage. You faked those leading lights! Youve wrecked me, and by
Steady! Steady! Griefs voice was cool and menacing. Ill trouble you for that twelve hundred, please.
To Griffiths, a vast impotence seemed to descend upon him. He was overwhelmed by a profound disgust disgust for the sunlands and the sun-sickness, for the futility of all his endeavour, for this blue-eyed, golden-tinted, superior man who defeated him on all his ways.
Jacobsen, he said, will you open the cash-box and pay this this bloodsucker twelve hundred pounds?
Chapter Two THE PROUD GOAT OF ALOYSIUS PANKBURN
IQuick eye that he had for the promise of adventure, prepared always for the unexpected to leap out at him from behind the nearest cocoanut tree, nevertheless David Grief received no warning when he laid eyes on Aloysius Pankburn. It was on the little steamer Berthe. Leaving his schooner to follow, Grief had taken passage for the short run across from Raiatea to Papeete. When he first saw Aloysius Pankburn, that somewhat fuddled gentleman was drinking a lonely cocktail at the tiny bar between decks next to the barber shop. And when Grief left the barbers hands half an hour later Aloysius Pankburn was still hanging over the bar still drinking by himself.
Now it is not good for man to drink alone, and Grief threw sharp scrutiny into his pass-ing glance. He saw a well-built young man of thirty, well-featured, well-dressed, and evidently, in the worlds catalogue, a gentleman. But in the faint hint of slovenliness, in the shaking, eager hand that spilled the liquor, and in the nervous, vacillating eyes, Grief read the unmistakable marks of the chronic alcoholic.
After dinner he chanced upon Pankburn again. This time it was on deck, and the young man, clinging to the rail and peering into the distance at the dim forms of a man and woman in two steamer chairs drawn closely together, was crying, drunkenly. Grief noted that the mans arm was around the womans waist. Aloysius Pankburn looked on and cried.
Nothing to weep about, Grief said genially.
Pankburn looked at him, and gushed tears of profound self-pity.
Its hard, he sobbed. Hard. Hard. That mans my business manager. I employ him. I pay him a good screw. And thats how he earns it.
In that case, why dont you put a stop to it? Grief advised.
I cant. Shed shut off my whiskey. Shes my trained nurse.
Fire her, then, and drink your head off.
I cant. Hes got all my money. If I did, he wouldnt give me sixpence to buy a drink with.
This woful possibility brought a fresh wash of tears. Grief was interested. Of all unique situations he could never have imagined such a one as this.
They were engaged to take care of me, Pankburn was blubbering, to keep me away from the drink. And thats the way they do it, lollygagging all about the ship and letting me drink myself to death. It isnt right, I tell you. It isnt right. They were sent along with me for the express purpose of not letting me drink, and they let me drink to swinishness as long as I leave them alone. If I complain they threaten not to let me have another drop. What can a poor devil do? My death will be on their heads, thats all. Come on down and join me.
He released his clutch on the rail, and would have fallen had Grief not caught his arm. He seemed to undergo a transformation, to stiffen physically, to thrust his chin forward aggressively, and to glint harshly in his eyes.
I wont let them kill me. And theyll be sorry. Ive offered them fifty thousand later on, of course. They laughed. They dont know. But I know. He fumbled in his coat pocket and drew forth an object that flashed in the faint light. They dont know the meaning of that. But I do. He looked at Grief with abrupt suspicion. What do you make out of it, eh? What do you make out of it?
David Grief caught a swift vision of an alcoholic degenerate putting a very loving young couple to death with a copper spike, for a copper spike was what he held in his hand, an evident old-fashioned ship-fastening.
My mother thinks Im up here to get cured of the booze habit. She doesnt know. I bribed the doctor to prescribe a voyage. When we get to Papeete my manager is going to charter a schooner and away well sail. But they dont dream. They think its the booze. I know. I only know. Good night, sir. Im going to bed unless er youll join me in a night cap. One last drink, you know.
IIIn the week that followed at Papeete Grief caught numerous and bizarre glimpses of Aloysius Pankburn. So did everybody else in the little island capital; for neither the beach nor Lavinas boarding house had been so scandalized in years. In midday, bareheaded, clad only in swimming trunks, Aloysius Pankburn ran down the main street from Lavinas to the water front. He put on the gloves with a fireman from the Berthe in a scheduled four-round bout at the Folies Bergères, and was knocked out in the second round. He tried insanely to drown himself in a two-foot pool of water, dived drunkenly and splendidly from fifty feet up in the rigging of the Mariposa lying at the wharf, and chartered the cutter Toerau at more than her purchase price and was only saved by his managers refusal financially to ratify the agreement. He bought out the old blind leper at the market, and sold breadfruit, plantains, and sweet potatoes at such cut-rates that the gendarmes were called out to break the rush of bargain-hunting natives. For that matter, three times the gendarmes arrested him for riotous behaviour, and three times his manager ceased from love-making long enough to pay the fines imposed by a needy colonial administration.
Then the Mariposa sailed for San Francisco, and in the bridal suite were the manager and the trained nurse, fresh-married. Before departing, the manager had thoughtfully bestowed eight five-pound banknotes on Aloysius, with the foreseen result that Aloysius awoke several days later to find himself broke and perilously near to delirium tremens. Lavina, famed for her good heart even among the driftage of South Pacific rogues and scamps, nursed him around and never let it filter into his returning intelligence that there was neither manager nor money to pay his board.
It was several evenings after this that David Grief, lounging under the after deck awning of the Kittiwake and idly scanning the meagre columns of the Papeete Avant-Coureur, sat suddenly up and almost rubbed his eyes. It was unbelievable, but there it was. The old South Seas Romance was not dead. He read: