Within two days we were fully laded and ready to go. In that time we slept very little, remaining vigilant always against the Jaqqa attack, for we thought the man-eaters might come like ghosts from any direction, without warning.
The same thought was in the minds of the blacks, and they were constantly on guard, their faces so drawn and fearful that I thought sure they would soon begin to die of their own timidity. These Loango folk were more terrified than if an army of giant coccodrillos were heading toward them.
At this time one of our number took advantage most shamefully of the disarray of the Loangans. I had my first clue of this when I saw two of the lower Portugal sailors trading among themselves, and haggling over a fine knife of African manufacture, with great green jewels set in its hilt. I happened upon them and took the thing from them to admire it, and turned it over in my hand, and said, “Where did you come by this? I saw nothing like it in the marketplace!”
“Ah, it is an old one,” said they, “which a poor ancient woman was selling, to pay some high expense of hers.”
That sounded believable enough; but soon after I saw the same thing, a bargaining between two of the most common men upon a disk of splendid ivory carved most strangely. And I asked some questions, and then some more, and what I learned was this: that the sly and shameless Tristão Caldeira de Rodrigues, under cloak of night and at a time when the Loango people were too concerned with Jaqqas to expend men properly on guarding their holy places, had crept out to the sacred cemetery-place at Loangiri and had despoiled one of the finest of the graves, carrying away a sack of treasure for his private enrichment, and selling off a few pieces to the others to cover certain gambling debts of his.
I suppose it was my place to bring the matter to Faleiro, or to ask counsel of Mendes Oliveira or Pinto Cabral, and not to take it into my own hands. But already had I my choler aroused by this worthless young man, and fate brought him across my path just then before I saw any of the others. And so I taxed him with his crime, and asked if the tale I had heard were true.
He gave me a saucy glare, as though to say, “How dare you reproach me, English clod-grubber, English ruffian!” And shrugged, and would have walked away.
But I took him by the wrist and said, “Answer me, is it so?”
“And if it is, what is that to you?”
“It has great import to me.”
“Ah,” he said, “you are co-religionist with these blacks, and take it as a sacrilege. Eh? But let me tell you, Englishman, if you touch me on the arm again, or anywhere else, I will put the point of my dagger into your privates, if you have any.”
“You talk boldly, boy. Let us see how bold you are, when the demon-mokisso of these blacks reaches out, and hurls you into the sea for your impiety.”
“What, and do you believe that?” he said, seeming genuinely astounded.
“That I do.”
“Nay,” he said. “You are a fool, Englishman! There are no demons here! There are no gods! There are only treasures for the taking, and ignorant naked savages who must surrender them to those who are their betters.”
I regarded him with much coolness and said, “They tell me you are the son of a duke, and I am only the son of a mariner, so I should not lesson you in matters of courtesy. But I tell you this, that we English peasants, dirty and ignorant though we be, have sufficient respect for the dead, whether they be white or black or green of skin, to let them sleep unperturbed, without going among them to filch away their treasures. That is one matter, and not a trifling one, but it is merely a matter of courtesy, which may not be of importance to you, for you are a duke’s son and above all such little fine punctilios.”
“Indeed,” said he, “I will hear no instruction from you on points of breeding.”
“Nor should you. But hear at least this: these people have gods and demons, even as we, and surely those dark beings do guard their holy places. And we are about to undertake our voyage southward in troublesome seas. I tell you, sirrah, that your greed here may well bring a curse upon our voyage, and cost us all our lives: and I will not be pilot on a doomed voyage.”
At that he looked somewhat sobered, though his glare was chilly as ever, and the purple birthmark on his cheek did blaze in bright token of his fury at my interfering with him.
I said further, “I will go straightaway to Master Faleiro, and tell him I will not sail, and I will tell him why.”
“Will you, now?”
“And if he has also plundered, and cares nothing for what you have done, then so be it: I will remain here, and have my chances with the Jaqqa hordes, and let you all sail pilotless out into whatever fate awaits you.”
Caldeira de Rodrigues now did shift his weight from foot to foot, and look most discomforted, and say, “A curse, you think? On an old yard where ancient bones do moulder? Come, Piloto, this is foolishness!”
“Not to me, and I know something of the sea, and I will not go venturing on a ship that bears a man that is marked for the vengeance of the spirits.”
“And you will tell this to Faleiro?”
“That I most assuredly will.”
He was silent a long while. Then he said, with the gleam of the seducer upon his eye, “I will share with you, half and half, if you will be silent.”
“Ah, and allow me to share the curse as well?”
“But who can be sure that there will be a curse?” he cried.
“And who can be sure that there will not?” said I.
Again he considered. And it seemed to me that I had struck deep to his shabby soul, and frighted him: for callous he might be, and airy and mocking, and guided only by his own greeds, but no man can wholly ignore the power of the unseen world, save at his deadly peril. Thus I think a dispute went on within Tristão Caldeira de Rodrigues, in which he did balance his great avarice against his love of life, and bethought himself of the perils of the sea, and, I believe, considered for the first time that there might truly be witch-fires protecting the treasures of the Loango-people’s dead ones. I saw all this moving about on the face of that worthless youth, his anger at me for interfering with his theft warring with his own fear of perishing by shipwreck. And I believe also another thing did hold high urgency in his mind, that he was intent on keeping Faleiro from knowledge of his crime, either because he thought he might lose his stolen goods to the master, or that the terms of his exile in Angola were such that he dared not be taken in the act of performing such looting, out of fear of heavy punishment.
At any rate, he did much calculation in very few moments; and then he said, giving me the thoughtful eye, “If I return to the cemetery that which I have taken, will you swear to say nothing to Faleiro?”
“That I will, most heartily.”
“And may I believe such an oath?”
“Do you take me for a villain? I have not the fortune to be a duke’s son; therefore must I make do with mine honor alone.”
“You are a troublesome meddler, Piloto, and a fool.”
“But not a rogue, sirrah.”
“Keep a civil tongue, or I’ll have it out with my blade!”
His threat gave me no unease.
“We were speaking of your returning what you had stolen,” quietly I said.
“Aye. And I will put back everything, since you leave me no choice. But I will exact some kind of payment from you for this. And I will not conceal from you that I despise you sorely for forcing this returning upon me.”
“Despise me all you like, good friend,” said I, for I saw that he was a coward, and this was all bluster and bravado, and that he was compelled to yield to me. “But at least no curses will be brought down upon my ship for your sake, while I am at sea.”