Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 36, Number 311, 16 September 1911 — Page 2

IPAIIIIAOnUlMl . SIHICDIRTr STORY .ipacqie

1 i

I On the other band, there are worne J I

f U tbe Solomons mar Indeed prove terrible. i i t

v V

HERB is no gainsaying that tbe Solo

moos are a bard-bitten bunch of Islands. On tbe- otber band, there are worse places In tbe world. But to tbe new chant wbo bat no constitutional understanding of men and life in tbe rough, the Kolomons may Indeed prove terrible. All tbe foregoing is quite true, and yet there are white men who have lived in tbe Solomons a score of years and who feel homesick when they go away from them. A man needs only to be careful and lucky to live a long time In the Solomons; but be must also he of the'

right sort He must have the ball-mark of the inevitable white man stamps! upon his soul. He must be Inevitable. He must have a certain grand carelessness of odds; a certain colossal self-satisfaction, and a racial egotism that convinces him that one white man ' Is better than a thousand niggers every day In the week, and that on Sunday he Is well able to clean out two thousand niggers. For such are the things that nave made the white man Inevitable. - Bertie Arkwrlght was not Inevitable. He was too sensitive, too finely strung, and he possessed too much Imagination. The world was too much with him. He projected himself too qulveringly Into his environment Wherefore, the last place In the world for him to go was the Solomons. He did not go expecting to stay. A five weeks stop-over between steamers, he decided, would satisfy the call of the primitive he felt thrumming the strings of his being. At least, so he told the lady tourists on the Makemo,. though In different terms; and they worshiped him as a hero, for they were lady tourists and they would know only the safety of the steamer's deck as she threaded her way through the Solomons. There was another man on board, of whom the ladles took no notice. He was a little shriveled wisp of a man, with a withered skin the color of mahogany. Ills name on the passenger list does not matter, but his

conjure with, and to scare naughty pickaninnies to rigl eansness, from New Hanover to the New Hebrides. Bertie talked with Captain Malu In the smoking room, confiding to him his intention of seeing life red ahd bleeding In the Solomons. Captain Malu agreed that the Intention was ambitious and honorable. It was not until several days later that he became Interested In Bertie, when that young adventurer Insisted on showing him .an automatic. forty-four-eallbre pistol. Bertie .explained,; the mechanism and demonstrated by slipping a loaded magazine up the hollow butt - , . - "It to so simple," he said." He shot the outer barrel back along tbe Inner one. "That loads It and cocks It, you tee. And then all t have to do Is pull the trigger, eight times, as fast as I can quiver my finger. See that safety clutch? That's what I like about It. It to so safe. It is positively fool-proof." He slipped out the magazine. "You see how safe It Is." As he held it In his hand the muzzle came in line with Captain Malu's stomach. Captain Malu's blue eye looked at It unswervingly. - "Would yon mind pointing It fn some other direction?" he asked. -If perfectly safe." Bertie assured him. "I withdrew the magaslne. It's not loaded, now, you know." , .' "A gun Is always loaded." ; "But this one Isn't." , "Turn It away. Just the same. Captain Malu's voice was fiat, metallic, and low, bat Ui eyes never left the muzzle until the line of it was drawn past him and away from him. "Ill bet a fiver it Isn't loaded," Bertie proposed, . warmly. The other shook his head. , "Then I'll show you." Bertie started to put the muzzle to his own temple with the evident Intention of pulling the trigger. ' "Just a second," Captain Malu said, quietly, reacb- ' Ing out bis hand. "Let me look at it."

heavy explosion followed. Instantaneous with the sharp dick of tbe mechanism that flipped a hot and smoking cartridge sldewlse along the deck. Bertie's Jaw dropped In amazement. "X slipped the barrel back once, didn't I?" he explained. "It was silly of me, I must say." He giggled, flabbily, and sst down In a steamer chair. The blood bad ebbed from his face, exposing dark circles

unaer nis eyes, his nanqs were tremnung ana unaoie ito guide the shaking cigarette to his Hps. The world was too much with him, and be saw himself with .dripping brains prone upon tbe deck. . am aa a a m n .

