Show CHAPTER ill III continued 6 I 1 could not tell often I 1 did not think of it I 1 was reasonably busy as a trader and my beat up anti and down the coast in a cutter was a long one the crucial peak of solvency had just beba reached and passed and I 1 was be beginning to send money up to port moresby bank not much heaven knows but still it was prosperity or the d dawn awn of that pleasant condition and it promised in due time the fulfillment of my dream of exploration nothing in the world to do with sir richard fanshaw far above me and my little affairs ns as pla pia laurier was above us both where was the connection I 1 would have given much to know but weeks passed and I 1 was no nearer recalling the vague three parts forgotten thin thing 9 that linked sir rich richard ard fanshaw to daru darn and its sea scents and windy doorways and my little trading store and now I 1 have to and in what manner enlightenment came I 1 had gone up tip to the the residency on an afternoon when there was something doing more mare than usual the R AL resident magl magistrate strate was back from a wild patrol beyond the utmost elra of civilization or knowledge an A R al assistant resident magistrate and a patrol officer happened to be in at the same time and this was an occurrence so unusual as to warrant fairly a dinner party david bassett the R al a very good friend of mine had sent a prisoner to my store with a note dear amory come round to dinner if you cart can Nort hanger and purchase are back no particular food but a good deal of yarning I 1 lave have you an egg if so send or bring it under careful escort yours ID D bassett I 1 sent him all the eggs I 1 could muster in papua you must know eggs are the test of popularity the medium by which friendship servility hope esteem all find expression you borrow eggs from prudent people beg them aiom anyone who you think way may be fool enough to give buy where you can but that Is seldom present to your sweetheart your chum your friend in hospital bring with a servile grin to the mart man in high position the man who has lent you money or can get you promotion eggs in papua are the true social barometer I 1 had eggs and always gave bassett some when lie he asked tor for them bassett was R al and could be useful to me besides which I 1 liked him furthermore on this occasion I 1 was going to be asked to eat the eggs or help to do so following my e es eggs s I 1 went up tip to the residency several sev eral men like large la rge joint of meat enclosed in a rather small meat mat safe were sitting within the transparent hessian walls I 1 had expected throe three but I 1 saw four who else besides Nort hanger banger and purchase I 1 wondered was wag in hello heres black sheep somebody said and my host bel began introducing duci Nort hanger purchase you know the black sheep mr spicer mr amory the newcomer he was a fattish man inan with extremely flat feet and a sleeked head of fairish hair young good looking in a disgusting sort of way ind and dowered cowered with at an excess of the manner sometimes mi I oxford fixed me with a cool stare and demanded of the it II bf why do you call him black sheep Al mostly because his eyes are black and his hair and partly because hes bes a decent sort of chap replied bissett bassett staring hack back at the fattish man mr spicer immediately dropped me out of notice took a watch from his pocket and yawned dawned bassett rang the bell for dinner who Is he be I 1 asked in a whisper of Norl Nort hanger banger as we went into the dining room a clean polished rather apartment that shouted in every foot of its barren expanse its owners bachelor condition fellow chos come across to make arrangements tor for some prospecting crowd answered Nort hanger a little wearily we filed in why did you ask him I 1 found time to demand of bas bett and bassett looking at me with large sad eyes answered simply 1 I never did he wished himself onto the party and took his seat scat through the turtle soup we are usually sick of turtle soup in daru dam through the fish we ie are almost always tired of fish because we get it plentifully ay iy and fre flee through the roast of dugong ducong and the inevitable custard pudding and tinned pears sir air spicer talked with just so many pauses as would allow or of ills hn eating an by bu beatrice grimshaw illustrations by erivin majers by hush hughea blasi co borvice sei alc excellent dinner it seemed that he bad acquaintances among most of the titled families of england that they all valued mm him highly and that he be had bad been chosen to come ahead and organize the expedition by a mass meeting of marquises dukes and earls this he dl did d not forget to tell us Is stuff nothing colonial about it development of the british on which the sun never sets our chief sir richard fanshaw 11 at this point my slack attention tightened your what I 1 rapped who did you say for I 1 thought being bored half asleep that my ears were playing me false so often had that name hummed bummed in my head between sleeping and waking waiting that I 1 could not believe I 1 was hearing it actually spoken by some one else sir richard fanshaw K C V 0 celebrated airman in the war extremely successful manager of companies devoted to the extension of interests chief in this matter if any one is chief but myself I 1 expect him to follow very shortly via port moresby I 1 dont know what it was maybe the new interest the fresh channel of feeling opened up by spicer and his talk maybe the mention from an unexpected quarter of fanshawe Fan shaws name but something d at that moment set off a fuse ben beneath eath the long dormant part of nay my memory and exploded it into action I 1 knew with certainty where and how I 1 had seen sir richard fanshaw before my gd G d I 1 knew 1 I in the glass that hung opposite the table I 1 saw my face turn to something thin like a piece of white blotting paper with black blots for eyes and brows I 1 know that I 1 saw it I 1 remembered that after at the moment I 1 was only concerned with getting out of the house spicer the R al Nort hanger and purchase might all have been ta taken 1 en out a and n d drowned together in a bag for what I 1 cared there was nothing that I 1 cared about nathl nothing