“With what?”
“You’ll go like a sheep to the butcher? You will?”
“Don’t be ridiculous—they don’t want me—it wouldn’t be right for me to be the one.”
“Why?” Vinck asked.
“I’m the Captain-General.”
“With respect, sir,” Vinck said ironically, “maybe you should volunteer. It’s your place to volunteer.”
“A very good suggestion,” Pieterzoon said. “I’ll second the motion, by God.”
There was general assent and everyone thought, Lord Jesus, anyone but me.
Spillbergen had begun to bluster and order but he saw the pitiless eyes. So he stopped and stared at the ground, filled with nausea. Then he said, “No. It—it wouldn’t be right for someone to volunteer. It—we’ll—we’ll draw lots. Straws, one shorter than the rest. We’ll put our hands—we’ll put ourselves into the hands of God. Pilot, you’ll hold the straws.”
“I won’t. I’ll have nothing to do with it. I say we fight.”
“They’ll kill us all. You heard what the samurai said: Our lives are spared—except one.” Spillbergen wiped the sweat off his face and a cloud of flies rose and then settled again. “Give me some water. It’s better for one to die than all of us.”
Van Nekk dunked the gourd in the barrel and gave it to Spillbergen. “We’re ten. Including you, Paulus,” he said. “The odds are good.”
“Very good—unless you’re the one.” Vinck glanced at Blackthorne. “Can we fight those swords?”
“Can you go meekly to the torturer if you’re the one picked?”
“I don’t know.”
Van Nekk said, “We’ll draw lots. We’ll let God decide.”
“Poor God,” Blackthorne said. “The stupidities He gets blamed for!”
“How else do we choose?” someone shouted.
“We don’t!”
“We’ll do as Paulus says. He’s Captain-General,” said van Nekk. “We’ll draw straws. It’s best for the majority. Let’s vote. Are we all in favor?”
They had all said yes. Except Vinck. “I’m with the Pilot. To hell with sewer-sitting pissmaking witch-festering straws!”
Eventually Vinck had been persuaded. Jan Roper, the Calvinist, had led the prayers. Spillbergen broke the ten pieces of straw with exactitude. Then he halved one of them.
Van Nekk, Pieterzoon, Sonk, Maetsukker, Ginsel, Jan Roper, Salamon, Maximilian Croocq, and Vinck.
Again he said, “Who wants to pick first?”
“How do we know that—that the one who picks the wrong, the short straw’ll go? How do we know that?” Maetsukker’s voice was raw with terror.
“We don’t. Not for certain. We should know for certain,” Croocq, the boy, said.
“That’s easy,” Jan Roper said. “Let’s swear we will do it in the name of God. In His name. To—to die for the others in His name. Then there’s no worry. The anointed Lamb of God will go straight to Everlasting Glory.”
They all agreed.
“Go on, Vinck. Do as Roper says.”
“All right.” Vinck’s lips were parched. “If—if it’s me—I swear by the Lord God that I’ll go with them if—if I pick the wrong straw. In God’s name.”
They all followed. Maetsukker was so frightened he had to be prompted before he sank back into the quagmire of his living nightmare.
Sonk chose first. Pieterzoon was next. Then Jan Roper, and after him Salamon and Croocq. Spillbergen felt himself dying fast because they had agreed he would not choose but his would be the last straw and now the odds were becoming terrible.
Ginsel was safe. Four left.
Maetsukker was weeping openly, but he pushed Vinck aside and took a straw and could not believe that it was not the one.
Spillbergen’s fist was shaking and Croocq helped him steady his arm. Feces ran unnoticed down his legs.
Which one do I take? van Nekk was asking himself desperately. Oh, God help me! He could barely see the straws through the fog of his myopia. If only I could see, perhaps I’d have a clue which to pick. Which one?
He picked and brought the straw close to his eyes to see his sentence clearly. But the straw was not short.
Vinck watched his fingers select the next to last straw and it fell to the ground but everyone saw that it was the shortest thus far. Spillbergen unclenched his knotted hand and everyone saw that the last straw was long. Spillbergen fainted.
They were all staring at Vinck. Helplessly he looked at them, not seeing them. He half shrugged and half smiled and waved absently at the flies. Then he slumped down. They made room for him, kept away from him as though he were a leper.
Blackthorne knelt in the ooze beside Spillbergen.
“Is he dead?” van Nekk asked, his voice almost inaudible.
Vinck shrieked with laughter, which unnerved them all, and ceased as violently as he had begun. “I’m the—the one that’s dead,” he said. “I’m dead!”
“Don’t be afraid. You’re the anointed of God. You’re in God’s hands,” Jan Roper said, his voice confident.
“Yes,” van Nekk said. “Don’t be afraid.”
“That’s easy now, isn’t it?” Vinck’s eyes went from face to face but none could hold his gaze. Only Blackthorne did not look away.
“Get me some water, Vinck,” he said quietly. “Go over to the barrel and get some water. Go on.”
Vinck stared at him. Then he got the gourd and filled it with water and gave it to him. “Lord Jesus God, Pilot,” he muttered, “what am I going to do?”
“First help me with Paulus. Vinck! Do what I say! Is he going to be all right?”
Vinck pushed his agony away, helped by Blackthorne’s calm. Spillbergen’s pulse was weak. Vinck listened to his heart, pulled the eyelids away, and watched for a moment. “I don’t know, Pilot. Lord Jesus, I can’t think properly. His heart’s all right, I think. He needs bleeding but—but I’ve no way—I—I can’t concentrate. . . . Give me . . .” He stopped exhaustedly, sat back against the wall. Shudders began to rack him.
The trapdoor opened.
Omi stood etched against the sky, his kimono blooded by the dying sun.
CHAPTER FOUR
Vinck tried to make his legs move but he could not. He had faced death many times in his life but never like this, meekly. It had been decreed by the straws. Why me? his brain screamed. I’m no worse than the others and better than most. Dear God in Heaven, why me?
A ladder had been lowered. Omi motioned for the one man to come up, and quickly. “Isogi!” Hurry up!
Van Nekk and Jan Roper were praying silently, their eyes closed. Pieterzoon could not watch. Blackthorne was staring up at Omi and his men.
“Isogi!” Omi barked out again.
Once more Vinck tried to stand. “Help me, someone. Help me to get up!”
Pieterzoon, who was nearest, bent down and put his hand under Vinck’s arm and helped him to his feet, then Blackthorne was at the foot of the ladder, both feet planted firmly in the slime.
“Kinjiru!” he shouted, using the word from the ship. A gasp rushed through the cellar. Omi’s hand tightened on his sword and he moved to the ladder. Immediately Blackthorne twisted it, daring Omi to put a foot there.
“Kinjiru!” he said again.
Omi stopped.
“What’s going on?” Spillbergen asked, frightened, as were all of them.
“I told him it’s forbidden! None of my crew is walking to death without a fight.”
“But—but we agreed!”
“I didn’t.”
“Have you gone mad!”
“It’s all right, Pilot,” Vinck whispered. “I—we did agree and it was fair. It’s God’s will. I’m going—it’s . . .” He groped to the foot of the ladder but Blackthorne stood implacably in the way, facing Omi.