Three hours later cables were bursting round him like shells, for, though he knew it not, he was being offered as a sacrifice by the nether to the upper millstone, and his superiors had no regard for his feelings. He had, said the cables, grossly exceeded his power, and failed to report on events. He would, therefore—at this he cast himself back in his hammock—produce the crew of the Haliotis. He would send for them, and, if that failed, he would put his dignity on a pony and fetch them himself. He had no conceivable right to make pearl–poachers serve in any war. He would be held responsible.
Next morning the cables wished to know whether he had found the crew of the Haliotis. They were to be found, freed and fed—he was to feed them—till such time as they could be sent to the nearest English port in a man–of–war. If you abuse a man long enough in great words flashed over the sea–beds, things happen. The Governor sent inland swiftly for his prisoners, who were also soldiers; and never was a militia regiment more anxious to reduce its strength. No power short of death could make these mad men wear the uniform of their service. They would not fight, except with their fellows, and it was for that reason the regiment had not gone to war, but stayed in a stockade, reasoning with the new troops. The autumn campaign had been a fiasco, but here were the Englishmen. All the regiment marched back to guard them, and the hairy enemy, armed with blow–pipes, rejoiced in the forest. Five of the crew had died, but there lined up on the Governor's verandah two–and–twenty men marked about the legs with the scars of leech–bites. A few of them wore fringes that had once been trousers; the others used loin–cloths of gay patterns; and they existed beautifully but simply in the Governor's verandah, and when he came out they sang at him. When you have lost seventy thousand pounds' worth of pearls, your pay, your ship, and all your clothes, and have lived in bondage for five months beyond the faintest pretences of civilisation, you know what true independence means, for you become the happiest of created things—natural man.
The Governor told the crew that they were evil, and they asked for food. When he saw how they ate, and when he remembered that none of the pearl patrol–boats were expected for two months, he sighed. But the crew of the Haliotis lay down in the verandah, and said that they were pensioners of the Governor's bounty. A grey–bearded man, fat and bald–headed, his one garment a green–and–yellow loin–cloth, saw the Haliotis in the harbour, and bellowed for joy. The men crowded to the verandah–rail, kicking aside the long cane chairs. They pointed, gesticulated, and argued freely, without shame. The militia regiment sat down in the Governor's garden. The Governor retired to his hammock—it was as easy to be killed lying as standing—and his women squeaked from the shuttered rooms.
"She sold?" said the grey–bearded man, pointing to the Haliotis. He was Mr. Wardrop.
"No good," said the Governor, shaking his head. "No one come buy."
"He's taken my lamps, though," said the skipper. He wore one leg of a pair of trousers, and his eye wandered along the verandah. The Governor quailed. There were cuddy camp–stools and the skipper's writing–table in plain sight.
"They've cleaned her out, o' course," said Mr. Wardrop. "They would. We'll go aboard and take an inventory. See!" He waved his hands over the harbour. "We—live—there—now. Sorry?"
The Governor smiled a smile of relief.
"He's glad of that," said one of the crew, reflectively. "I shouldn't wonder."
They flocked down to the harbour–front, the militia regiment clattering behind, and embarked themselves in what they found—it happened to be the Governor's boat. Then they disappeared over the bulwarks of the Haliotis, and the Governor prayed that they might find occupation inside.
Mr. Wardrop's first bound took him to the engine–room; and when the others were patting the well–remembered decks, they heard him giving God thanks that things were as he had left them. The wrecked engines stood over his head untouched; no inexpert hand had meddled with his shores; the steel wedges of the store–room were rusted home; and, best of all, the hundred and sixty tons of good Australian coal in the bunkers had not diminished.
"I don't understand it," said Mr. Wardrop. "Any Malay knows the use o' copper. They ought to have cut away the pipes. And with Chinese junks coming here, too. It's a special interposition o' Providence."
"You think so," said the skipper, from above. "There's only been one thief here, and he's cleaned her out of all my things, anyhow."
Here the skipper spoke less than the truth, for under the planking of his cabin, only to be reached by a chisel, lay a little money which never drew any interest—his sheet–anchor to windward. It was all in clean sovereigns that pass current the world over, and might have amounted to more than a hundred pounds.
"He's left me alone. Let's thank God," repeated Mr. Wardrop.
"He's taken everything else; look!"
The Haliotis, except as to her engine–room, had been systematically and scientifically gutted from one end to the other, and there was strong evidence that an unclean guard had camped in the skipper's cabin to regulate that plunder. She lacked glass, plate, crockery, cutlery, mattresses, cuddy carpets and chairs, all boats, and her copper ventilators. These things had been removed, with her sails and as much of the wire rigging as would not imperil the safety of the masts.
"He must have sold those," said the skipper. "The other things are in his house, I suppose."
Every fitting that could be pried or screwed out was gone. Port, starboard, and masthead lights; teak gratings; sliding sashes of the deckhouse; the captain's chest of drawers, with charts and chart–table; photographs, brackets, and looking–glasses; cabin doors; rubber cuddy mats; hatch–irons; half the funnel–stays; cork fenders; carpenter's grindstone and tool–chest; holystones, swabs, squeegees; all cabin and pantry lamps; galley–fittings en bloc; flags and flag–locker; clocks, chronometers; the forward compass and the ship's bell and belfry, were among the missing.
There were great scarred marks on the deck–planking over which the cargo–derricks had been hauled. One must have fallen by the way, for the bulwark–rails were smashed and bent and the side–plates bruised.
"It's the Governor," said the skipper "He's been selling her on the instalment plan."
"Let's go up with spanners and shovels, and kill 'em all," shouted the crew. "Let's drown him, and keep the woman!"
"Then we'll be shot by that black–and–tan regiment—our regiment. What's the trouble ashore? They've camped our regiment on the beach."
"We're cut off; that's all. Go and see what they want," said Mr. Wardrop. "You've the trousers."
In his simple way the Governor was a strategist. He did not desire that the crew of the Haliotis should come ashore again, either singly or in detachments, and he proposed to turn their steamer into a convict–hulk. They would wait—he explained this from the quay to the skipper in the barge—and they would continue to wait till the man–of–war came along, exactly where they were. If one of them set foot ashore, the entire regiment would open fire, and he would not scruple to use the two cannon of the town. Meantime food would be sent daily in a boat under an armed escort. The skipper, bare to the waist, and rowing, could only grind his teeth; and the Governor improved the occasion, and revenged himself for the bitter words in the cables, by saying what he thought of the morals and manners of the crew. The barge returned to the Haliotis in silence, and the skipper climbed aboard, white on the cheek–bones and blue about the nostrils.