n that I 1 knew save that mad anstin instinct e t to bolt off tile the course and get away we had done dinner and were just moving back into the mi mosquito room I 1 touched my host on the shoulder sorry I 1 lied but ive got of a touch of fever ill have to go home you do look most awfully sick black sheep better get to bed you might be going down with blackwater night Nigh tl 1 I 1 said and slipped away As I 1 descended the veranda steps the loud high voice of spicer was still holding forth where you have failed he was telling Nort hanger and purchase who had mapped out enough new country to deserve a dozen R G S medals where you have all of you given way dayi there was not a man in the room but had bad performed feats of surprise attack capture among the wild cannibals of the interior enough to furnish plots to a dozen movies 1 I shall succeed I 1 and my chief we shall plant the flag of the british where never flag has waved before we are organized gani zed prepared for anything that may happen what we expect to find I 1 remember won wondering wonderlin derin as I 1 went through the garden and into the croton walk at dog trot it if spicer and his gang perchance had picked up some rumor of the secret that was my capital and my hope I 1 remember tolling telling myself that it did not matter if they had nothing mattered except what I 1 had with shock and horror unspeakable recalled nineteen nineteen the year myself newly de mobilized spending ray my gratuity money in a hurried trip through the south sea islands that 1 I in common with thousands of others had always wl wished aled to know somebody who said you should have seen the islands years before before the war ton ten years before not what they were too many dashed tourists now if you can handle boats get a cutter with a bit of a cabin and go awa away y back whore where from anywhere almot almost out of reach of steamers and cook tickets all the cutter hired a 0 native or two engaged as crow crew weeks then of the happiness I 1 had come far to seek through the looking glass I 1 had gone like the child in the immortal S ii I 1 tale and ev everything ery thing now was magically changed with delight I 1 learned what life can be when that tyrant time la Is toppled OIT off his throne how in the year that Is a day find and the day that Is a year a man perhaps may lose his way drop the clews that lead through the tangled mazo maze called life and wander timeless aimless till the dark it must have been about the sixth month of my journeying when with money running low and mind almost sated with tropic beauties and wonders so that I 1 began to think I 1 might soon without regret return to civili I 1 came upon a group of islands that I 1 shall call omega there Is a town in the omega group a town that for reasons I 1 cannot give here offers more commercial interests and possibilities than most island places this Is important and should be remembered it has to do with what I 1 am going to tell the town appealed to me but little it was the outer part of the archipelago that drew me thin atoll islands barren and very bright islets with here and there a coconut palm and here and there a lost melan melancholy chol y looking pan daDus tre tree e shoal waters that were mauve and sapphire pearl and celadon green I 1 had bought the cutter by this time with a small windfall of a legacy that came my way and I 1 had just enough money left to run her for a few more weeks I 1 cash for anything any thin of a crew however save one old silly fellow who was willing to come without wages ue he professed to know the group from end to end and though I 1 was a little doubtful doubt fi of his knowledge I 1 could not afford to quarrel with it or him after all I 1 thought we shall get somewhere and come away somehow and all one really wants if I 1 had known it was on a windy wicked afternoon with high clouds flying that we got blown away from our course such as it was obliged to abandon all attempt to get to the group of atolls tor for which I 1 had been aiming I 1 gave the tiller into the hand of the crew slung my two sleeping boards across the seats and lay down with a rice sack under my head taviel was to call me at moonrise which I 1 judged to be about ten I 1 sleep for a while the cutter pitched violently in the cross sea raised by tide and wind hammering with her bows on the water till you might have thought she would stave herself in it looked looked like ugly weather I 1 thought and then of a sudden 1 s slept I 1 was awakened by the smothering dash of salt water over my cay head and a blow from the cutters gunwale that got me in the ribs as I 1 was being swept overboard everything about me was white foam and wa ter I 1 felt sand beneath my toes but could not grip it because the short breaking waves had me at their will and w were e r e knocking knockle me about as a child batters a toy I 1 fought and got foothold at last the cutter was lying on her side smashing her mast and rigging as she swayed about with the tha seas was just crawling out onto a stone like a rat escaped from the drowning pall where are we I 1 shouted to him as I 1 crawled out beside him there was no use scolding him for his careless handling of the boat now low tide would strand the cutter till then one could do little or nothing 1 I danow arlel chief mournfully answered the old man then with a burst of animation 1 I think we well wherever we are I 1 said the first thing to do la Is to get the cable of the boat fast to something and that with considerable difficulty we did securing what was left of her to one of the big black stones so that she might not be carried away by outgoing tide bavitt after this found a little hole you could hardly call it cave amon among the rocks and dragged himself into it covering his lean wet we body so far as he could with a mass of seaweed I 1 left him there while I 1 started to explore the place and find out if I 1 could where Ta vItIs mad seamanship backed by my own carelessness had landed me it was not much past full moon time and nowhere on earths surface does the moon shine with more effect than on a coral island I 1 could see everything about me almost I 1 as plainly as in the day and I 1 did i not like what I 1 saw TO SO BB CONTINUED |