"tteauy ne saia -reaiiy -1 ' "It's a pretty weapon," said Captain Malu, returning the automatic to him. The Commissioner was on board the Makembo, returning from Sydney, and by bis permission a stop . was made at Ugl to land a missionary. And at Ugi , lay the ketch Aria, Captain Hansen, skipper. - Now ( the Aria was one of many vessels owned by Captain Main, and it was at his suggestion and by his Invitation that Bertie went aboard the Aria as eniest for a

four days' recruiting crnlse on the coast of Malalta. Thereafter the Aria would drop him at Remlnge plantation (also owned by Captain Malu). where Bertie could remain for a week, and then be sent over to TulagL the seat -of government, where he would become the Commissioner's guest. Captain Malu was responsible for two other suggestions, which given, be disappears from this narrative. One waa to Captain Hansen, the other to Mr.

Harriwell, manager of Remlnge Plantation. Both suggestions were similar in tenor, namely, to give Mr.

ajiTi a. a an ana Aianiuiii ansa iuvib u t. au&v uig a at w eauu

- r redness of life in the Solomons. Alse, it Is whispered . . that Cantata Main mpntiAnpH that a ( nf Smth

! would be coincidental with any particularly gorgeous Insight Mr. Arkwrlght might receive. ', "Yea, Swartz always waa too pig-headed. - Yon see. he took four of his boat's crew to Tulagl to be flogged officially, yon know then started back with them In

we wnaie ooat. it was pretty squauy, ana tne noat .capsized just outside., Swartz was the only one drowned. Of course it was an accident." ' "Waa It? Really?" Bertie asked, only half intereated, staring hard at the black man at tbe wheel. . v Ugt had dropped astern, and the Aria was sliding 5 along through a summer sea toward the wooded ranges . Of Malalta. The helmsman who so attracted Bertie's ' eyes sported a ten-penny nail, stuck skewer-wlse through his nose. About his neck was a string of 1 pants buttons. Thrust through boles in his ears were a 'can opener, the broken handle of a toothbrush, a ' clay pipe, the brass wheel of an alarm clock aad several Winchester rifle cartridges. On his chest.

snapeaaea rrom arouna nis necx, nnng ine nair or a china plate. . Some forty similarly appareled blacks lay about the deck, fifteen of whom were boat's crew, , the remainder being fresh labor recruits. '. ' "Of course It was an accident," spoke up the Aria's ' mate, Jacobs, a slender, dark-eyed man who looked more a professor than a tailor. "Johnny Bedlp nearly had the same kind of accident He was bringing eeveral from a flogging ween they capsized him. But

he knew how to swim as well as they, and two of them were drowned. He used a boat stretcher and a revolver. Of course It was an accident." "Quite common, them accidents," remarked the skipper. "You see that man at the wheel, Mr. Arkwrlght? He's a man-eater. Six months ago be and tbe rest of tbe boat's crew drowned the then captain of the Aria. They did it on deck, sir, right aft there by the mizzen-traveler." "The deck was in a shocking state," said the mate. "Do I understand ?" Bertie began.. "Yes. Just that," said Captain Hansen. "It was accidental drowning." "But on deck ?" "Just so. I don't mind telling you, in confidence, of course, that they used sn ax." ".This present crew of yours?" Captain Hansen nodded. "The other skipper always was too careless." explained the mate. "He but just turned his back when they et him have It." "We haven't any show down here," was the skipper's complaint. "The government protects a nigger against a white every time. You can't shoot first. You've got to give the nigger first shot, or else tbe government calls it murder and you go to Fiji. That's why there's so many drowning accidents." Dinner was called and Bertie and the skipper went below, leaving the mate to watch on deck. "Keep an eye out for that black devil, Auikl," was the skipper's parting caution. "I haven't liked his looks for several days." "Right O," said the mate. Dinner was part way along, and the skipper was In the middle of his story of the cutting-out of the Scottish Chiefs. "Yes," he was saying, "she was the finest vessel on the coast. But when she missed stays, and before ever she bit tbe reef, tbe canoes started for her. There were five white men, a crew of twenty Santa Cruz boys and Samoans, and only the supercargo escaped. Besides, there were sixty recruits. They were all kai-kai'd. Kai-kait oh, I beg your pardon. I mean they were eaten. Then there was the James Edwards, a dandy-rigged-But at that moment there .was a sharp oath from

the mate on deck and a chorus, of savage cries. A revolver went off three times, and then was heard a loud splash. Captain Hansen had sprung up the companlonway on the Instant, and Bertie's eyes had been fascinated by a glimpse of him drawing bis revolver as he sprang. Bertie went up more circumspectly, hesitating before he put bis head above the companlonway slide. But nothing happened. The mate was shaking with excitement, his revolver in his hand. Once he started and half jumped around, as if danger threatened his back. "One of the natives fell overboard," be was saying, in a queer, tense voice. "He couldn't swim." "Who was It?" the skipper demanded.

