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Tessa, a novel by Louis Becke |
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Chapter 3 |
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_ CHAPTER III Five days out from Drummond's Island Carr had so much improved in health that he was able to take his seat at the saloon table for breakfast, much to the annoyance of Chard, who had been making the best of his time in trying to produce a favourable impression upon Tessa Remington. He pretended, however, to be delighted to see the trader mending so rapidly, and was most effusive in his congratulations; and Hendry, of course, followed suit. Harvey responded civilly enough, while Tessa, who had learned from the chief mate of the treacherous part they were playing towards her friend, could not repress a scornful curl of her lip as she listened to Chard's jocular admonition to Harvey, "to hurry up and put on some flesh, if only for the reputation of the cook of the _Motutapu_." Immediately after breakfast Carr went on deck again, and began to pace to and fro, enjoying the bright tropic sunshine and the cool breath of the trade wind. In a few minutes Tessa, accompanied by her native woman servant, appeared, followed by Chard and Captain Hendry. "Won't you come on the bridge, Miss Remington?" said Chard, "I'll take a chair up for you." "No, thank you," she replied, "I would rather sit here under the awning." The supercargo and Hendry went up on the bridge together, where they could talk freely. The man at the wheel was a thick-set, rather stupid-looking native from Niue (Savage Island), who took no notice of their remarks, or at least appeared not to do so. But Huka was not such a fool as he looked. "_You'll_ stand little chance with her," said Hendry presently, in his usual low but sneering tones as he tugged viciously at his beard. The supercargo's black eyes contracted, "Wait and see, before you talk. I tell you that I mean to make that girl marry me." "_Marry_ you!" "Yes, marry me. The old man will leave her pretty well everything he has, and he has a lot. I've been making inquiries, and am quite satisfied." "How are you going to do it?" "Don't know just yet. Must think it out. But I never yet knew the woman whom I could not work my own way with--by fair means or foul, as the penny novelists say." "It strikes me that she likes that damned fellow. Look round presently and see for yourself. She's reading to him." "Bah! That's nothing. He used to sail one of the old man's schooners, and of course they have a good deal to talk about. I'll settle _him_ as far as she is concerned. Wait till I get a chance to talk to her a bit," and taking off his cap the supercargo passed his brawny hand through his curly hair with a smile of satisfaction. "She'll be tired of talking to him before the day is out." "Where is he going to land? Has he told you?" "Yes. He wants to be put ashore at the Mortlocks Islands. We have no trader there, and he has lived there before." "I'd like to see him go over the side in some new canvas, with a couple of fire bars slung to his heels," snarled Hendry viciously. "So would I," said Chard meditatively. At four bells the wheel was relieved, and Huka the Niue native trotted off, and immediately sent a message to Carr's servant Malua to come for'ard. The boy did as requested, and remained away for about ten minutes. When he returned he seated himself as usual near his master. Hendry was in his cabin on deck, Chard was below in the trade room, and only Tessa, Harvey, and himself were on the after-deck. "Master," he said in Fijian, to Harvey, "listen to what Huka, the man of Niue, has told me. The captain and the supercargo have been talking about thee and the lady." Then he repeated all that which Huka had heard. "The infernal scoundrels!" Harvey could not help exclaiming. "But they won't get rid of me as easily as they think." "What is it, Harvey?" asked Tessa, anxiously bending forward to him. The trader thought a moment or two before speaking. Then he decided to tell her what he had just heard. She laughed contemptuously. "_His_ wife! _His_ wife!" she repeated scornfully. "If he knew what my father knows of him, and how I hate and despise him, he would not have said that. Does he think that because my mother was a Portuguese, I am no better than some native slave girl whom he could buy from her master?" Harvey smiled gravely as he looked into her flashing eyes, and saw her clench her hands angrily. Then he said-- "He is a dangerous man though, Tessa. And now listen to me. When I came on board this steamer I intended to land at the Mortlocks Islands. But I think now that I will go on to Ponape." "Do not change your plans, Harvey, on my account. I am not afraid of this man. He dare not insult me, for fear my father would hear of it." "I know him too well, Tessa. He and the skipper are, I fear, a pair of cunning, treacherous villains. And so I am going on to Ponape. And I will stay there until your father returns. I daresay," he added with a smile, "that he