Latitude 19 degree Part 42

"Bo's'n! Bo's'n!" I said to him encouragingly. But he sat doubled up in a heap, glowering at me with basilisk eye. He emitted at intervals howls of rage and pain, the like of which I had never heard equalled. I felt sure that he had suddenly gone out of his mind.

"What have you done to the poor man, Mr. Jones?" asked Cynthia.

I turned to see her standing there. Her hair had fallen down, and some of the wild fern of which we had made her bed was sticking in it, poor dear!

"Done to him? You forget yourself, Miss Archer."

She started as I addressed her. I turned again to the Bo's'n.

"I don't like your looking at me in that way, Bo's'n," said I.

Whereupon the Bo's'n leaped into midair with a howl and a gnas.h.i.+ng of the teeth at me. They were swift, sharp snaps, that made me jump higher even than he did himself. I looked about for a place of refuge.

"They know a coward when they see one," said Cynthia. "They are just like animals for the time being." She approached the Bo's'n guardedly and held out her hand to him with a frightened look on her face.

"Here, Bo's'n, Bo's'n, good Bo's'n," she said, as if coaxing a dog.

"Better go away, ma'm. I'm afraid I'll bite," snapped the Bo's'n.

Cynthia jumped back with a little squeal.

"Come, no more of this nonsense!" said I.

"Get out!" said the Bo's'n.

"I don't like to have you speak so to me, Bo's'n," said I. "It isn't pleasant, and it isn't respectful."

"You'll find it a d.a.m.ned sight more disrespectful, sir, before I've done with you, Mr. Jones, sir," answered the Bo's'n.

"What is it, Bo's'n? Do tell me."

By this time the Bo's'n had his arms held tightly round his stomach, as if the pain was too great to bear. I walked across the floor of the cave and stretched out my hand to him, speaking in a soothing voice, and begging him to let me do something to make him easier.

"Don't come near me, Mr. Jones, sir," said the man. "I am afraid of what I shall do to you. I knew--I knew it! When you threw that--that--you know--in the water----"

"If there has been mischief done, Bo's'n, let me repair it," said I.

"Can you raise the dead?" asked the Bo's'n in tones sepulchral.

"You have driven the poor man crazy, Mr. Jones," said Cynthia.

I turned my back on her. I was very angry with the Bo's'n and with her.

"Can you plunge to the bottom of the sea and bring up them corpses?"

"No," said I; "of course not. Why should I?"

By this time the Bo's'n had stopped howling and had taken on the sarcastic tone.

"Hope you took a range, sir," said he, surveying me with the most utter scorn.

"Why should I take a range? It was pitch dark. You couldn't see your hand before your face. I don't know where we were. We rowed half an hour, as near as I can judge, and then, after we had buried them, we turned round and rowed back again."

By this time the Bo's'n had collapsed entirely; he lay on the floor without moving.

"Do let me do something for you, Bo's'n," said Cynthia.

At this the Bo's'n rose to a sitting posture.

"What you can do for me, Mrs. Jones, ma'm, is to go back to your room and stay there."

"O Bo's'n!" said Cynthia, who had never been accustomed to find her presence unwelcome.

"I can only pity you, ma'm, for havin' wrecked your young life on such a wuthless scandal as him."

Cynthia started, and looked at me as if the Bo's'n knew more if he only chose to tell.

I turned to the Bo's'n, much enraged.

"Go quick, please, ma'm, I want to swear, and I can't wait many minutes." Cynthia fled. Then the Bo's'n turned to me:

"Will you pardon me, sir, if I say, 'd.a.m.n you, Mr. Jones!'?"

I gazed in amaze at the usually placid Bo's'n.

"You will have to d.a.m.n the Captain, too, then," said I. "He planned the expedition, and I only helped him carry it out."

"I hope he'll come in while I'm a blasphemin'," said the Bo's'n. "I shall want him to get his full share."

The Captain had been standing in the shadow of the entrance listening to the Bo's'n's ravings. He now entered and approached the man.

"What's the matter with him?" he said, looking at me. "He's been working his jawing tackle for the last ten minutes steady."

"I think his case is serious, Captain," said I. "I really think he's lost his mind. He's been rolling round here like a madman."

The Captain turned his gaze on the Bo's'n.

"You said you hoped I'd come in," said he. "Now don't put any stopper on that jawing tackle of yours; go right on. I shall know how to fix you, for it's mutiny, Mr. Bo's'n, and so you'll find out, rank mutiny!"

"Oh, is it?" said the Bo's'n, with stony face and glittering eye.

The Bo's'n raised his finger in air and shook it at me. He then took a long breath and began, his hand shaking alternately at me and at the Skipper.

"d.a.m.n you, sir, and d.a.m.n you, sir, and d.a.m.n you, sir, and d.a.m.n you again, sir! Do you hear me d.a.m.ning you, Mr. Jones, sir? And that d.a.m.n Cap'n, too, sir. Do you know what you done, sir, d.a.m.n you? Do you know that all those watches, and all those sparklers, and all those rings, and all those chains, those emerals, and rubies, and saffirs, and tuppazes, and diminds, and jools you said was worth a king's ransom--all, all, all was inclosed and enwrapped and encompa.s.sed and secreted in them d.a.m.n carca.s.ses?" I fell upon the ground and writhed worse than the Bo's'n had done.