"Auikl," was the answer. "But I say, you know, I heard shots," Bertie said. In trembling eagerness, for he scented adventure, and adventure that was happily over with. The mate whirled upon him, snarling : "It's a lie. There ain't been a shot fired. The nigger fell overboard." Captain Hansen regarded Bertie with unblinking, lack-luster eyes. "I I thought" Bertie was beginning. "Shots?" said Captain Hansen, dreamily. "Shots? Did you bear any shots, Mr. Jacobs?" "Not a shot," replied Mr. Jacobs. . The skipper looked at bis guest triumphantly, and esid "Evidently an accident. Let us go down, Mr. Arkwrlght, and finish dinner." Bertie slept that night in the captain's cabin, a tiny stateroom off the main cabin. .The for-ard bulkhead was decorated with a stand of rifles. Over 'the bunk were three more rifles. Under tbe bunk was a big drawer, which, when he pulled it out. he found filled with ammunition, dynamite, and several boxes of detonators. He elected to take the settee on the opposite side. Lying conspicuously on the small table was the Aria's leg. Bertie did not know that It had been especially prepared for tbe occasion by Captain Main, and he read therein bow, on September 21, two boat's crew had fallen overboard and been drowned. Bertie read between that line aad knew better. He read how the Aria' whalebeat bad been bushwhacked at Su'u and had lest three men; of bew the .skipper discovered tbe cook stewing human flesh on the galley fire flesh purchased by the boat's crew, ashore in Fui. He read of how an accidental discharge of dynamite, while signaling, bad killed another boat's crew; of night attacks, ports fled from between the dawns, attacks by busbmen im mangrove swamps and by fleets of salt-water men in the larger passages. One item that occurred with monotonous frequency was death by dysentery. He noticed with alarm that two white men had so died guests, like himself, on tbe Aria. "I say, you know," Bertie said next day to Captain Hansen, "I've been glancing through your log." Tbe skipper displayed quick vexation that the log had been toft lying about. "And all that dysentery, yon know, that's all rot just like the accidental drownings," Bertie continued. "What does' dysentery really stand for?" Tbe skipper epealy admired his guest's acumen, stiffened himself te make indignant denial, then gracefully surrendered. "Yon see. It's like this, Mr. Arkwrlght These islands have got a ,bad enough name as it is. Jt's getting harder every day to sign en white men. Suppose a man to killed. The company has to pay through the note' for another man to take tbe place. But If . tbe man merely dies of sickness, It's all right Tbe new chums don't mind disease. What they draw tbe line at Its being murdered. "Besides," aald Mr. Jacobs, "there's altogether too

many accidental drownings, anyway. - It don't look right It's the fault of the government A white man hasn't a chance to defend himself from the niggers. "Yes. look at the Princess and that Yankee mate, the skipper took up the tale. "She carried five white men besides a government agent. The captain,- the agent and the supercargo Were ashore in the two boats. They were killed to the last man. The mate and boson, with about fifteen of the crew Samoans and Tongans were on board. .A crowd of niggers came off from shore. First thing the mate knew, the boson and the crew were killed in the first rush. The mate grabbed three cartridge belts and two Winchesters and skinned up to the crosstrees. He was the sole survivor, and you can't blame him for being mad. He pumped one rifle till it got so hot he couldn't hold it, then he pumped the other. The deck was black with niggers. He ' cleaned them out. He dropped them as they went over the rsil, and he dropped them as fast as they picked up their paddles. Then they jumped into the water and started to swim for It and, being mad, be got half a dozen more. And what did he get for it?" "Seven years In Fiji," snapped the mate. "The government said he wasn't Justified jn shooting