will give me a berth as a trader somewhere." A sudden joy illumined the girl's face. "I _am_ so glad, Harvey. And mother, too, will be overjoyed to see you again; father has never ceased to talk about you since you left him. Oh, Harvey, we shall have all the old, old delightful days over again. But," she added artlessly, "there will be but you and I now to go fishing and shooting together. Carmela and her husband are living in the Ladrones, and Librada and her husband, though they are still on Ponape, are ten miles away from mother and I. Then Jack is in California, and Ned is away on a whaling cruise." A quick emotion stirred his bosom as he looked into her now joyous face. "I don't think you and I can go out shooting and fishing together, Tessa, as we did in what you call 'the old, old days.'" "Can't we, Harvey?" she asked wonderingly. He shook his head, and then mused. "Tessa, I wish you could meet my sisters." She clasped her hands together. "Ah, so do I, Harvey. I should love to meet them. Do you think they would like me?" "I am sure they would." They were silent for a while, the girl with her head bent and her long lashes hiding her eyes from him as she sat in the deck-chair, and he thinking of what his sisters would really say if he wrote and told them that he thought he had at last found a woman he would wish to make his wife. "Tessa." "Yes, Harvey." She did not look at him, only bent her head still lower. "_Tessa!_" "Yes, Harvey." Her hands were trembling, and her courage was gone, for there was something in his voice that filled her with delight. "Tessa," he said, speaking softly, as he drew nearer to her, and tried to make her look at him; "do you know that you are a very beautiful woman?" "I am glad you think so, Harvey," she whispered. "You used to tell father that Carmela and Librada were the most beautiful women you had ever seen." "So they were. But you are quite as beautiful. And, Tessa----" "Yes, Harvey"--this in the faintest whisper. "Could you care for me at all, Tessa? I do not mean as a friend. I am only a poor trader, but if I thought you could love-me, I----" She took a quick glance around the deck, and bent towards him. "I have always loved you, Harvey; always, always." Then she pressed her lips to his, and in another moment was gone. ***** Harvey, with a sense of elation in his heart, walked for'ard to where Morrison was standing in the waist. "Why, man, ye look as if ye could take the best man aboard on for four rounds," said the engineer, with a smile. "I do feel pretty fit, Morrison," laughed the trader; "have you anything to drink in your cabin?" "Some real Loch Dhu, _not_ made in Sydney. Man, your eye is as bright as a boy's." ***** Just before eight bells were struck Chard came on deck. He was carefully dressed in shining, well-starched white duck, and his dark, coarsely-handsome face was aglow with satisfaction; he meant to "rub it in" to Carr, and was only awaiting till Tessa Remington and Captain Hendry were present to hear him do it. He knew she would be on deck in a minute or so, and Hendry he could see was sitting at his cabin table with his chart before him. Harvey was strolling about on the main deck, smoking his first pipe for many weeks. Presently Tessa appeared with her woman attendant. She, too, had dressed in white, and for the time had discarded the wide Panama hat she usually wore. Her face was radiant with happiness as she took the deck-chair which Chard brought, and disposed herself comfortably, book in hand. She had seen Harvey on the main deck, and knew she would at least have him with her for a few minutes before dinner. Hendry stepped out from his cabin. "Ha, Miss Remington. You give an atmosphere of coolness to the whole ship. Mr. Chard, big as he is, is only a minor reflection of your dazzling whiteness." "Thank you, Captain Hendry. I am quite sure that my father will be astonished to learn that I have been paid so many compliments on board the _Motutapu_. Had he known that you and Mr. Chard were such flatterers he would not have let me come away." Neither Chard nor Hendry could detect the ring of mockery in her tones. They drew their chairs up near to that in which she was sitting and lit their cigars, and she, impatient for Harvey, talked and laughed with them, and wished them far away. Less than two hours before she had felt an intense hatred of them, now she had but a quiet contempt for both the handsome, "good-natured" supercargo and his sneaking, grey-bearded jackal. Eight bells struck, and presently Carr ascended the poop deck, took in the little group on the starboard side of the skylight, and went over to his own lounge, beside which his watchful servant was seated. He knew that Tessa would be alone in a few minutes, and he was quite satisfied to wait till Chard and the Dane left her free. He lay back in the lounge, and lazily conversed with Malua. Then Chard, who had been watching him keenly, rose from his seat. "Pray excuse me for a few minutes, Miss Remington. Even _your_ charming society must not make me forget