Victory: An Island Tale

Schomberg's hotel stood back in an extensive enclosure containing a garden, some large trees, and, under their spreading boughs, a detached "hall available for concerts and other performance

a soul was in sight, not even a China boy-nothing but a lot of painted iron chairs and tables. Solitude, shade, and gloomy silence-and a faint, treacherous breeze which came from under the trees a

had been extended. The middle of the day, table d'hote tiffin once over, was Schomberg's easy time. He lounged out, portly, deliberate, on the defensive, the great fair beard like a cuir

des

t neck, declared with simplicity that he

t h

onse to the bell. Schomberg

gentlema

only begged that Heyst should be informe

, I am te

pped his thi

e." A natural enough surmise

ut looking at him. It might have meant anything, but Davidson dismissed the hospital

staying her

was stayi

himself he was beginning to grow anxious, having developed the affect

panied by majestic oscillations of the hotel-

nature. He did not betray his sentiments

possible that Heyst had already gone on board, where he could enjoy a coolness denied to the town. Davidson, being stout, was much preoccupied with coolness and inclined to immobility. He

ted to s

d Davidson. "We

. He doesn't care

sn't

e, is he? You take my word for it. Don't you bo

ed at the savage tone. "I think I will sit d

berg had expected to he

oy

white man by a nod the hotel-keeper departed, muttering

mething had happened; and he was loath to go away to investigate, being restrained by a presentiment that somehow enlightenment would come to him there. A poster of CONCERTS EVERY EVENING, like those on the gate, but in a good state of preservation, hung on the wall fronting him. He looked at it idly and was struc

ything else. The opinion that he treated her abominably was based on her frightened expression. Davidson lifted his hat to her. Mrs. Schomberg gave him an inclination of her sallow head and incontinently sat down behind a sort of raised counter, facing the door, with a mirror and rows of bottles at her back. Her hair was very elaborately done with two ringlets on the left side of her scraggy neck; her dress was of silk, and she had come on duty for t

e and open-eyed immobility made him uncomfortable. He was easily sorry for people

g these people

son was telling us afterwards that she jumped exactly like a figure made of wood, without losing her rigid imm

onth. They are gone now. T

good, we

him-which was impossible. Perhaps she drew the line of speech at the expression of opinions. Schomberg might have trained her, for domestic reaso

dly ever are. An Italian lot, Mrs. Scho

her head n

yes his hair and beard black for busi

I mean any at all. One was inclined to think of her as an It-an automaton, a very plain dummy, with an arrangement for bowing the head at times and smiling stupidly now and then. Davidson viewed her profile with a flattened nose, a hollow cheek, and one staring, unwinking, goggl

that orchestra were real

not. They were of all sorts, apparently. It paused, with the one goggle eye immovably gazing down the whole le

even one En

en are not much better than slaves really. Was th

. The sympathetic soul of Dav

an English girl, Mrs. Schomberg, do you really mean a y

ow voice out of Mrs. Schom

d that he was sorry for her.

y go to from h

go with them.

vidson obtained next. It intr

then, with the air of a man who knows lif

g; but Schomberg must have been finishing his sleep in some distant part of the house. The silence was pr

riend o

g for a friend," said Davidson

told

E

before Davidson's eyes, disclosi

ds came out in a faint voice. Mrs. Schomberg never moved her head the leas

fect gentleman!" h

idea Davidson had of Heyst. He never talked of women, he never seemed to think of them, or to re

wn with a feather," Davidson

away to Samburan; and that was no joking matter. The loneliness, the ruins of the spot, had impressed Davidson's simple soul. They were incompatible with the frivolous comments of people who had not seen it. That black jetty, sticking out of the jungle into the empty sea; these roof-ridges of deserted houses

uld do justice to the conditions of life on Samburan. A desert island was nothing to it. Moreover, when you were cast away on a desert island-why, you could not help yourself; but to expect a fid

tirred to the depths; and it was easy to see that it was about Heyst

ays do-about ha

nybody

soul. Not

blow your

You think I would

such an unwarrantable intrusion. W

ow that they are there?"