the barbed wire at every Jump. Bertie was horror-, stricken. So was Captain Hansen. He had forgotten his twenty-five recruits, on each of which he bad paid thirty shillings. They went over the side along with the shore-dwelling folk, followed by him who trailed the sizzling chlorodyne bottle, Bertie did not see the bottle go off; but the mate opportunely discharging a stick of real dynamite aft where It would harm nobody. Bertie would have sworn in any admiralty court to a nigger blown to flinders. The flight of the twenty-flve recruits had actually cost tbe Aria forty pounds, and. since they had taken to the bush, there was no hope of recovering them. The skipper and bis mate proceeded to drown their, sorrows in cold tea. ' Tbe cold tea was in whisky bottles, so Bertie did not know it was cold tea they were mopping up. All he knew was that tbe two men got very drunk and argued eloquently and at length as to whether the exploded nigger should be reported as a case of disease or as an accidental drowning. When they snored off to sleep be was the only white man left and he kept a perilous watch till dawn, in fear of an attack from shore and an uprising of the crew. Three more days the Aria spent on the coast and three more nights the skipper and the mate drank over-fondly of cold tea, leaving Bertie to keep the ; watch. They knew he could be depended upon, while he was equally certain that If be lived be would report their drunken conduct to Captain Malu. Then the Aria dropped anchor at Remlnge Plantation, on Guadalcanar, and Bertie landed en the beach with a sigh of relief and shook hands with the manager. Mr. Harriwell was ready for bim. "Now you mustn't be alarmed if some of our fellows seem downcast" Mr. Harriwell said, having drawn bim aside in confidence.' "There's been talk of an outbreak, and two or three suspicious signs I'm

i . .

"He started for'ard and the natives took headers over the barbed wire at every jump.

after they'd taken to the water," the skipper explained. "And that's why they die of disease nowadays," the mate added. "Just fancy," said Bertie, as be felt a longing for the cruise to be over. Later on in the day he interviewed the, black who had been pointed out to him as a cannibal. This fellow's name was Sumasal- He had spent three years on a Queensland plantation. He had been to Samoa and Fiji and Sydney; and as a boat's crew had been on recruiting schooners through New Britain. New Ireland, New Guinea, and the Admiralties. Also, he was a wag, and be bad taken a line on his skipper's conduct Yes, he bad eaten many men. How many? He could not remember the tally. Yes, white men, too; they were very good, unless they were sick. He had once eaten a sick one. "My word!" he cried, at the recollection. "Me sick plenty along him. My belly walk about too much." Bertie shuddered, and asked about heads. Yes, Sumasal bad several bidden ashore, in good condition, sun-dried and smoke-cured. One was of the captain of a schooner. It had long whiskers. He would sell it for two quid. Black men's heads be would sell for one quid. He had some pickanniny heads, in poor condition, that he would let go for ten bob. Five minutes afterwards, Bertie found himself sitting on the companlonway slide alongside a black with a horrible skin disease. He sheered off, and on inquiry, was told that it was leprosy. He hurried below and washed himself with antiseptic soap. He took many antiseptic washes in tbe course of the day, for every native on beard was afflicted with malignant ulcere of one sort or another. As the Aria drew in to aa anchorage in the midst of mangrove swamps, a double row of barbed wire was stretched around abeve her rail. That looked like business, and when Bertie saw tbe shore canoes alongside, armed with spears, bows and arrows, and Sniders, he wished more earnestly than ever that the crnlse was over. That evening the natives were slow in leaving the ship. A number of them cheeked the mate when be ordered them ashore. "Never mind, I'll fix them," said Captain Hansen, diving below. When be came back he showed Bertie a stick of dynamite attacked to a fishhook. New it happens that a paper-wrapped bottle of chlorodyne with a piece of harmless fuse projecting can fool anybody. It footed Bertie, and it fooled the natives. When Captain Hansen lighted the fnse and hooked the fishhook Into tbe tail end of a native's loin cloth, that native was smitten with no ardent n desire for tbe shore that be forget to shed the loin cloth. He started for'ard. the fuse siszllng and spluttering at bis rear, the natives in his path taking headers everhe

