Jerry of the Islands

e of the cannibal island of Malaita. It was a stoppage of the south-east trade wind that made for variable weather, and that mad

p in the tiny stateroom. Jerry was weary from the manifold excitements of the most exciting day in his life; and he was asleep and kicking and growling in his s

ed and left the stateroom a steaming, suffocating furnace, he did not know when Skipper, panting for air, his

did not scuttle, but that walked dignifiedly away. He watched it join other cockroaches that paraded the floor. Never had he seen so many gathered together at one time, and never h

ockroach was the eternal tropic enemy. He sprang at the nearest, pouncing to crush it to the floor under his paws. But the thing did what he had never known a cockroach to do. It

m down with his paws. Occasionally he succeeded and destroyed one; nor did the combat cease until all

vestigated the low bunk, his keen little nose quivering delightedly while he made little sniffs of delight as he smelled th

n left hooked open, and Jerry trotted out into the cabin where half a hundred blacks made queer sleep-moanings, and sighings, and snorings. They were packed closely together, coverin

ps that were almost a ladder, then recollected the lazarette. In he trotted and sniffed at the sleeping gir

. It was the only way he could have passed, and Jerry's nose told him that he had passed. His first attempt to climb the steps began well. Not until a third of the way up, as the Ara

heavily on his side. This was hailed with low laughter and querulous chirpings that might well have come from the throats of huge birds. He regained his feet, absurdly bristled the hair on his sh

ng gave him his opportunity, so that his forefeet were over the high combing of the companion when the n

hissing, menacing noise. Aft, at the wheel, he found a black steering, and, near him, the mate keeping the watch. Just as the mate spoke to him and stooped to pat him, Jerry whiffed Skipper some

ormed by Skipper's head and shoulder. This did awake him, for he uttered "Jerry" in a low, crooning voice, and Jerry responded with a touch of his cold damp nose to the other's cheek. And then Skipper went

ay in the hollow of Skipper's arm, his head resting on Skipper's

f air roused Van Horn, and each time, remembering the puppy, he pressed him caressingly with his

remember back across the years to his own girl babe asleep on his arm. And so poignantly did he remember, that he became wide awake, and many pictures, beginning, with the girl babe, burned their torment i

rl and the mother in the little Harlem flat. Small, it was true,

l finally it became two thick long braids. From striving not to see these many pictures he came even to dwelli

an. Came the long day, when, routed from bed at three in the morning to dig a surface car out of the wrecked show windows of a drug store and get it ba

at from his grimy face. "Glory be, 'tis a small matter at most, an' right in our neighbourhood-not a dozen bl

her up for a momen

y Jaffers, another

out," he said, as they swung on

ok-and-ladder running to a cross-town fire, during which time he and Clancey had joked Jaffers over

d waiting their freight, and the young policeman, whose beat it was, white and shaken, greeting him with: "It's

the bright little flat waiting him a dozen blocks away when the job was done, spoke cheerfully, confident

rch and looked. Again he saw the twin braids of heavy golden hai

yet?" the shaken

hile he struggled for will power

reply, "I'll tell

lf look. For a lon

ss in a number three jack, and get under yours

ache was in his throat, the old harsh dryness in mouth and eyes. And he knew-what no other man knew-why he was in the Solomons, ski

any woman. And he had been noted by other whites as

Jerry's head on his shoulder. Once, when Jerry, dreaming of the beach at Meringe and of Mister Haggin, Biddy, Terrence, and Michael, set up

fore he was awake Van Horn did two things automatically and swiftly. He darted his right

en stared to windward at the high loom of the land. "She hasn'

e down," Van Horn said, as both men transferred their gaze

om off the land, sending the Arangi through the smooth water at a nine-knot clip. For a time Jerry tried to stand

adding after along the deck as Skipper paced up and down. Here began another lesson, and in five minutes Jerry learned it was the will of S

ate took char

ye for squalls under the land. Better throw the halyards down on deck and make the wat

hed custom, curled in between his arm and side, and, after one happy sniff and one kiss of his

an end. What awoke him was the flying leap of Skipper that sent the blanket one way and Jerry the other. The deck of the Arangi had become a wall, d

h note of the mainsheet screaming across the sheaves as Van Horn, bending braces in the dark

ep deck of his new and unstable world. But he did not bring up against the rail where his fragile ribs might well have been broken. Instead, the warm ocean water,

r, nor that he might be of assistance to him. It was the heart of love that drives one always toward the beloved. As the mother in catastrophe tries to gain her babe, as the Greek

eaving Jerry stranded in the starboard scuppers. He trotted across the level deck to Skipper, who

Wind he go! Ra

ff, and bent and caressed him. In the darkness he could not see, but

birds. Borckman came and stood by Van Horn's shoulder, and both men, strung to their tones in the tenseness of apprehension, strove to pe

vishly. "Always wind first, the rain foll

red and listened,

n his toes. He pressed his cool nose to Skipper's leg, and the

in the hollow between two sacks of yams lashed on deck aft of the mizzenmast. As an afterthou

ll the scope in the boom-tackle caused by Van Horn's giving of the sheet, came across and fetched up to tautness on the tackle with a crash that s

off the turns! I'll take care of the tackle!"; and, next, to some of the boat's crew: "

ttered the deck with the first squall. The squirming mass, of which he was part

s cursings in the barbed wire, he set up a shrill yelping and clawed and scratched frantically at the blanket to get out. Something

ts and cries. He sensed, and sensed wrongly, that it boded ill, for he did not know that it was the ma

Skipper. He sniffed again and recognized the person. It was Lerumie, the black whom he had seen rolled on the beach by Biddy only the previous m

ng was sacrilege. He, as a white man's dog, was taboo to all blacks. He had early learned the law that no nigger must ever touch a

clouted by the black's free hand with such force as to tear his clenched

e. He fell into the sea and went under, gulping a mouthful of salt water into his lungs, and came up strangling but swimming. Swimming was one of the things he did not have to

zle high in the air to get out of the suffocating welter. As a result, off the horizontal, the churning of his legs no longer sustained him, and he went down and under perpendicularly. Again he emerged, strangling with more salt water i

of the half-lowered mainsail, the shrill voices of the boat's crew,

n! Drag down strong fella! Come in main