effect: that an unforeseen necessity was driving him away before the appointed time. He begged Davidson's indulgence for the appa

explain?" wondered

to that fiddle-pl

m, apparently,

eflected Davidson. "What do

ow is it that Mrs. Schomberg has

whom we all were accustomed to see sitting elevated above the two billiard

of constant amazement in which this affair had left him, like those shocks of terror or sorrow which som

nt on. "Directly I had recovered my senses, I asked her what on earth she had to do with it that Heyst should leave it w

d them up in my own shawl, and threw them into

ft her little finger!" marvelled Davidson in his quie

ible to think that Heyst had bribed her. Whatever means he had, he had not the means to do that. Or could it be that she was moved by that

ery small bundle," rem

ust have been special

e it was more than a little linen and a couple o

the tropics. For where could you find anyone to steal a girl out of an orchestra? No doubt fellows here and there t

ink! Brooding alone on Samburan has upset his brain. He never stopped to consider, or he couldn't have done it

that he must be starving on his island; so

irs, the ping of a smitten bell. Customers were turning up. Mrs. Schomberg was begging Davidson hurriedly, but without looking at him, to say nothing to anyone, when on a half-uttered word her nervous whisper was cut short. Through a small inner door Schomberg ca

ut the drinks?"

ained blocking half the doorway, with his back to the room, and was still there when Davidson, after sitting still for a while, rose to go. At the noise he made Schomberg turned his head, watche

"My friend Heyst, you know. I suppose the only course for me now is to mak

devil!" replied Schom

a shrewd try. It was successful in a rather startling way, because the hotel-keeper's point of view was horribly abusive. All of a sudden, in the same hoarse sinister tone, he proceeded to call Heyst many nam

angry as that. Even if he had

down and put his infuriate

dson! He ran off with a girl. What do I car

always had "artist parties" staying in his house. One recommended him to the others; but what would happen now, when it got about that leaders ran the risk in his house-his house-of losing members of their troupe? And just now, when he had

looked so bereft of senses, and almost of life, perched up there, that it seemed not worth while. He disengaged his button with firm placidity. Thereupon, with a last stifled curse, Schomberg vanished somewhere within, to try and compose his

y temper? He's been

while all the others sat

resignation; but of course that was no more visible to the other

onable," he murm

had a scrap!"

a fight with Heyst?" asked Davidson, m

d went for our worthy friend. I tell you, they were rolling on the floor together on this very veranda, after chasing each other all over the hou

, emitted a scornful grunt, finish

Schomberg. Say, Schomberg, didn't he fly at you, when the girl was missed, because it

bearing was stately, but his nostrils were extraordinarily

s in this town. I think, gentlemen, you were all pleased at the opportunity of hearing a little good music; and where's the harm of offering a grenadine, or what not, to a l

he table exchanged glances silently. Davidson's attitude was that of a spectato

ock that same morning those two were driving together in a gharry down to the port, to look for Heyst and the girl. I saw them rushing around making i

ll over the harbour, causing no end of sensation. The captains of vessels, coming on shore later in the day, brought tales of a strange invasion, and wanted to know who were the two offensive lunatics in a steam-launch, apparently after a man and

esman schooner had sailed at daylight with the usual land breeze, and was probably still in sight in the offing at the time. However, the two pursuers after their experience with the American mate, made for the shore. On landing, they had another violent row in th

re had that unaccountable individual been the cause of so much gossip, he judged. No! Not even in the beginnings of the Tropical Belt Coal Company when becoming for a moment a public character was

ed that this was such a

pable of any impropriety of conduct. "But it isn't a thing I

this was in its essence the rescue of a distressed human being. Not that we were two romantics, tingeing the world

't, or else he would have been scared. You don't take a woman into a desert jungle without being made