willing to admit, but personally I think It's all poppycock." "How how many blacks have you on the plantation?" Bertie asked, with a sinking heart "We're working four hnndred Just now," replied Mr. Harriwell, cheerfully; "but the three of us, with you, of course, and the skipper and mate of the Aria, can handle them all right" Bertie turned to meet one McTavish. the storekeeper, who scarcely acknowledged the introduction, such was his eagerness to present his resignation. "It being thst I'm a married man. Mr. Harriwell. I can't very well afford to remain on longer. Trouble is working up, as plain as tbe nose on your face. Tbe niggers are going to break out, and there'll be another Hobono horror here." "What's a Hohoffo horror?" Bertie asked, after the storekeeper had been persuaded to remain until the end of the month. "Ob. be means Hohono Plantation, on Ysa&el." said the manager. "The niggers killed tbe five white men ashore, captured the schooner, killed the captain and mate, and escaped In a body to Malatia. Bnt I always said they were careless on Hobono. Tbey won't catch us napping here. Come along, Mr. Arkwrlght and see our view from the veranda." Bertie was too busy wondering bow he could get away to the Commissioner's honse in Tulagl, to see much of the view. He was still wondering when a rifle exploded very near to him, behind his back. At the same moment his arm was nearly dislocated, to earnestly did Mr. Harriwell drag him indoors. "I say, old man, that was a close shave." said the manager, pawing him over to see if he had been hit "I can't tell you how sorry I am. But it was broad daylight and ' I sever dreamed." Bertie was beginto turn pale. "They got tbe other manager that way," McTavish vouchsafed. "And a dashed fine chap he was. Blew his brains out all over the veranda. Yon noticed that dark stain there between the steps and the door?" Bertie was ripe for the cocktail which Mr. Harriwell pitched in' and conqsranded for him ; but before be could drink it a man in riding trousers and puttees entered. "What's the matter now?" the manager asked, after one look at the newcomer's face. "Is the rtver up again?" "River be blowed It's the niggers. 8teppad out of the cane grass, not a dozen feet away, and pepped at me. It was a 8nider. and he snot from the hip. Now, what I want to know to, where'd he get that Snider? Oh, I beg pardon ! Glad to knew yen. Mr. Ajrtorright" . "Mr. hnti to any assistant" explained Mr. Harriwell. "And new las have that drink." "But where'd get that Snider?" Mr. Brown insisted. "I always

"They're still there." Mr. Harriwell said, with a show of heat Mr. Brown smiled incredulously. "Come along and see," said the manager. Bertie joined the procession Into the office, where v Mr. Harriwell pointed triumphantly at a big packing case In a dusty corner. "Well. then, where did the beggar get that Snider?" harped Mr. Brown. But just then McTavish llf ted the packing case. The manager started, then tore off the lid. The cas was empty. They gased at one another in horrified silence. Harriwell drooped wearily. Then McTavish cursed. "What I contended all along the house boys are not to be trusted." "It does look serious." Harriwell admitted, "bnt we'll come through it all right What the sanguinary niggers need is a shaking up. Will you gentlemen please bring your rifles to dinner, and will you. Mr. Brown, kindly prepare forty or fifty sticks of dynamite. Make the fuses good and short We'll give them a lesson. And now, gentlemen, dinner is served." One thing that Bertie detested was rice and curry. so it happened that he alone partook of an inviting omelet. He had quite finished his plate, when Harriwell helped himself to the omelet. One mqnthful he tasted, then spat out vociferously. s "That's the second time," McTavish announced, ominously. Harriwell was still hawking and spitting. " "Second time, what?" Bertie quavered. . "Poison," was the answer. "That cook win be hanged yet." f "Tfiat's the way the bookkeeper went out at Car Marsh," Brown spoke up. "Died horribly. They snld on the Jessie that they heard him screaming three miles away." "I'll put the cook In irons,' spluttered Harriwell "Fortunately we discovered It In time." Bertie sat paralyzed. There waa no color In his' face. He attempted to speak, but only an tnartlculate gurgle resulted. All eyed bim anxiously. . "Don't aay It don't say It" McTavish cried In a tense voice. "Yes, I ate It. plenty of it. a whole plateful!" Bertie cried, explosively, like a diver suddenly regaining breath. The awful silence continued half a minute -longer, and he read his fate In their eyes. "Maybe it wasn't poison after all," said Harriwell, dismally. "Call In the cook," said Brown. In came the cook, a grinning black boy, nose-spiked and ear-plugged. "Here, you, Wi-Wl, what name that?" Harriwell bellowed, pointing accusingly at the omelet Wl-wl was very naturally frightened and embarrassed. "Him good fella fcnt-Jtaf." he murmured, apologetically. "Make him eat It" suggested McTavish. "That'a a proper test" Harriwell filled a spoon with the stuff and jumped for the cook, who fled In panic. "That settles It" was Brown's solemn pronouncement. "He won't eat It" "Mr. Brown, will yon please go and pot the Irons on bim." Harriwell turned cheerfully to Bertie. "It's all right old man, the Commissioner will deal with him, and if you die, depend upon It, he will be " banged." .. --;, . .. "Don't think the government 11 do It" objected MeTavlsb. "But gentlemen, gentlemen," Bertie cried, "in the meantime think of me!" Harriwell ahrugged his shoulders, pityingly. "Sorry, old man, but it's a native poison, and there are no I known antidotes for native poisons. Try and compose yourself, and if " Two sharp reports of a rifle from without Interrupted the discourse, and Brown, entering, reloaded his rifle and sat down to table. "The cook's dead," he said.. "Fever. A rather sudden attack." "I was just telling Mr. Arkwrlght that there are no antidotes for native poisons " "Except gin," said Brown. Harriwell called himself an absent-minded Idiot and rushed for the gin bottle. "Neat man, neat" he warned Bertie, who gulped down a tumbler two-thirds full of the raw spirits and coughed and choked from the angry bite of it till the . tears ran down bis checks. Harriwell took his pulse and temperature, made a show of looking out for bim, and doubted that the omelet had been poisoned. Brown and McTavish also doubted ; but' Bertie discerned an Insincere ring In their voices. His appetite had left him, and be took