business." He spoke so loudly that Carr could not fail to hear him, but he was quite prepared, and indeed had been on the alert. Chard walked up to within a few feet of the trader. "I want you to come below, Mr. Carr, and pick out your trade goods for the Mortlocks." Harvey leant back in his lounge. "I don't think I shall require any goods for the Mortlocks Islands, Mr. Chard." "What do you mean?" and Chard's face flushed with anger. "I mean exactly what I say," replied Carr nonchalantly. "I say that I shall not want any trade goods for the Mortlocks Islands. I have decided not to take another station from the firm of Hillingdon and McFreeland. I have had enough of them--and enough of you." Chard took a threatening step towards him. "Stand back, Mr. Chard. I am not a man to be threatened." Something in his eyes warned the supercargo, whose temper, however, was rapidly taking possession of him. "Very well, Mr. Carr," he said sneeringly; "do I understand you to say that you refuse to continue your engagement with our firm?" "I do refuse." "Then, by God, I'll dump you ashore at the first island we sight. The firm will be glad to be rid of you." "I don't doubt the latter part of your assertion; but their satisfaction will be nothing to equal mine," he said with cutting irony. "But you'll not 'dump' me ashore anywhere. I am going to land at Ponape, and nowhere else." Again Chard took a step nearer, his face purpling with rage; and then, as Hendry came to his side with scowling eyes, Tessa quickly slipped past them, and stood near her lover. "You'll land at Ponape, will you?" sneered the supercargo, "It's lucky for you we are not in port now, for I'd kick you ashore right-away." The insult had the desired effect, for, weak as he was, Harvey sprang forward and struck Chard full upon the mouth, but almost at the same moment the captain, who had quietly possessed himself of a brass belaying-pin, dealt him a blow on the back of the neck which felled him to the deck, and then bending on one knee, he would have repeated the blow on Harvey's upturned face, when Tessa sprang at him like a tigress, and struck him again and again on the temple with her revolver. He fell back, bleeding and half stunned. "You cowards--you pair of miserable curs!" she cried to Chard, who was standing with his handkerchief to his lips, glaring savagely at the prostrate figure of Harvey. "Stand back," and she covered him with her weapon, as he made a step towards her, "stand back, or I will shoot you dead." Then as the second mate, Huka, and another native appeared on the poop, she sank on her knees beside Harvey, and called for water. Hendry, whose face was streaming with blood, though he was but little hurt, rose to his feet and addressed the second mate. "Mr. Atkins, put that man in irons," and he pointed to Harvey, who was now sitting up, with Tessa holding a glass of water to his lips. The second mate eyed his captain sullenly. "He is scarcely conscious yet, sir." "Do you refuse to obey me? Quick, answer me. Where is the mate? Mr. Chard, I call on you to support my authority." Harvey looked at the second mate, whose features were working curiously. He rose and pressed Tessa's hand. "You must obey him, Atkins," he said. "If you don't he'll break you. He's a spiteful hound." Atkins, with a sorrowful face, went to his cabin and returned with a pair of handcuffs, just as the chief officer appeared. As he stepped on the poop he was followed by half-a-dozen of the native crew, who advanced towards Hendry and the supercargo with threatening glances. "Go for'ard, you swine!" shouted Chard, who saw that they meant a rescue. He darted into Hendry's cabin, and reappeared with the captain's revolvers, one of which he handed to him. Harvey looked contemptuously at the supercargo, then turning to the natives he spoke to them in Samoan, and earnestly besought them to go for'ard, telling them of the penalties they would suffer if they disputed the captain's authority. They obeyed him with reluctance, and left the poop. Then he held out his hands to the second mate, who snapped the handcuffs on his wrists. "Take him to the for'ard deck-house," snarled Hendry viciously. "I protest against this, sir," said Oliver respectfully. "I beg of you to beware of what you are doing." Hendry gave him a furious glance, but his rage choked his utterance. Tessa Remington followed the prisoner to the break of the poop and whispered to him ere he descended the ladder. He nodded and smiled. Then she turned and faced Chard and the captain. "Perhaps you would like to put me in irons too, gentlemen," she said mockingly. "I am not very strong, though stronger than Mr. Carr has been for many months." The captain eyed her with sudden malevolence; Chard, bully as he was, with a secret admiration as she stood before them, still holding her revolver in her hand. She faced them in an attitude of defiance for a second or two, and then with a scornful laugh swept by them and went below to her cabin. _ |
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