nis own pulse stealthily under the table. There was no question but what it was increasing, bnt be failed to ascribe it to the gin he had token. McTavish, rifle In hand, went out on the veranda to reconnoiter. "They're massing up at the cook house," was bis report "And they've . no end of Solders. My Idea is to sneak feftrand on tbe other side and take them In flank. Strike the first blow.

you anow. win you come along. Brown?" Harriwell ate on steadily, while Bertie discovered that his pulse had leaped up five beats. Nevertheless, be could not help jumping when the rifles began to go off. Above the scattering of Sniders could be beard the pumping of Brown's and McTavish's Winchesters all against a background of demoniacal screeching and ' yelling. . . . . . : V" ' ' - "They've got them on tbe ran." Harriwell remarked.' as voices and gunshots faded away In the distance. - Scarcely were Brown and McTavish back at the table whea the latter reconnoltered. "They've got dynamite," be said. , "Then let's charge them with dynamite," Harriwell proposed. Thrusting half a dozen sticks each into their pockets and equipping themselves with lighted cigars tbey started for the door. And just then It happened. Tbey blamed McTavish for It afterwards, and he admitted that the charge had been a trifle excessive. But at any rate it went off under the house, which HftMl tin MnwioA ami uHUd Kaolr itm Annta.

tions. Half tbe china on tbe table waa shattered, while the eight-day clock stopped. Telling for vengeance, the three men rushed out into the night and the bombardment began. When tbey returned , there was no Bertie. He ha4 dragged himself away to tbe office, kviicaded himself In. and sunk upon tbe floor in a gin-flaked nightmare, wherein be died a thousand deaths nftlle the valorous fight went on around bim. In tbe morning, ffck and headachey from the gin, he crawled out to find tbe sun still in tbe sky and God presumably in heaven, for his hosts were alive and uninjured. Harriwell pressed bim to stay on longer, but Bertie insisted on sailing Immediately on tbe Arte for Tnlagi, where, until the following steamer day, ho stuck elaao hv thia Ooaamtaalnnaw'a hmnaa TfaaM lu .

tourists en the outgoing steamer, aad Bertie was again a hero, while Captain Main, as usual, ' passed nnnoticed. Bnt Captain Mala sent back from Sydney two cases of the best Scotch whisky on the anarket for ' he was net able to make ap his mind aa to whether It was Captain Hansen or Mr. Harriwell who had given Bertie Arkwrlght, the mora gorgeous insight Into life in the Solomons.

OmMthu lain, g MsmptMam

Ua 3, RELEASED FOR JANUARY 7, 1911.

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